Editing Pan/Tilt in Easytime & Cycle control

[VinceC]

Hi All,

I'm setting up some switches with XY movements for a pair of moving heads. I'm using the Easytime Pan/Tilt facility to set up a simple circle move for both fixtures, which is fine.

What I now want to do is individually adjust the position of the moves so the fixtures point in a more suitable direction. If you right click on the Pan/tilt timelines you can edit the move patterns as a job lot, but is there a way this can be done on a per fixure basis?

It was possible in Sunlite Suite, but I haven't found a way to do it with Suite 2 yet.

I am also setting up some cycles and would like to run them similarly to the Sunlite Suite method of using Page Up/Page Down to move up & down the scenes in the cycle. I have found that Suite 2 used F9, F10, F11 and F12 to control cycles, but not in quite the same way, as you need to "select" the next step using F11/F12 and then activate it using F9 - a two button action. Would it be possible to re-introduce the Page Up/Page down functionality?

I am using the Feb 18th Beta version of the software.

Cheers, Vince

[simonB]

Hi Vince

If you right click on the Pan/tilt timelines you can edit the move patterns as a job lot, but is there a way this can be done on a per fixure basis?

Not at the moment, but next month we will be making a release whereby you can unlock an effect applied onto multiple timelines and drag/edit each timeline effect separately.

Regarding the Cycles; In Suite 1, when you clicked "GO" all that happened is that it changed the time to 999 hours. In Suite 2, it pauses the Cycle. When the Cycle is paused and you use the previous and next buttons, as you have noticed, nothing happens. You have 2 options:
1. Remove the GO command and instead, assign a time of 1 hour to your first trigger, 2 hours to your second, 3 hours to your 3rd etc... then use the NEXT trigger to move through your scenes.
2. Use the GO command, set a scene time of 0 for scene 1, 0:0:4 for scene 2, 0:0:8 for scene 3, 0:0:12 for scene 4 etc... then use the play button to skip though your cycle

You can assign keyboard shortcuts to previous next and play in the software preferences or a console command inside the console.

Anyway, I have decided that this is all too complicated in Suite 2:
-It is not clear what “GO” does
-It is not clear if previous or next will play the scene or not
-It is not clear whether the Cycle is paused or stopped

My idea is to:
-Change the Play/Stop button graphic to Play/Pause
-Add a new button for Stop. If stop is pressed, the timeline goes to the beginning
-Change the “GO” text to “Pause Cycle”
-add buttons for ”Go to Previous”, “Go to next”, “Activate Previous”, “Activate Next”
-Fix the bug with previous, it needs to go to the previous scene before the one just triggered, like Suite 1

So don't get too comfortable with it as it will probably change next month

[VinceC]

Hi Simon,

Thanks as always for your super-prompt response.

Your explanation of the Suite 2 cycle logic helps a lot, so I can play with that now. I do intend to trigger from a BCF2000, so I can assign the appropriate functions to MIDI commands. I will not get too attached to the current logic though!!

The per fixure editing would be great. It is important to me (and others I would guess) as I often use two moving head washes, one either side of the stage and while I want them to follow the same movement pattern (maybe with a bit of phasing which is very nice!!) they need some adjustment to get them to "toe in" towards centre stage a bit.

Cheers, Vince

[simonB]

Yes exactly. What will also be possible in the next version is the use of palettes in the pan tilt effect which will help adapt moving sequences between stages

[RichterMC]

Hi Vince, Hi Simon,

great that you bring up the "Cycle Control" topic.
I like your ideas to improve the cycle control logic, Simon.
This way it´s possible to use a cycle as a Cue-List.

Here are some more suggestions for Cycle Control:

- Speed adjustment for cycles (was suggested by other users too)
- Show fade times in cycles list view like in Suite 1, let us edit fade times from cycles list view (we talked about this before)
- Would be good to be able to assign the "Go" option to multiple events at once
- Possibility to drag+drop buttons from a page to the Cycle-Editor List view
- Rearrange events by drag+drop in list view
- Show cycle end time in list view
- Auto-Scrolling in Cycle editor timeline view
- More then one cycle active at the same time on a page, like a "switch-cycle"
- Being able to move buttontriggers in Play and Play record mode of a cycle (we talked about this before,)
- Lock option to lock buttons in timeline view, not moving them by accident
- Button to disable auto scrolling in cycle list view
- Switch between "Play" and "Play/Rec" without to stop the cycle frist

If you have any questions please let me know.

Best Gernot