Offline editing of Smartfade Files

Hi Mike -

The short and unfortunate answer is "yes, SmartFade 2496 is not compatible with Virtual SmartFade" because Virtual SmartFade only offers the 1248 style console at the moment. This is why it appears that half of your data has gone missing.

We are currently working on a software application called SmartSoft that will take the place of the Virtual SmartFade application, however this won't solve your immediate problem. I'm afraid you will have to do your editing at the console until SmartSoft becomes available for the SmartFade consoles themselves, sometime around the middle part of next year.

In the mean time, what kind of editing did you want to do? If it's not too major (like only adjusting some levels or timing on the stack), you may be able to adjust your show directly in the ASCII file using a text editor. I don't advise this lightly - you will need to take a look at the file to know if you feel comfortable doing the editing in this way. Also, I highly advise working on a copy of your file so you can always go back to the original if the edits don't work out as planned.

I hope this helps -

Thanks-

Sarah 

Yeah, I've looked at the file already, and if the formatting on the savefile was a bit cleaner, I'd think about it, but there dosn't have any spaceing or tabbing at all.  I can hold my own on basic programing in some C based languages and scripting (I am a server engineer by trade, light designer in my free time), but that config file is just a block.  And since there is no documentation whatsoever on syntax for the file (does it ignore more than one space? Breakdown of info storage structure) doing so in a text editor seems foolhardy.  Even a simple utility to parse the text into descrete sections, spaced onto their own lines and tabbed, combined with a little documentation on function purposes and expected syntax might make it attemptable.

 I'll give you some background, This board is what is in use at a local community theater.  I have limited time at the physical console, and it would be a huge aid to be able to make changes offline durring the day from notes given the previous evening.  I find it somewhat odd that you lack support for what is, frankly, your more professional version of the same board.  I have only recently taken over as the technical advisor for the theater, and to be honest, If this is a long term limitation, I'd have to recomend they get rid of this board and replace it with a software/usb-dmx controler solution.  I would imagine that time to yourself to tinker with lighting is at a premium at ANY venue, making lack of offline editing ability a costly deficiency.

Hi Mike-

I understand your frustration. However, we are working on a solution to this problem that will become available in the coming months. It is my sincere hope that you will stick with your SmartFade console until that point.

Thanks -

Sarah 

It sounds like you may have opened the show file with Notepad. Notepad doesn't handle all kinds of end of line characters properly. This normally means that the text will show up as a block.

If this is the case, try using Wordpad instead.

The show file should look something like this: