The Avolites Discussion Forum

hello

i am setting up a show from scratch and setup all the palette windows ect. im programming some shapes as palettes on the shapes and effect window. i programmed a circle and a pan /tilt swing ok. i accidentally deleted the circle so tried to remake the circle. i set it up with a spread and the visualiser shows it working. after clicking record and selecting an empty palette the file shows up. i clear out and try and play the file but only 1 fixture responds, i decided to make a new show file and test to see if the problem exists in a new show file and it doesnt.

can anyone help. since updating iv had alot of issues like this.

another is that every time i select a different palette like for instance im running a shape palette and i lay a colour palette over the top the movement changes position and then carries on the circle pattern but with a new positon

Anyone have any ideas on what could be causing this? I have a show in a weeks time and the show was entirely setup within Titan one I really don't want to have to re do the entire thing.

Thanks

It's a bit difficult to comment as there really aren't enough details.

If there are specific issues please try to keep to one at a time and provide detailed steps so that we can see exactly what has been done.

At the moment without more information all I can think to suggest about the shape only responding on one fixture is that it is one way or another related to the palette type (ie. global, normal or shared) and to check this.

So today I fired up Titan one to test the show file again and the problem with only one fixture working and all the rest being still has fixed itself. Very strange as I had tried resetting the computer yesterday and it didn't help. Not sure what was happening there then but seems to be a bug.

Secondly the problem I was encountering with the shape moving every time I selected a new colour, gobo ect from palletes was a programming error. I had not saved the pallete correctly, I had used quick save (by just clicking a free pallete window) rather than clicking pallete then a window so the shape wasn't recording the pan and tilt location into the shape pallete.

Glad I got this fixed however still don't know what that strange bug was.

Scrap that.

So this is extremely strange and is looking more and more like a bug every time it happens. Both problems have surfaced again.

im going to list a step by step procedure of what I'm doing and then list what goes wrong.

1: click on shapes and effect
2: click on the fixture I want to use
3: click create
4: click tilt saw
Now the tilt saw starts to play across all selected fixture
5: adjust the spread
6: adjust pan and tilt position
7: click record
8: click pallete
9: select empty pallete in shapes and effect window
Now the shape appears in the pallete box.

So I setup about 10 shape palletes this way and all of them work great. I go to setup another one exactly the same way and the fault occurs. When I try and run the pallete only one of the fixtures starts moving and the other 29 sit still not moving.

I decided to do some checking to see what was going on so I restated the program and the problem still happened, I tried restarting the computer and the problem still happened. I decided to quit the program, remove the dongle, reinsert the dongle and restart the program and bingo it started functioning correctly again.

The pallete I had created with the fault still had that fault but any new palletes I then created were fine.

I thought it was solved but after programming for another hour or so the problem started happening again and sure enough removing the dongle and reinserting fixed the problem again.

I am completely baffled as to what on earth is happening.

Now moving onto the problem with changing palletes whilst running the show.

After programming some intensity faders and palletes I go back and check its all working as I'd expect. As above it works great for a period of time but all of a sudden I get a fault.

Whilst running a shape pallete I try to layer ontop a red colour and maybe a 4 spot gobo the movement of the lights kind of stops, changes direction slightly and then carries on no matter what other pallete I select.

Sure enough doing the same fix as above by removing the dongle restating the program and reinserting the dongle the program starts to function as expected again.

I am absolutely stumped and really need help with this if someone can.

Thanks in advance

I am only going to comment on the first issue as it is too confusing otherwise.

Did you check the recorded palette type as I mentioned above? To me it sounds like it is related to this and/or which fixtures you are selecting.

• When recalled, a 'Global' palette will apply to all selected fixtures, regardless of which fixtures were selected at the time of recording.

• A 'Shared' palette will apply to all selected fixtures of a particular type. For example if you had 10 Varilite VL2500 Spots and selected just one of them, setup a circle shape and recorded a 'Shared' palette, then selected all of them and recalled the palette it would play back on all the fixtures.

