Which Focus Palette have I just updated?... Idiot-day-dilema

Hello Andy -

I've certainly had days like those! And, to help with that, we have a special mode just for doing what you describe called "Focusing Mode". You can find this in the Devices softkeys menu. In Focusing Mode, you can select which palette you want to update using the ML Display (if you have a Congo jr, I recommend using the Console Mimic Dock to use this mode), then the console will place all the channels recorded into that palette into the palette, and will turn on HIGHTLIGHT as well so you can see them. Then you can pan and tilt to your heart's content and at the end press the UPDATE PALETTE softkey. The ML Display will show you which palette you're working on, and UPDATE PALETTE will directly upadate that one only, so you don't have to worry about remembering which direct select key to hit. Make sense?

The trick is to remember to turn Focusing Mode off when you're done... :-)

I hope this helps-

Thanks much -

Sarah

sclausen said:

In Focusing Mode, you can select which palette you want to update using the ML Display (if you have a Congo jr, I recommend using the Console Mimic Dock to use this mode), then the console will place all the channels recorded into that palette into the palette, and will turn on HIGHTLIGHT as well so you can see them. Then you can pan and tilt to your heart's content and at the end press the UPDATE PALETTE softkey. The ML Display will show you which palette you're working on, and UPDATE PALETTE will directly upadate that one only, so you don't have to worry about remembering which direct select key to hit. 

Sarah, I just dipped a toe in Focus Mode recently, and I have a question: is there a reason it only works with Focus Palettes? I generally use All Palettes for most things and would love to be able to access this mode for editing--is it just that All Palettes are likely to have way more data in them & be unwieldy to jump through in a streamlined way? 

sclausen said:

In Focusing Mode, you can select which palette you want to update using the ML Display (if you have a Congo jr, I recommend using the Console Mimic Dock to use this mode), then the console will place all the channels recorded into that palette into the palette, and will turn on HIGHTLIGHT as well so you can see them. Then you can pan and tilt to your heart's content and at the end press the UPDATE PALETTE softkey. The ML Display will show you which palette you're working on, and UPDATE PALETTE will directly upadate that one only, so you don't have to worry about remembering which direct select key to hit. 

Sarah, I just dipped a toe in Focus Mode recently, and I have a question: is there a reason it only works with Focus Palettes? I generally use All Palettes for most things and would love to be able to access this mode for editing--is it just that All Palettes are likely to have way more data in them & be unwieldy to jump through in a streamlined way? 

Anne S said:

Is there a reason it only works with Focus Palettes? I generally use All Palettes for most things and would love to be able to access this mode for editing--is it just that All Palettes are likely to have way more data in them & be unwieldy to jump through in a streamlined way?

Essentially, yes.
The Focus Mode also automatically Highlights, which scrubs everything except Pan/Tilt to make it easier to see which fixture you've got and where it's pointing.
When you're doing other kinds of palette, then that 'other data' is what you're after so Highlight is less useful, though I like to bounce in and out of Highlight when assembling gobo washes.

For updating other kinds of palette, then the {Update Palette} softkey is often the way to go.

Thanks Richard! I had thought so.

Hello,

Technically it's possible to use Focus mode with any type of Palettes. To see the other types of palettes in the LCD you need to press Disp List & Palette/Focus/Color/Beam. This will show the other palette types in the list so you can select All palettes for updating for example.

Because Focus mode is mainly intended for updating Focus palettes, it will turn on Highlight each time you select a palette to update. But you can turn it off or on again if you like with the Highlight key as normal. And you probably will want to do this if updating All palettes or Color or Beam palettes.

Also remember that you cannot update palettes that are stored as "Each Device Type", cause these palettes don't have data stored for the individual channels so Focus mode cannot update the channels. If you try to update an Each Device Type palette, you'll just see an empty channel list after you've selected the palette. To get back to the palette list, press Disp List & Focus/Color/Beam/Palette again.

Oskar