To create and export a script for the ActionBase firing system, please follow these steps:
- Address the show (“Addressing > Address show”).
- Export the script (“File > Export > Export firing scripts“).
Step 2 creates the script file, which is a standard format CSV file with a “CSV” extension. The file format details are described in this section.
Figure 1 – ActionBase firing system
Table 1 – File format and encoding
| File format | Extension | Text encoding | Field delimiter | End-of-line |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Text | .TXT | Code Page 1252 | Tab | CRLF |
The script contains rows for the firing events, i.e., unique combinations of module, pin, and ignition-time. Multiple effects can be combined on a single cue. The special characteristics of the script are shown in the following table:
Table 2 – Special characteristics
| Special characteristics | Description |
|---|---|
| Sort order of rows | Rows sorted ascending by event time, then by module number, then by pin number. |
| What rows represent | Each row represents a unique firing event, a module/pin/event-time combination. For example, a chain of five shells will be one row, not five. A pair of shells shot together from the same position will be one row, not two, even if the shells are different effects. A flight of shells shot together from multiple positions with the same module-pin using scab wire is still one row. |
| Header | The file does not contain a header. |
| Time resolution | The ActionBase system supports hundredth of a second resolution. |
| Special characters | The TXT file allows all Code Page 1252 characters except control characters like linefeed and tab, which are filtered out. There is no escaping or quoting facility. |
Each row in the script has a number of fields separated by the tab character. The names of the fields and their descriptions are the following:
Table 3 – Specifications of script fields
| Field name | Description |
|---|---|
| Event Time | Time of ignition in the format H:MM:SS.DD. |
| Module Number | Module number, starting with 1. |
| Pin Number | Pin number, starting with 1. |
| Size | Size. |
| Description | Description. If the row represents multiple effects, the description begins with the number of effects in parentheses, continues with the first effect name, and ends with elipsis (…) as an indication the row represents more than is being displayed in this single field. |
An example script containing six (11) shells across nine (9) firing rows is shown in Figure 1 and included for download in Table 4. In this script, the last two rows each represent two effects ignited from the same pin.
0:00:02.76 1 1 2" Green Chrysanthemum
0:00:02.86 2 1 2" Green Chrysanthemum
0:00:02.96 3 1 2" Green Chrysanthemum
0:00:03.06 4 1 2" Green Chrysanthemum
0:00:03.16 5 1 2" Green Chrysanthemum
0:00:03.26 6 1 2" Green Chrysanthemum
0:00:03.36 7 1 2" Green Chrysanthemum
0:00:03.46 8 1 2" (2) Green Chrysanthemum ...
0:00:03.56 9 1 2" (2) Green Chrysanthemum ...
Figure 1 – Example ActionBase script
Table 4 – Example files
| Download link | Explanation |
| test_actionbase.fin | Example show file |
| test_actionbase.txt | Example exported file (TXT) |