I need some advice and some tips and tricks about programming movers on an
Ion. Just as a little back
ground, I have programmed movers on an
Ion before, but at most there were 4 movers in the show. And this time I'll be programming 20+
mac 700 and
mac 1200, on a slaved
Ion. My biggest concern is the time it takes to get the lights in the right position even when using focus pallets. As the designer always wants to make minute adjustments to the focus of the movers all the time. Also what is the best way to keep
track of all the pallets? And how do you update a single mover in a
pallet with out affecting the rest of the movers? Also are their any really useful macros or lesser known keys, kinda like fan? And might there be a part of the
manual, that would have answered all these questions?
As answers to 2 of the questions;
- Open up as a
Tab (Browser - Virtual Controls - Direct Selects as
Tab), a direct select (or multiple tabs with DS's) the desired palettes. Label the palettes and if so desired assign them so the focus palettes somewhat reflect the
stage layout of the FP positions - I.E. FP1 as Up Right
Platform, FP2 as Up Center,
etc...
Play around with the selections of the direct selects to get the most useful palettes on the
screen, 20/50, or Expand, as example.
- Updating a single mover is as easy as "Ch., XX, Update, FP, XX, Enter".
-
Build Groups of your movers, I.E. all 700's, all 1200's, all 1 Elec., all 2 Elec.
etc or whatever is useful. Label them.
Call them up on one of the DS tabs.
This way you are not wasting time doing repetitive
channel listings.
-
Build Snapshots. These are
screen shots that you find useful, such as a direct select
tab that is nothing but every focus
palette you can fit on the
screen(s) (100 ?). Another snapshot might have the
color picker as a
tab, Another the ML virtual control
tab, another the channels and cues on 2 screens,
etc.... Snapshots are a fast way to maneuver your way around a lot of useful screens.
- Update to version 2.0 and learn to use Magic Sheets. You can
build up about any kind of
layout that would be useful, a
light plot, a mover
page of groups, palettes, colors (with actual color)
etc....
- If you have touch screens, all this becomes a lot easier as you save on typing. Every on
screen button in a direc select or
magic sheet becomes a functional
button. Thus a DS
Tab with Groups on the bottom, then a lot of Focus Palettes becomes a grab of all the 1E
MAC 700's, Full, FP 25 (Chair DR)
etc... all as a 4
button push. If no touchscreens then the mpuse can be faster for some commands.
Search the
ETC Forums for info on Magic Sheets and
Macro's. Lot's of people share info here.
http://www.etcconnect.com/Community/forums/default.aspx
Also the Facebook
EOS programmers
page.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/etceosprogrammers/
