Macros, macros and more macros...

Sarah,

 I've had the honor of using Express/Expression consoles with moving lights and I've found that macros are the way to go when striking/un-striking the lamp on a unit or having to reset the fixture, either on a global or individual basis. 

 All it requires is the DMX mapping for the fixture in question and a little time with your console.   OH. . and playing with the Macro wait timing to make sure the command takes at the fixture. 

 Dan

While there is no specific Macro for plus 10 and minus 10, it is very easy to write.

Simply create a macro with the following steps:

@ + + + + + + + + + for the plus 10

and

@ - - - - - - - - - - for the minus 10

the application is enter a channel or range of channels or group number  and press the macro button to bump their intensities.

While you can not select Q and plus or minus 10 like Strand does, you can press Chanel and the enter key twice which will select all non independent channels. This gives you the ability to bump a cue up or down 10%. Take care however if you have moving lights as it may effect attributes as well depending on how they are set.

 I came up with these years ago when I was programming Intelibeams on an Expression 1. I also did another set of plus macros without the at symbol so I could next and last through my fixtures ( in the case of I-beams it was plus 7 or minus 7). Fortunately with the 3.0 software this is no longer required as the fixtures can be patched as fixtures.

Hope this helps

Here's a solution I found to presetting/postsetting moving lights on the O2.  The macro is "attribute all - 1(intensity) @ group cue".  So say we have a cue stack as follows: 11=preset, 12=fade up, 13=fade out.  The sequence is: record the look in 12, go into 11 (blind or live), select fixtures to preset(optional, assumes all fixtures if omitted), run the macro, type source cue(12), rerecord cue 11(if in live).  Do the same to postset in 13 if necessary.

Occasionally I run into the following problem: moving light is up in cue 10, fades out in 11 and fades up in a different position in 12.  The traditional solution is to use point cues.  I find using part cues to be smarter as the stage manager and board operator don't have to be concerned about waiting for a follow and ending up in the wrong cue if they "jump the gun".  Here's my "part-Q-creator" macro: "blind part 1 time 1 wait".  The sequence is: go into cue 11(live or blind), run "part-Q-creator", enter wait time(the fadeout time on part 8), run preset macro(see 1st paragraph).  This sucks the parameters into part 1, delaying them until after the intensity has faded out in part 8.

The only other problem I've run into with this method has to do with the fact that "group cues" don't normally contain hard zeros.  So if a fixture already has some values set and you try to use the "preset to group cue" method, it won't clear the old values if there aren't new values in the group cue (i.e. "why can't I get the gobo to stop rotating").  The solution is to temporarily make the source cue a "block" cue.  This fills all the empty spaces with hard zeros.  Just don't forget to unblock the cue after you're finished presetting.

The presetting/postsetting solution has to be slightly modified for the Expression.  The macro is "fixture 1 thru 6 only position beam image none record focus point 1 solo".  With the same cue stack as before, the sequence is: record the look in 12, run the macro, go into 11(blind or stage), hit "focus point 1 full", roll fixture intensities out, rerecord cue 11.  Do the same to postset in 13 if necessary.

UPDATE: In Obsession NEXT and LAST stay within the Flexichannel channel set, so for Obsession the answer is "yes". In Expression, however, +/- will add new channels into the view, so unfortunately the answer there is "no".

Hmm. That's a good question. I think the answer is "no", but I'll ask and get back to you.

Thanks -

Sarah 

So I was offered a deal today. If I can fill up all 2,000 spots in my expression with legitimate macros, then we will get an Ion.

Ideas for using them all up?

jwblake said:

So I was offered a deal today. If I can fill up all 2,000 spots in my expression with legitimate macros, then we will get an Ion.

Ideas for using them all up?Find yourself a designer's worksheet.  When you define regions on it are associated with a macro.  Generally I use about 400 macros on a show this way.  That would get you started....

a macro for each moving light to sneak out, recalibrate, wait and sneak back in at the press of a button if issues arise.

in my obII I typically write generic lamp on, lamp off, recal macros and just manually assign fixture number and fire the macro, but being specific would let you "simplify the process" and chew up a few more macros :)

Marking MLs on an Express/Expression:

Macro 1: [blind] [stage] [update] [only] [0] [fixture]

Macro 2: [Only] [position] [image] [color] [beam] [focus point]

1) Focus Fixture

 Select fixture(s) x and/or y. wiggle to desired happiness.

2) Record Focus Point

 [M1] [x] (and/or) [y] [M2] (select focus point number z) [z] [Enter]

3) Recall/Reference Focus Point

 [Fixture] [x] (and/or) [y] [M2] [z]

4) Update cues

{you may update the cue you are sitting in on stage (a) and mark the fixture in its marking cue (b) in blind (my preference: more laborious but less margin for error)}:

4.i)

 [M1] [x] (and/or) [y] [M2] [cue] [a] [track] [Enter]

[blind] [cue] [b] [Fixture] [x] (and/or) [y] [M2] [z] [track] [Enter]

OR

{update back into the marking cue (b) from stage}

4.ii)

 [M1] [x] (and/or) [y] [M2] [cue] [b] [track] [enter]

however you will still need to update the Intensity into the desired cue.

NB.i: M2 can be substituted for specific categories (e.g. [Only] [position], or [Only] [image] [beam]) if selective filtering is required.

NB.ii: Make sure that the Intensity attribute is set to category "None" ([setup] [15] [Enter] [3] [Enter] [1] [S2] [0] [Enter])

NB.iii: IF you accidently (through use of step 4.ii) update a cue [b] that did not previously exist, you will find a cue [b] in which you have the information of the ML(s) you updated but will find ALL OTHER VALUES have gone to 00. And they have tracked though. Solution: Reload from disc. I am not kidding. I've once (or thrice) lost a full third of a show (hundreds of cues) by updating a cue that didn't exist. Use this method at your own risk.

For heavy users of macros, I just wrote a small system that automates macro creation on a PC running Express Offline.

It works like this:

1)  You write a text file defining your macro(s)

2)  You run a small executable that reads that text file, and enters keystrokes into the the Express Offline software (as far as I can tell, this is the only way to get macros into the console, as they do not seem to be read from an ASCII file, even in the same format that Express Offline writes them).

If anyone is interested in using this I can make it available on-line.

I have now made the program and an example script available at:

http://mitmtg.pbworks.com/Keystroker

does the web page referenced way back in 2006 still exist?