Block fixtures

BECOME PART OF THE COMMUNITY - Sign up here

    Some thoughts about block keyword:


    > When you use “block cue x”, ALL parameters should be blocked, even default parameters that are not recorded yet (eg:when you don’t activate/store the default shutter position on the cues)


    > it would be really nice to use the syntax “block fixture x” to block in a fastest way ALL the parameters of a specific fixture.


    Please note that I work on a theater environment. Working on a massive cue by cue show, these small changes would make everything less time consuming then the “select fixture>please please please > store cue/merge” solution.

    These issues might make no sense on other uses of the software.


    I totally might be missing something. Any suggestions or solution are welcome.

    I am still quite new on gma3.


    Hope I was clear.

    Thanks in advance

    You could store a cue 0.001 while having nothing in the programmer and using the All store setting.

    This stores a cue with all attributes at default value into the cue.

    Storing the cues of your show behind this cue will then track these values and a block command would also block these attributes.

    When you're done with programming the show, you can delete this cue again.

    Isn‘t that, what „cue zero“ does? (Sorry, I didn‘t take the time, to try the ma 3 software yet, so I don‘t know, whether it has this feature allready.)


    I‘m working in an opera house on ma2 and I would love to see a cue mode that makes an „intensity break“. Basically act like a break, but just for intensities.

    Is there something similar planned for the future?

    That’s unfortunately not what I need. I want a break between scenes, but without a big car crash when going into the cue after the break (e.g all fixtures that were at zero, having an open move). Sometimes you don‘t have the time to clean the mess up before going there during tech. Thats why etc has intensity blocks. But I dont want it as a block, because I unblock my whole cuelist regularly to have tracking shield work properly. I hope, its clear what I mean.

    But thanks anyway!

    Some more thoughts on this anyone?

    Personally, ai see it in a much simple way.

    When I use “block cue x” I don’t want to block the tracking of the saved paraneters ONLY. I want to block ALL the parameters of every single fixture used on that sequence x.

    That way I am sure that cue is totally protected. (Shouldn’t the LOCK option on sequences sheet do this??)


    I am avoiding to use the example of eos’ blocking and auto-blocking tool… ;)


    zangetsu : that macro might be useful but it seems way too dangerous to use on a fast theater programming environment like the one I work at. Thanks anyway!

    Thomas yes the macro works fine, but you have to stay in the cue which you want to clean.


    it simply looks out for fixtures in your desired sequence and cue which do not have any output.

    then it activates all attributes except dimmer and removes "hard" values.

    becuause you do not want your fixturs to change attributes while the dimmer descends to zero.

    but if you want that to happen in some cues, just do not clean it up...

    Thanks for the answers so far!

    As I’ve mentioned, I want the first cue from the next scene to be clean, BEFORE I go in there. This can only be achieved with the proper prgramming (intensity block or in my case a much more preferred intensity break. Or with cleaning the mess before going in there, which I know could be done via macro.

    Sorry, but your macro doesn’t do that.

    In the first line, you are selecting all fixtures that are at zero once in the whole sequence. Which selects basically all the fixtures in a show with a blackout,

    I‘m not sure about your second line, cause I have to admit, that I don‘t know the keyword „encoderpage“ (and I also haven’t found it in the grandma 2 manual). But yes I assumed, that this should activate all presettypes except dimmer (on presettype 1 thru 9)

    And the 3rd line removes all those values from all those fixtures from the current cue, which is definitely not what I would want to, as the selection is wrong, and as you’ve said, I have to be in that cue allready.

    But yes, with a macro pretty close to this, it would be achieveable.

    I just would use remove/ts not co, so the cuelist is really clean, given that you removed all the blocks before.

    Thanks guys!

    Thomas


    as i said, you have to be in the desired cue which you want to clean up. and there is no tracking shield existing in grandma3 right now so /remove /ts does not work. btw encoderpage is a ma3 keyword, its's the same as presettype in ma2..

    that macro works perfect, i use it all the time in ma3. and i use the same macro but witht /ts and therefore presettype instead of encoderpage in ma2 for years. and why should your selection be wrong? if a fixture changes it's attributes in a cue where it's output is at zero, you mostly do not want that so it should have the tracked position/color/shaper/video etc attributes as in the previous cue. that means if you remove all 'hard' values without dimmer which is at zero, you exactly achieve that goal.

    Yes, the missing ts in ma3 is a big let down.

    Regarding the selection: I was just referring to your particular syntax, were you are selecting all fixtures with a zero value within the whole seq, cause you‘re not defining a cue. There’s a big chance, that you dont want to alter those fixtures in this cue, because their dimmer value may have been above zero.

    But anyway I know, what you mean. Thanks for sharing!

    no problem with that syntax at all. it isn't like "search attribute "DIM" at 0 if sequence 1" and you get a searchresult therefore like in ma2. the "if sequence 1" in the ma3 macro does NOT look up dimmer levels above zero in the WHOLE sequence...it just checks for the cue status...

    don't judge a syntax by it's look. try it at first...

    and yes, not having a tracking shield sucks.

    IMHO the reason, why cue 3 remains unchanged, is because you are removing the values cue only in cue 2.


    Anyway, as I‘ve mentioned in my first post, I don‘t know a single thing about ma 3 (so thanks for the encoderpage keyword), because im still using my beloved ma 2‘s until all the features I need are added. So everything I said, was pointed towards ma 2, which might have caused confusion. I know, this is the wrong forum then. But the reason I came here, was to ask, if this feature could be added in future updates.

    That being said, a „feature request“-thread would be awesome! 🙂

    Thomas

    it only gets removed in cue 2 because in cue 3 the value is a hard value so it would not make any difference if you use or do not use the cue only option here. and as you can see the output in cue 3 is at zero and still it does not get removed because the "if sequence 1" syntax does not search in the whole sequence for zero outputs...and it is the exact same thing when you are using ma2. why don't you just listen, try it and if it doesn't work or something is misunderstood, come back, ask again and you will get answers. what's your point in telling me/us in here that a macro doesn't work, when in fact you didn't try it and just state things that are not true...

    For that I would block the cue and use release on it. That way the tracking ends there and all the value that are actually needet are stored as hard values or am I missing something here?