Help/Tips for reprogramming an entire system.

Question

Hi! 
 
 So, I'm (kind of) new to programming lights, and this year I've taken over an ETC ION system at a high school. The senior who left it to me messed it up A LOT. I was wondering if anyone had some instructions/tips or resources for re-patching my whole setup? It's just insanely messed up and I think starting from scratch might be best, my director also has no idea how anything works. I've watched all of the etc ion video library videos and I'm not sure where else to look. If anyone has something please let me know! 
 Also, ask away if there are any questions about the system, I can (probably) answer them.

eos moderator · Answer

A situation like this can look overwhelming and of course makes it hard to know what you want to ask. 
 You could try to see this mess as a chance. If you're rebuilding the showfile anyway, think about what bothered you in the past. Unintuitive channel numbering? Now is the moment to change it. You have pre-built presets in your showfile but want to allow guest designers to use presets 1-100? Now's the moment to have your own presets starting at 101. 
 One thing that would certainly help rebuilding the showfile is having an unconnected laptop running the ETCnomad software in offline mode next to the console. While using the console to rebuild you can use your laptop to search for information like DMX addresses in the old showfile.