Quote:
Originally Posted by charcoaldabs
Thanks Sean.
My brief search encountered no thread specifically on the topic of macros. (Snip)
I think I've determined there really is not much use for macros out our level. I can't really pinpoint any repetitive keystrokes, besides pulling up ever light because certain members of the department never write down changes. (I suppose I could write a macro to pull up one channel at a time, for 10 seconds. But it seems quite useless. I'd rather have changes made up paper.)
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Here's a link to the
ETC Expression macro page
http://www.etcconnect.com/product.overview.asp?ID=20326
It always amazes and impresses me to find that other lighting folks think differently. Sometimes MUCH differently, thus the interesting applications for macros.
In a nutshell, if you use a console a lot - and I mean a couple of times a week on different events, then macros become your friend at eliminating keystrokes that you need to repeat over and over. As example, the simple "Save show to disk", on an ETC Express that with a press of M* XX Enter writes the show onto the floppy, eliminating the need to hit Setup, then Cues, then Save, etc... Or something simple as the "All channels sneak to 25% in 5 count" channel check. Or channel check - "At 00, + Full", that steps thru the channels as a one step button push (usually on Macro 1 to allow access via a Remote Focus Unit). Really anything that involves repetitive key strokes can be written into a macro. That's the simplest set of examples. Others macros can be a whole lot more involved, as example:
I have a whole lot of macros written to patch a set of dimmers to a level of zero. Ea. macro is for a particular lighting position. They are used when I am focusing and have lights that all work in one channel but are located in multiple positions, such as an
FOH area with 3 units, ea. all in separate coves. Rather then have every light ON while I focus (getting hot, or in my eyes), I can focus them one by one by simply by patching them in and out of the channel (using patch at level). Makes life MUCH easier.
SB