Quick Tip Tuesday: Default DMX and Highlight Values
This week’s tip comes from Will Murphy, our Technical Support Specialist at ACT Lighting.
Have you ever hit the highlight button and wished that your fixture highlighted to a different state? Have you ever wished that a particular parameter would default to a setting of your choice? Well, you’re in luck because these settings are very easy to change.
A good example when altering the default value may be useful is related to pan and tilt default values. If you would prefer your moving fixtures default to pointing directly at the stage, you can change the default DMX values of the pan and tilt parameters to make the lights point towards the stage.
Some programmers may prefer to alter their LED fixture defaults to have the dimmer channel default to full. This would allow a programmer to add RGB values without have to worry about first rolling the dimmer to full.
In the ‘Full Access’ window, tap the button on the bottom right that says “Fixtures Types.” You will be presented with the following window:
The top of this window lists the fixtures in your show; the bottom of this window lists the channels of the fixture. You’ll see the “Default” and “Highlight” column pertaining to each parameter here. The default value for each parameter specifies what value will be output on the particular DMX channel when there is no information for that parameter coming from the programmer or any executors.
The highlight value for each parameter specifies what value will be output on the particular DMX channel when the highlight button is activated. A blank cell in the highlight column means information for that particular parameter will not be altered when the highlight button is activated.
As an alternate option, you can change the default/highlight values on a fixture-by-fixture basis in the ‘Patch Sheets’ “DMX List.” You can find the ‘Patch Sheets’ button on the right side in the ‘Full Access’ window. The “DMX List” is shown below:
Quick Tips are exactly what the name should imply. We’re adding these to our blog in an effort to help programmers and operators of all levels. If you’d like to suggest a Quick Tip, drop us a message on this blog, or on our Facebook page, or even via Twitter.
Tags: grandMA programming, tips, Training
This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 20th, 2010 at 11:05 am and is filed under MA Series 1 Consoles, Quick Tip Tuesday. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.