Setting an attribute as "snap"

In the fixture editor, these are ranges. If you set the Min and Max to the same number, it will not leave this range until the next range is reached. For example:

Number   Min   Max   UserMin   UserMax   Label
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1                0       0        1                1                Position 1
2                10    10      2                2                Position 2
3                20     20     3                3                Position 3

Number is just an indexing number for the editor. Min and Max are DMX/ACN output levels. UserMin and UserMax are what is displayed on the Display. Label is what is shown on the ML control tile/encoder.

Does this answer your question?

-luke-

Hi Luke,

Thanks for the response. It makes sense, but I don't think it works for my application.  I will need to hit all 255 levels, not just ranges within the channel. This is for a DMX to Serial to ASCII generator which calls up pre-programmed events on the unit. My fear is that since this is a custom build for this unit, and the company that is building it doesn't normally do theater, that the system will crash if it starts rolling commands at it.  I've never programmed a media server before, but I assume its the same idea. Each channel is a "folder" and each DMX level within the channel is a file/image. 

How do these servers handle when you "Go to cue Out" and it fades all the levels to zero over time. I just have a mental picture of images flashing by as the channels fade out.

Am I totally off base here?

When you Go To Cue Out, all of the levels on everything will indeed roll to zero.  So it's not something that you would (usually) want to do in a show situation, but very useful for programing.  For your application, you will still be using ranges, except your ranges will be 1 to 1 with your DMX levels (255 total).

Your custom controller will behave like any moving fixture.  Any non-intensity  settings will be applied when the cue is marked, so things shouldn't be moving.  This unit sounds like it does the same kind of thing as Rosco's Keystroke, and we have no problems with ours.

While the above example will work, I think that still isnt what your looking for. Lets talk about doing this with a media server--If you have a folder with 255 files in it and want to go from file 1 to 255, the above example would make you still go through all 255 files if this is in a cue.

What I think what your looking for is a "snap" function that also affects playback. So if you do go from file 1 to file 255, the desk would automatically "snap" from the current location to the recorded location, thus preventing the device to roll through all of the files (which is not recommended with media servers) I think in my example snap is more of a timing attribute to put onto a parameter, so that device would always assume a time of "0 sec" when changing.  Even if you have things marked by using the ranges up above, your still using default NP time to get from position A to position B so there is that chance that your device might crap out on you. Is this more like what your looking for?

Hi Josh,

What you describe is exactly what I was looking for, I just wan't clear enough. During programming I will be certain to give that attribute a discrete timing of 0, but in reality, I would love to not have to do that. Ideally one could set the parameter to "snap" in the fixture definition and then whether its a cue running in time, or GO TO CUE while in tech jumping around, I would be safe. For this device, One  must load the "file" and bring up the intensity channel in the same cue, so it means that I have to set a discrete timing every time I bring up the unit. Very not fun.

Since you mention media servers and how they don't like the rolling data to load images... any idea how the Eos/Ion handles it currently for the profiles that it does have in its Library?

Charles,  I am still a little confused by yours and Luke's suggestion. If I create 255 ranges each one being User Min 1 to User Max 2 / DMX Min 1 to DMX Max 1 and so on 255 times, how does this help? I haven't tried it yet as I'm still just in the planning phase, but if i'm in range 2, and the next cue needs it in range 28, unless I set the timing of the cue to 0, won't it still roll through all those ranges as it hits each one? I understood what Luke was saying about if a range was 1-10, and 20-30 where I would "snap" from 10 to 20 without hitting anything in between... but if I'm looking for all values between 0 and 255.... In regards to the console marking. When it marks, its marks in time. I believe that if you were to trick the intensity to be up while the console were marking, you could watch the gobo wheel for instance, slowly roll to its "mark" position. This is this behavior that I want to avoid. 

Thanks!

Hi Josh,

What you describe is exactly what I was looking for, I just wan't clear enough. During programming I will be certain to give that attribute a discrete timing of 0, but in reality, I would love to not have to do that. Ideally one could set the parameter to "snap" in the fixture definition and then whether its a cue running in time, or GO TO CUE while in tech jumping around, I would be safe. For this device, One  must load the "file" and bring up the intensity channel in the same cue, so it means that I have to set a discrete timing every time I bring up the unit. Very not fun.

Since you mention media servers and how they don't like the rolling data to load images... any idea how the Eos/Ion handles it currently for the profiles that it does have in its Library?

Charles,  I am still a little confused by yours and Luke's suggestion. If I create 255 ranges each one being User Min 1 to User Max 2 / DMX Min 1 to DMX Max 1 and so on 255 times, how does this help? I haven't tried it yet as I'm still just in the planning phase, but if i'm in range 2, and the next cue needs it in range 28, unless I set the timing of the cue to 0, won't it still roll through all those ranges as it hits each one? I understood what Luke was saying about if a range was 1-10, and 20-30 where I would "snap" from 10 to 20 without hitting anything in between... but if I'm looking for all values between 0 and 255.... In regards to the console marking. When it marks, its marks in time. I believe that if you were to trick the intensity to be up while the console were marking, you could watch the gobo wheel for instance, slowly roll to its "mark" position. This is this behavior that I want to avoid. 

Thanks!

Hi Benjamin-

You are correct - my suggestion won't help in your case - I was just answering pre-coffee and making a mess of it!

For this purpose, you are best to mark with 0 time (put a discrete 0 time in the R cue). The other option would be to always create a .99 cue before the R cue to mark to, and give that cue a 0 time. Some people find that a macro can help with this.

But yes, some commands will still cause it to fade through all of the ranges, such as Go To Cue Out.

When you say "For this device, One  must load the "file" and bring up the intensity channel in the same cue", I'm curious - this would surely mean that you cannot mark at all? Can you send me a showfile with this profile? luke@etcconnect.com

-luke-

Suggestion for after you've programmed all your cues. Go in to blind and select all your cues. Then select your channel and give it a time of 0 seconds. That way you can be sure that it has the correct time all the way through the show.

As for Go to cue--there really isnt a way to get around this channel fading. You could use Go to cue x Time Enter which would use the cue timing rather than the go to cue default.

Media servers currently have no snap function, so you'd also need to put a 0 time on the file/folder parameters. Happy programming.