• A 'Normal' palette will apply to only the fixtures used when recording. Using the same example as above if you had 10 Varilite VL2500 Spots and selected just the first one, setup a circle shape and recoded a 'Normal' palette, then selected all of them and recalled the palette it would still only play back on the first one.

When recording palettes the software will try to make logical assumptions about which type it should be.

If you setup a shape on one or more fixtures where the parameters are identical then (with default settings) when you record the palette it will automatically set it to 'Global'.
If there are different parameters across the fixtures (for example Varilie spot 1 had a circle shape with a different speed to the circle shape in spot 2) then it will become a 'Normal' palette.

You can override the automatic type and other settings by toggling the softkey options presented after you tap an empty palette handle. You can also restrict the automatic options via the User Setting 'Minimum Palette Mode'. 'Global' allows anything, 'Shared' will prevent it suggesting 'Global' and 'Normal' will prevent it suggesting 'Global' and 'Shared'.


In order to be sure we will need more details:

In particular in step 2 you say "click on the fixture I want to use". Then later, "when I try and run the palette only one of the fixtures starts moving".

If you only selected one fixture and recorded a normal palette then this would be the correct behaviour.

Similarly you say "I decided to quit the program, remove the dongle, reinsert the dongle and restart the program and bingo it started functioning correctly again." Follwed by "The palette I had created with the fault still had that fault...". These statements appear to contradict one another. This makes me conclude further that it is simply a programming error in the palette. I certainly think that removing/reinserting dongle etc. is a red-herring.

In general it is very important to understand the programmer, record modes, types, masks etc. In my experience the majority of issues are a result of not fully understanding this relationship and ending up with unexpected results when recalling cues or palettes.

If you are still having difficulty it may be easier to make a video showing everything you are doing and what happens versus what you expect. If you do this try to make it as clear as possible ensuring all the key presses are clearly visible and that we can clearly see everything on the screen.

Ok. I will use a Screen capture program to show what happens.

However let me try and clarify something you have asked about above.

When recoding the pallete I'm using global record, I select all 30 fixtures and record the pallete so it doesn't appear to be a programming error.

When running the palletes I am selecting all 30 fixtures and then Trying to play the pallete over all 30 however it only starts running on one unit. When it was recorded it was recorded as a global pallete. As I said before I can record and run 10 or more other palletes without any problem following the same process and they work fine until this intermittent fault occurs with all Newly created palletes until I reinstall the dongle.

before I reinstalled the dongle I had created a pallete that had this apparent fault present, all of the other palletes I had created previously to this one were working ok but this one that had been created in an identical way had the fault of only one fixture working. I didn't delete this pallete and quit the program, removed the dongle, reinserted the dongle and started the program.

I attempted to run the pallete that had the apparent fault however it still only ran the pallete across one fixture. I decided to try to create another movement pallete to see if newly created pallete worked. I did so and it worked fine across all fixtures even though it had been setup in an identical way to the one that had the fault with the same settings.

I appreciate it's difficult to fully explain this issue so I will wait for the problem to re-occur and record a video and forward over to you. Where would you like the video sending?

Thank you for your help

- Is the problem palette confirmed as global with a 'G' in the top right corner of the handle?
- If you view the palette does it appear to confirm the contents are what you expect? (View/<palette handle>/select Shapes from the context menu then the 'View Shapes' buttom)

It's conceivable that there is an issue that is resolved by restarting the software (or just be saving/loading) but I think it's unlikely that the removing/reinstating the dongle is relevant.

You can upload videos to your preferred free file transfer service and then post a link.

I have spent an hour or 2 further learning the software tonight and the problem didn't happen at all. A couple of the shape files that seem to work ok have a small N in the corner and the rest have G.

If the problem does re-occur I will take a video immediately and upload to a file transfer service.

Thanks