Saving a basic Cue

Firstly switch to the fixtures tab in the centre window, then using either the group up/down arrows or the drop down menu - select the fixture group that you wish to program (in this example we shall program 4 mac250's that we previously assigned).

The 4 mac250s will now show in the fixture window in the centre of the screen.

By clicking the small grey boxes next to the fixture icons, it is possible to select the units for programming, indicated by the box going red. By using the fixture control toolbar...

it is possible to quickly select useful group combinations of the group, such as all/odd/even/first half/last half/etc

By using the windows feature of holding down the [CRTL] key while clicking on the fixture icons, multiple units can be highlighted, then by clicking the grey box these units will all be selected.

Click-hold then dragging a box over the fixture grid will also highlight the units quickly.

The fixture that has been selected will now appear in the lower portion of the screen in the fixture control window. We recommend that during the programming stage you expand the window to the full length of the screen so all the parameters are available. Click on the small arrow head on the left-hand side of the window to expand and contract it.

Hit the fixture preset levels button, located on the fixture control toolbar. This will set all the parameters to the default level for the fixture, the fixtures will respond by opening in white and pointing straight out, the text headers for each parameter will also go red indicating that the flags have been set.
 

You can now set up the 'look' by adjusting the various parameters of the fixture in the fixture control window. The changes will be output to the lights in your rig as well.

Some interesting features of fixture parameters
1 By right-clicking on the title text of a fixture parameter, you can release the flag on the parameter, the text will then turn grey again to indicate that no flag is stored.
2 By left-clicking on the title text of a mirror parameter or a yoke parameter, the joypad will change to 2 sliders, one for pan, one for tilt. This can make precise adjustments easier
3 By holding shift down while adjusting a mirror or yoke parameter, will engage fine control mode which will allow much more precise movements to be set with the mouse
4 By left clicking on the tilt text of a cmy colour parameter, the joypad will change to 3 sliders, one for cyan, one for magenta, and one for yellow allowing individual access to the colour channels.
5 Fine control of sliders and joypads is done by using the cursor keys on the keyboard.

To store the look as a cue to be recalled, first ensure that the master control panel is showing the program control tab.
 

In the cue programming section, drop the top menu box to select the cue list page that you want to store the cue in. Press the New button to store the parameters into a new section, drop the top menu box to select the cue list page that you want to store the cue in. Press the New button to store the parameters into a new cue, the program data popup will appear...
 

 

This lists all the parameters that the cue will store. Parameters that have been flagged but not required in the cue can be deselected here however normally the 'all' button will be selected. To save a position only cue, click the position option, similarly with colour, gobo, and beam.
 

Enter a cue name then press OK, the cue will now be saved into the list, and, if flag clearing was set the units will blackout.
By ticking the clear parameters and flags box, once the cue is stored, the programming flags set on the fixtures will be cleared, which allows cues to take control of the parameters again.


It is important to understand the principle of flagging

If a fixture has a flag set, it is storing a value ready to be saved into a cue or scene. It is also outputting this value and takes priority over a cue or scene.
For example, if we set our Mac250s to red in the fixture window, and then turn on our blue cue as well, the MACs will run the cue except that the blue is overridden by the red, so outputs red. It is therefore important to know the state of any flags set, this is indicated by the fixture showing a red cross over the top of it.

Flags can be cleared by pushing the clear all flags icon... as well as by right-clicking over the flagged parameter in the fixture panel.

Normally, flags will be cleared once a cue or a scene has been stored.