The effects window in Finale 3D displays a list of effects for any of the effects collections. Each effect has a set of properties defined by the columns in the table. Most of the columns are hidden by default to make the information manageable, so to look at all the columns please select “Hide or unhide columns” from the blue gear menu in the upper right of the window.
There are a few special columns in the effect window that are not attributes — “Line Number”, “Icon”, “Used”, “Quota”, “On Hand”, and “Available”. The Icon is automatically generated based on the other column values. The Used, Quota, and other quantity columns are described in Inventory management basic instructions.
All the rest of the columns are the attributes that define the effect itself. Their meanings are defined here in Table 1, together with the relationship to the corresponding Finale Inventory terms, which you don’t need to care about unless you are using a Finale Inventory or master inventory collection (Finale Inventory is a separate but compatible inventory management service; see finaleinventory.com).
Table 1 – Effect attributes
| Finale 3D English name | Finale 3D internal name | Finale Inventory name | Explanation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Available | available | — | The number of devices in your inventory that are available to use, taking into account reservations, (optionally) unreceived purchases and unshipped sales. See paragraph 5 of Account setup for options pertaining to unreceived shipments. This field can be edited in place in the My effects collection and the effect database files, but cannot be edited in place in Finale Inventory collections or Generic effects. Finale Inventory collections provide an up-to-date Available quantity based on your inventory management operations like stock takes and sale or purchase orders. See Inventory management basic instructions for further instructions). |
| Category | category | Category | A user-defined field for your convenience, except in this circumstances: if you are using the Pyrotronix firing system for DMX effects, the Category contains the Device Type (the fixture) of the DMX preset to be triggered (see Pyrotronix). As of Jan 17, 2020, this field is synchronized from Finale Inventory to Finale 3D but not in the other direction. |
| CE Number | ceNumber | CE Number | A field that is useful to include for European users. As of Jan 17, 2020, this field is synchronized from Finale Inventory to Finale 3D but not in the other direction. |
| Color | color | Effect Color | A single color, which you can use as a search term. It may contain spaces but not commas. If the effect has multiple colors, this field should contain the most prominent single color that you are likely to search for. |
| Cost | stdCost | Standard Accounting Cost | The cost of the item. For chains, you can decide whether the cost means the cost of the full chain or whether it means the cost per device (i.e., per shell). From within the Finale 3D application, select “File > User settings > Chain price, cost, NEQ, and weight are for entire chain” to make the costs and cost summaries display correctly for either meaning. |
| Custom Part Field | customPartField | Custom Part Field | A user-defined field that you can use for anything, except in these circumstances: (1) if you are using the Explo X2 Wave Flamer, Showven Circle Flamer, or Spark Fabrica Moving Head Flamer, then the Custom Part Field contains the program/macro number for the pre-defined programs (see Explo X2 Wave Flamer for details); (2) if you are using the Pyrotronix firing system for DMX effects, the Custom Part Field contains the Preset Number of the DMX preset to be triggered (see Pyrotronix); (3) if you are using any user-defined DMX effects for user-defined DMX fixtures, the Custom Part Field holds the definition of the fixture. |
| Description | description | Description | The proper name of the effect as it should appear in reports and on labels, like “Galactic Gladiator” or “Red Peony 75m” or “Bomba Roja Con Aro Azul” or “Синяя в красную хризантему”. Since the simulation is specified by the VDL column and other numerical columns like Height Meters and Duration, the description can be anything. It does not affect the simulation. |
| Devices | devices | Chain Number Of Devices | The number of devices (shells) in the chain; or one if the item is a device not in a chain; or zero if the item represents an effect that is not a device, such as a DMX light flash or a flame projector shot.
