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    Jeff Toussieng
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Magic Sheet remodle

Can't find anything in the manual for these. There are two questions here:

1) I understand Magic Sheets live within a particular show file. Doing different shows a lot, venue to venue means having to remember what show file had what Magic Sheet to use in the new show, since many are close to the new show with some minor changes. Would it be a good idea to create a show file "Magic Sheets" and save all of them in that show file (open that show file and merge each sheet into it from each show, then just merge the new ones as they come up). That way the new show could merge whatever Magic Sheet into it that is close and it can then be edited to fit that show. This also leads to the second question.

2) Is the best way to edit a Magic Sheet but keep the original to copy all, open a new Magic Sheet and paste the original then edit and name for the new show?

Hope this makes sense. This is a touring, show changing situation using a lot of the same equipment but not all of it and different layouts for each show.

  • Hi Jeff,

    Keeing showfile with your standard magic sheets sounds like a sensible option for you. You can easily copy a whole magic sheet without having to copy the contents. Magic Sheet 1 Copy To 2 will give you a second duplicate sheet.

    Dan

  • I deal with this a lot. It's an imperfect science at the moment.  For question 1 - If you have a lot of custom symbols it's definitely worth having 1 sheet that just has those symbols in it - so you can import that sheet and get your full complement of symbols.   In terms of the sheets themselves - it does get really tough to track the minor changes in multiple sheets over time.  Building a showfile that houses nothing but magic sheets is not a bad idea.   I have several starter files that contain nothing but Magic Sheets  or Groups arrays or macro sets, or whatever.     It's a bit of management - but the less information a showfile has in it - the more meaningful it's name can be.

    As for question #2 - It's much better to open the sheet in the Magicsheet list view and use [copyto].  That way you get all the views and stuff as well.

  • in reply to PatrickBoozer

    Hey thanks for the replies. I will try the suggestions. Seems I'm at least on the right track. It is a different world when "mobile" so to speak than in a fixed venue.

  • in reply to Jeff Toussieng

    I also keep at bunch of different "Basic" show files that I build off of. 

    The biggest issue I deal with is on what I call the "functional" MS's that are used as replacements for the Direct Selects and that as a result have many symbol functions that need a link to the palettes, presets, macro's, etc....  Thus when merging modified sheets I need to pay close attention to what palettes, etc... need to be merged as well.  

    With what I call "informational" magic sheets, which are mostly similar to what a designer creates, it's easier as I can use the same or similar layout(s), changing only channel-purpose-color data on the sheet, which is in any event imported data from Lightwright.  It's then pretty fast to use the quick assign to link symbols to channels.  All the other data then fill in automatically.  I then change color of the symbols (also pretty quick).  

    So yes, built up templates and think about simplifying to your own work methods. 

    As note, I've stopped building informational magic sheets for visiting designers.  It's never really what they want and at this point, with Magic Sheets being available on the OLE for over a year, if they want one, they should learn to create one or have an assistant do it.  I'll be happy to import it.  

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