The Avolites Discussion Forum

There is anyway to use shapes for groups instead of individual fixtures in 2008 software?

For example, if I have four groups consisting of 6 fixtures each and apply "dimmer spread", I know I'll have the dim efect cycling through fixtures, but it would be antway to do it between grouos? This means, instead of individual on/off fixtures effect, to have the whole group on/off simultaneously, in a shape fashion.

There is anyway to do it else by recording 4 playbacks adjusting wait/fade in-out and firing it manually?

Ok. So I think what you mean is you want a dimmer shape that will turn a number of 'sets' of fixtures on/off in sequence as if each 'set were a single fixture:

Where the numbers are your fixtures separated into four sets of six and the letters represent the four step dimmer sequence you want to achieve with a shape. ie. all 'a' fade in/out, then all 'b' etc. Is this correct?

It is not possible to do this using the four separate groups for two reasons - firstly the Classic software does not allow you to select more than one group at a time and, secondly, the shape would not work as required if it did.
But it is possible to do using selection order which will store in groups.

To do this select the first fixture of each 'set' in turn, followed by the second and third etc. So using the above example the sequence will be 1, 7, 13, 19, 2, 8, 14, 20.... Store this as a group to avoid having to do it again.
Apply dimmer shape. Set coarse spread to number of sets-1. So here with four sets coarse spread should be set to 3.
Obviously you can setup a few different groups with alternative selection orders for different sets. ie. here you could have six sets of four fixtures etc.

Titan permits this in a more simple manner by allowing both multiple group selection and fixture orders in shapes, although at the time of writing some of the necessary fixture order functions are not directly accessible in the user interface.

Thanks Nic!!

This is another effect I want to have! Great!!

My question is if I make a 4-step chase like this:

step 1: 'a' fixtures on, the others off
step 2: 'b' fixtures on, the others off
step 3: 'c' fixtures on, the others off
step 4: 'd' fixtures on, the others off

How to get a crossfade effect between steps (like shape do)?

This way Im doing the 'b' group lights on after 'a' group is off, and I want a more smooth (crossfade) transition between steps (like a shape).

By the way there is any dimmer shape I can use with conventionals such as PARs or so?

To get the crossfade in chases is simple. Instead of programming a, b, c, d, program a+b, b+c, c+d, a+d. I always use this method.

Similarly for a greater overlap you could even do a+b+c, b+c+d, a+c+d, a+b+d.

All dimmer shapes work on normal dimmer channels.

Thanks a lot Nc!

In terms of labeling, using a VGA monitor, its possible to label individual steps of a chase?

Yes:

[Set Legend] or shift+[Set Legend] depending on version.
[Chase Steps]
Either press [Current Step] or Input required step number followed by Enter (or <return> on external keyboard), type legend and finish with Enter/<return>. Next step in sequence will automatically select.
[Quit] or Exit to complete.

To enable chase view on VDU:

View, Connect with chase connected. It may be necessary to toggle View menu to [VDU views] first. Alternatively you can get to this view by Unfolding a chase.