Is there anyway to program a submaster with a starting value and ending value?

Question

I'm very new to these types of consoles. I normally run movers etc from ShowXpress. Although people tell me the ETC consoles are much easier to program, I find myself having a heck of a time figuring it out. 
 I watched all the videos on youtube for the Element and downloaded the Offline system, but I'm still having a hard time. 
 I thought by watching all these videos and taking copious notes, I had a handle on how to use the system, boy was I ever wrong. 
 Yesterday I actually got to sit in front of and program a show for a dance recital. What a nightmare that was. That's another story though. I will say that those red tombstone numbers were almost the death of me. 
 So now to my actual question. Is there anyway to program a sub with a starting value and an ending value. We had one look that used incandescent lights and I was finding that nothing would really appear on stage til they hit about 21%. 
 After hitting the blackout button, sliding the sub all the way down, hitting the blackout button again, I would then move the slider to 20%, essentially starting at the bottom where moving the sub up would have an immediate effect on the light. 
 I was thinking to myself if there was some sort of way to tell the sub, start at 20% and go thru to 100%, this would have made life a lot easier.

Wuz314159 · Accepted Answer

What you're seeing is not a function of the console, but a result of the way the tungsten filaments of the lights work. 
It takes a moment for the element to warm up and begin to cast light from a zero state. If you're cutting through other light, this could be exactly what you saw. 
 
There is a function called Preheat that would do what you ask, but it's a bit complicated and a Setting, not something to change mid-show. 
 
I'm not a fan of doing what you ask, but if I were to do it, I would record those values in a separate submaster and leave that "preheat 20% level" submaster up all of the time.

matzestrobel · Answer

Hello ! 
 
I agree with Wuz it does indeed sound like your incandescent lights might be a bit "slow" which is not unheard of. Sometimes it is a setting / curve of the dimmer that is being used. 
 
What you could do on the Console to improve the dimming behaviour more as you'd like it is assigning curves to the appropriate channels in Patch. 
 
To do that, you can 
a) use one of the existing, predefined curves or 
b) create your own one. 
 
-> Open the Curves Tab (Tab 21). You should find predefined curves (numbers 901 through 911). Looking at curve 903, this might be close to what you need actually. To create your own one, press "Curve" (Softkey) 1 (or another number that is not 901 through 911) Enter. You have now created your own linear "curve". Now adjust the curve by typing values such as "10 @ 15 Enter" (= at 10 % level on the console screen, output 15 % actual level) or press "Curve Edit" (Softkey) and use the mouse. 
 
Go to Patch (Tab 12) and select a channel on which you would like to assign a curve. Click on "Attributes" (Softkey) and then on "Curve" (on the screen); you will find all the existing curves -including your new one- on the left side of the screen. Simply select the appropriate curve and you are done. Of course you can do this for multiple selected channels at once. To get rid of a curve in Patch, just follow the same steps but do not click on a curve on the left, instead just hit Enter. 
 
Maybe this helps. 
 
Regards,