How can you compare two show files?

I usually take a copy of my showfile home and work on it during tech.  Tonight the LBO gave me my two USB's (I always do it twice for backup) and neither had the show file on it.  I think he read in the old file instead of saving the new one.  For whatever reason, it didn't make it to my USB.

I can work on the old version, but I have changes from the runthru tonight that won't be included and I don't know what they are since I fixed things in rehearsal.  Is there a way to compare the file I started with before rehearsal with the one after?  Both are in the board.  I didn't make that many changes tonight so I could enter them all again, but I can't do the compare by hand.  I would like to just see the differences.  I could dump the cues and write a program, but I don't have time to do that.  I just need to know what I fixed on the fly.

  • There's no built in way to do this I'm afraid. Your best bet may be to do an ASCII export from each show file and then run sections through a diff compare website. That might give you some idea what may have changed.

    Cheers

    Dan

  •  I instaled two eos apps(same version) on my mac. Usually I Open two showfiles using  two different screens, each file on a different app. Although not perfect, It was the only practical way I found to compare and change two versions of the same show. Unfortunately, you won’t be able to copy/paste stuff, for example. 
    hope it helps

  • So far the quickest way I can think of to do it is to export both to ASCII and then use Microsoft word compare feature to compare the two files. (I'm using Windows.)

    Thanks

  • Remember that every time you save the file it makes a new one and does not over write the old one so it is a matter of looking at the time stamp and loading the latest save. Now if the files were not changed on the usb stick because they did not make it there would it not be the same as the last file saved on the console? Or am I not reading this correctly and if this is so then ignore this post. 

    Regards 

    Geoff

  • The problem isn't the light board, it's the version I took home to work on and bring back.  That version didn't get copied so I have to work starting from the old version I worked on the day before.  Since most of the changes were notes and not updated in the board, it wasn't impossible to start with the previous day's version, which is what I did. 

    The version on the board can always be reloaded as you note, unless you didn't save, but it was saved.

    What I would like to know are the changes I made during the runthru that weren't notes, a tweak here and there.  That's what the comparison will tell me.

    I wish there were a function on the board that would tell me the difference between two versions of the same show, similar to preview, but only for the cues that are different, e.g. "Preview all cues in this showfile that are different from the current showfile."  Then when I take my updated version back to the theater I can do this and see what needs to be updated.  It would also come in handy when two people are using the board and you want to know what the other person changed.  It would be useful if something gets messed up big time to compare the previous version an fix it.

  • I see. So you didn't bring your computer with you to the theatre and therefore no access to the modified file. Sorry cant help you with that. 

    Regards

    Geoff

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