some new ideas

[mix]

Hi guys :)

Sometimes I reappear with some new ideas for the software!
I've used sunlite in the last month in a theatrical show, with some moving heads, led pars/led bars etc...
I really like sunlite, and I'm very happy with it!

During the programming of the show, I've noticed some function that is missing for me, to speed up the workflow.

- Scene/switch overwrite
When you create a new scene/switch, a dialog pop up and let you incorporate the currently active buttons into the scene. Would be awesome to have an "overwrite" commando on the buttons, that pop up again that dialog for an exiting scene/switch, and let you insert some other switch values in the button.
For example, let say I've made a scene, and now I try, using the predefined button on a sub page, to add a color and a movement to some mobile heads... I see that is better than what I've in the current selected scene, and I wanna change it.
I can do it manually, editing the scene, but would be much easier to create a new scene button that include the current scene. The only step that is missing, is that I need to manually replace the old scene, creating the new with a new name, deleting the old, and renaming the new.
A quick overwrite command would be awesome...
Or maybe, an option to consolidate the "embed inside the button" values in the button

- in editor, palette create
This would be a really time saving feature. Let say that I'm programming a scene with some moving heads, and I've pointed the heads to a place. Now I wanna save that position to a fixture, to use it on some other scene later (in a theatrical show it happen many times). I've to open up the palette editor, create a new palette and re point the light to the same place (I cannot copy the values, because in the palette editor, the position is in ° from the center, and in the editor is in 0-255)
Would be really useful to have a function in the editor that permit to select some fixture, and save the current fixture/fixtures data to a specific or generic palette.
A dialog box can appear and let you select what type of palette to create, in which group and what type of data to save (position, zoom, color, etc)

-in editor, palette edit
This is a little bit more difficult, but, useful too! I've see this feature in another light software (martin lightjockey) and for me is really interesting to have here.
Let say we have some fixtures in a scene/switch, with some assigned palette.
At the moment, when you try to modify a channel that is assigned to a palette, it stop you.
Instead of stopping the user from changing the values, you could let the user modify it, like it's a normal dimmer channel.
The channel temporary became a dimmer channel, with the new value updated, and you save in a temporary variable the reference to the palette for that channel.
When the user save the scene (or close the editor), before the saving dialog, another dialog pop up, and let the user select if they wanna transform the modified channel in normal dimmer channel, or if they wanna update the value in the palette (if is possible, and is not locked for this type of change)
If a user change the type of a channel, from fixture to another type, this reference is lost, and there is not the need to request how to do.
I thing this could be a very useful command. I give you some example of what can be done:
Let say I've created some predefined color to use. I drag that color to a fixture. Than I wanna change it a little bit. I have to transform the channels to dimmer, and than I can change it.
An other example could be with the moving heads position. Let say I've created a palette with a position, and reusing it, I adjust it a little bit. I wanna apply this change to the fixture, but to do that, I need to open the palette editor, redo the adjust and save

- console palette apply to fixture button
I've tried to create a little console to use with my ipad, to speed up the programming of the light. I thing that would be awesome to have an action that apply a palette, to the current seleted fixture in the editor.
So in this way I can emulate the little touch screen in console like the vector, that let you rapidly select global color, position, beam, etc for the selected fixture.

Also would be really useful to have 3 new component type in the console editor (like the color selector, and the XY):
a list (made of buttons?) of fixture, fixture group or palette in a palette page.
In this way we could easily build some easyremote template where we can use touchscreen to select fixture, and apply palettes to it.
And if it's a list of button, it can be applied to some midi controller too

- easyremote page
Don't know if there's something similar at the moment (maybe the 4 layers in the bcf2000)
Would be awesome to create a multi-page easyremote console. It usually show you one page, and than you can swipe (or use some buttons/arrow) to slide to another page.
In this way we can create complex easyremote control that give us much more control (for example, 2 page for programming, and one of live button)

Yeah, it's a little bit long... but I think it's all useful ideas, that if is implemented, can really speedup the workflow for many like me.
I've some other ideas, but it's a little bit more advanced (like for example the "dark movement", the feature that if you have an ordered list of scene in a page, if you have a scene where the moving heads is in blackout, it will automatically prepare it in the position for the next scene, or the fixture replace... that can be a really life changer feature!)
If there was some API, I probably would love to make an help, and develop some of this feature in the software!

I wish to see some of this feature for the next show (usually at october, I start prepare/program the show) :)

Let me know if there's something not clear

Thanks and best wishes
Cheers
Daniele

[mtregael]

- easyremote page
Don't know if there's something similar at the moment (maybe the 4 layers in the bcf2000)
Would be awesome to create a multi-page easyremote console. It usually show you one page, and than you can swipe (or use some buttons/arrow) to slide to another page.
In this way we can create complex easyremote control that give us much more control (for example, 2 page for programming, and one of live button)

You can already do that by creating and assigning as many console as you want and send them to easyremote.
By swapping on your tablet screen you can change the displayed console.
Before that, the "console editor" let you create the console you need with the controls you want.

Regards,

[mix]

- easyremote page
Don't know if there's something similar at the moment (maybe the 4 layers in the bcf2000)
Would be awesome to create a multi-page easyremote console. It usually show you one page, and than you can swipe (or use some buttons/arrow) to slide to another page.
In this way we can create complex easyremote control that give us much more control (for example, 2 page for programming, and one of live button)

You can already do that by creating and assigning as many console as you want and send them to easyremote.
By swapping on your tablet screen you can change the displayed console.
Before that, the "console editor" let you create the console you need with the controls you want.

Regards,

I missed that feature, thanks for the tips ;)

[mix]

I've recently worked with an avolites console and I could say that I miss a speedy way to create/update the palettes in sunlite!
It really speed up the workflow with many motorized!
Please, enhance the palette in sunlite :D
Thanks Mix

[mtregael]

- Scene/switch overwrite
When you create a new scene/switch, a dialog pop up and let you incorporate the currently active buttons into the scene. Would be awesome to have an "overwrite" commando on the buttons, that pop up again that dialog for an exiting scene/switch, and let you insert some other switch values in the button.
For example, let say I've made a scene, and now I try, using the predefined button on a sub page, to add a color and a movement to some mobile heads... I see that is better than what I've in the current selected scene, and I wanna change it.
I can do it manually, editing the scene, but would be much easier to create a new scene button that include the current scene. The only step that is missing, is that I need to manually replace the old scene, creating the new with a new name, deleting the old, and renaming the new.
A quick overwrite command would be awesome...
Or maybe, an option to consolidate the "embed inside the button" values in the button

You can already do that by holding "CTRL", right click on a Switch (color, gobo, etc.) and drag it to the scene/switch you want.
A box will ask you if you want to "move" graphically the button just below the one you selected as destination or if you want to "copy" the active values inside. That you want to do is to "copy"...