The Avolites Discussion Forum

Where can I find the syntax (or a manual) for creating shapes, especially for Expert Titan?

(split from original thread again. please keep discussions related or start new. otherwise it is not useful for people searching and can make current discussions confusing.)

Just as with Classic, you will find no instructions.

However, it works in very much the same way, just in an xml format. I think it's fairly self-explanatory.

Things to note:

Pattern range is -1000 to +1000 decimal. Don't ask why. I have no idea! Similarly, I do not find a logical translation of these values into a predictable offset.
For example, a Varilite fixture will open its shutter at a value of 3. My method for conversion is therefore value*(2000/256). For a value of 3 this approximates to 23. Yet, through trial-and-error, I found the actual pattern value necessary was 10 (assuming shape size is set to full).
I have asked for help in understanding, but still waiting.

Also, the shape definitions suggest it is possible to have different patterns associated to each attribute within a shape. However, this is not the case and only the first pattern referenced is used for all attributes.

You must restart software to enable any changes.

I cannot find the location of the shape-files on the titan desk. I would use one as an example...

It's in fixture library with the personalities.

I want to make some shapefiles foor showtec sunstrip active in 10-channel mode. As you maybe know all dimmer from the separate light are spread over more than one attribute group. I don't want to patch the sunstrips as seperate dimmers because it will cost me 160 handles for only 16 sunstrips. Is it possible to make shapefile over more containing more than one attribute group?

Houston has a solution...

You can create a shape that contains all necessary attributes and define fixed offsets between them. This is the same way things like circle or rainbow work, where the same pattern (sine) is applied to the appropriate attributes (Pan/Tilt and CMY respectively) using offsets to create the actual effect.
The only problem with this is these offsets will be permanent within each fixture, where you can only vary the phasing between fixtures in operation. So you may want to create more than one shape with different offsets to give a few options.

The D4 shapefile references the exact attribute name as defined in the personality file. On the desk this is the name at the top of the wheel area, rather than the function name immediately above the wheels where you see the values.
For the Sunstrip's these are named 1-10.

So, as an example:


This shape called 'MultiDim360' will appear in the dimmer sub-set (intensity group "I"). There will be a 36degree offset fixed between each cell.
You can then quite easily create other offsets - ie 0, 10, 20 or an even spread where values alternate 0/180 etc.

You could also create individual shapes for each attribute:


This would allow you to apply different speeds, size and, in the next version of Titan, an initial phase offset for individual cells. By layering ten shapes (including live via playbacks in mode2) you could create very powerful effects in this way.
Note that the shape ID number and the name must be unique.
Additionally, while the shape definitions might suggest you can set different sizes and speeds for each attribute, I do not think you actually can.


Clearly there is room for improvement in the software to help deal with these types of fixture, but this isn't a bad solution for now. I have tested it and it works nicely.
There is no reason why this concept cannot be used for multi-cell RGB fixtures in the same way, albeit that the phasing may be more difficult to calculate correctly for the colour components. The important part is creating shapes that reference the specific attributes used. For a pixelline 1044 you would use "red 1", "green 1" etc.

Hope that's useful and makes sense. You can credit me in the shapefile!

This concludes today's advanced tutorial....
(can I have some chocolate?)

Thank you very very much! One last question because I cannot test it in the coming weeks, how can I interpret (visual) a "sine" on a dimmer. Does it look like just going on and off?

It's a sin wave. So is a smooth fade in/out and is the same as used for standard dimmer spread.
Of course you can use other patterns. For example a square wave would be instant on/off, a ramp could fade in and snap out (or reverse) and you could have patterns that fade in and hold for a while etc. However, I think the sin wave is most likely the one you want.

I wrote a new shapefile, but the expert titan gives a error message when loading the shape-file. Is the syntax <Function ChannelID="1" the right one? Because in the personality file it is called Attribute ID.

Yes it's correct. I have tested this and it works.

It is important everything is accurate. The way I usually do these things is copy/paste editing only the values. So here I would copy standard dimmer spread editing shape ID & name and (for the multidim) copy & paste the function channel part editing only the name.

Try using this method starting with the original shapefile. Don't try and correct the one throwing errors. Chances are you are missing or have introduced some hidden characters.