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    Ehunter
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Running different versions of Nomad on the same PC

I work in two different theaters that generally have different versions of software installed on their Ions. I would like to use Nomad so I can have a designer remote. However, since the version of Nomad and the version of software have to agree that means I need to remove and re-install the appropriate version on my laptop depending on which venue I'm in. This can be annoying and I generally spend time I could be using for other things finding the right version (finding old versions on the ETC site is not obvious), installing it and figuring out why it won't talk to the board etc.

I see two possible solutions. Either fix the software so that the newest version of Nomad will communicate with all the older versions going back at least one minor version (i.e. 2.5 will talk to 2.5 and 2.4). Or allow multiple versions to be installed at once and select the version you want to run a startup. For extra credit create a section of the ETC website where all versions (not just the current one) are easy to find so finding an old version doesn't require going through Google or Bing.

-Ed Hunter

  • Ed,

    Two solutions that might work for you as far as finding the proper versions of the software:

    • Keep previous versions archived on your laptop. If you aren't dealing with beta versions, two or three versions should cover any updates for the last couple of years.
    • Set your laptop to Update automatically in the Shell. (Settings tab, then check "Automatically update software"). This will pull the current version from the console when you connect and install it on your laptop with a couple of clicks required as part of the install process.

    Unfortunately, in either case you still have to take time to install to appropriate software version for each theatre. With a reasonably recent machine, that's about 5 minutes of install time.

  • If you are running Mac it is possible to have multiple versions installed at the same time, while I have never heard officially that it is supported or anything, so use at your own risk.

    If you go to Applications, find 'EOS Family Welcome Screen' and rename it to something such as 'EOS 2.5.1'. You will need to be an administrator as you need the password to rename the app. Then install the next version and repeat the process. I currently have 2.5, 2.5.1, 2.5.2, 2.6 and 2.6.1 installed on my Mac and have no problems changing between the versions. You can even open them both at the same time, however because they both access the same support files this may cause problems and I haven't tested this. Just remember changing a setting in one can change it in all of them if it isn't saved in the showfile, for example, changing OSC version would change it in all of them. To prevent this would need to move the all of the supporting files around each time which isn't easy.

    Unfortunately I don't know of a way to do this on Windows but a similar solution may exist. I am really only Mac based so never experimented with Windows.
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