A device is a physical pyrotechnic object that is not easily broken up into smaller units. Thus a shell is a single device, and so is a single-shot tube, and so is a cake because a cake is not easily broken up into smaller units; but a chain is multiple devices (shells) because its shells are easily separated. |
| DMX Fixture Definition | dmxFixtureDefinition | DMX Fixture Definition | Reserved for future features. |
| DMX Patch | dmxPatch | DMX Patch | A tiny program that defines the DMX signals corresponding to the effect. This field only matters when exporting DMX-based scripts. |
| Duration | duration | Duration | The lifetime of the stars, for aerial shells, or the duration of the continuous effect for gerbs or flares, or the duration from first launch to last break for cakes. For more explanation of cake durations, see Cake and candle duration (and prefire). |
| E-Matches Default | ematches | E-matches | Reserved for future features. |
| EX Number | exNumber | EX Number | A field that is useful to include for US users. This field can contain single EX numbers or a comma separated list, like 2008040132, 2004110899. As of Jan 17, 2020, this field is synchronized from Finale Inventory to Finale 3D but not in the other direction. |
| Fuse Delay | fuseDelay | Fuse Delay | The visco fuse delay between the ignition of the device’s fuse and the first launch. In contrast with other attributes that are referenced by effects the script, when you insert an effect in the show, the Fuse Delay field is copied into (not referenced by) the “Delay” field of the script row, and can be edited directly in the script row. |
| Hazard Default | lockoutDefault | Hazard Default | A default value for the hazard class or caliber group that show operators may use to selectively prevent effects from firing based on real time conditions. For many firing systems, this field is exported directly to the firing system script, though sometimes it goes by a different name in the firing system nomenclature, such as CGHZ or Lockout. |
| Height Meters | height | Effect Height | The height in meters of the trajectory apex of an aerial shell, or of the spark plume for fountains and gerbs. This field determines the height of the visual simulation. In Finale 3D, this field is always meters. In Finale Inventory, you can set the Distance Unit Of Measure to feet if you want, which applies to all distances including height and safety distance. Finale 3D will convert between feet and meters automatically, if necessary, when it connects to Finale Inventory, but we recommend you use meters, for simplicity. |
| Manufacturer | manufacturer | Manufacturer | This is the name of the manufacturer or supplier. |
| Manufacturer Part Number | manufacturerPartNumber | Mfg Product Id | The manufacturer or supplier part number. This field may be useful for your own purposes. Additionally, the Manufacturer Part Number field enables you to update simulations in your own effect catalog with the current, up-to-date simulation managed by the supplier, by cross-referencing. |
| NEQ | neq | NEQ per unit | The net explosive quantity of one device (shell, cake, etc.). The “Basic Product List” report and other similar reports in Finale 3D will show the total NEQ for all items in the show. For chains, you can decide whether the NEQ means the price of the full chain or whether it means the NEQ per device (i.e., per shell). From within the Finale 3D application, select “File > User settings > Chain price, cost, NEQ, and weight are for entire chain” to make the NEQ and NEQ summaries display correctly for either meaning. |
| Notes | partNotes | Notes | A user-defined field for your convenience. |
| On Hand | qoh | — | The number of devices physically present in your inventory, disregarding reservations, unreceived purchases and unshipped sales. This field can be edited in place in the My effects collection and the effect database files, but cannot be edited in place in Finale Inventory collections or Generic effects. Finale Inventory collections provide an up-to-date On Hand quantity based on your inventory management operations like stock takes and received or shipped shipments. See Inventory management basic instructions for further instructions). |
| Part Number | partNumber | Product ID | The unique identifier for the effect, like DOM10001 or LD3CK253. This field is called the “Product ID” in Finale Inventory. If you are creating new part numbers from scratch, the best practices we recommend are: 1) all upper-case, 2) A-Z letters and digits only, 3) no spaces or special characters other than dash or underscore, 4) not longer than 16 characters. |
| Physical Specifications | physicalSpecifications | Physical Specifications | A field containing optional physical specifications of a rack or effect, such as: {[rackRowLengthConsumption 50]} which specifies that an effect consumes 50mm of a single-shot rack row that has a “Max. usable row length” constraint, overriding the default which is that an effect consumes an amount equal to its effect size. |
| Prefire | internalDelay | Prefire Time | The lift time, for shells, or the lift time of the first effect of a cake if it is a shell. This field is not the visco fuse delay on a cake. This field does apply to the visual simulation. The value of this field can be zero or blank for cakes and candles, which is generally easiest and safest because the automatic default values are good for both for shell and non-shell components of a cake. As a reminder and point of emphasis, for shells this is the lift time, so if you have a prefire of 0.1 seconds on a shell, for example, that shell will explode on the way up (see Inventory compatibility with Finale Business (and how to fix cakes)). For further explanation see Cake and candle duration (and prefire). |
| Price | stdPrice | Item Price | The price of the item. Finale 3D will display the price of a show based on these values. For chains, you can decide whether the price means the price of the full chain or whether it means the price per device (i.e., per shell). From within the Finale 3D application, select “File > User settings > Chain price, cost, NEQ, and weight are for entire chain” to make the prices and price summaries display correctly for either meaning. |
| Quota | quota | — | The number of devices that you intend to use in the active show. This field is saved in the show’s Per-show effects but “shows through” into any displayed collection of effects, matching by cross-referencing the Part Number. Please edit this field in the Per-show effects collection or import it with “Effects > Import quotas…” or “Effects > Finale Inventory > Import quotas from sale order…”. See Inventory management basic instructions for further instructions). |
| Rack Type Default | rackType | Rack Type Default | A field that you can employ to set matching conditions between racks and effects (See Using the “Rack Type” field to make effects go into fan racks). |
| Remaining Available | remainingAvailable | — | The Available minus the Used of the item in the active show. This non-editable field is used for quantity filters and for reports. |
| Remaining On Hand | remainingQoh | — | The On Hand minus the Used of the item in the active show. This non-editable field is used for quantity filters and for reports. |
| Remaining Quota | remainingQuota | — | The Quota minus the Used of the item in the active show. This non-editable field is used for quantity filters and for reports. |
| Safety Distance Meters | safetyDistance | Safety Distance | The safety distance for the item, in meters. In Finale 3D, this field is always meters. In Finale Inventory, you can set the Distance Unit Of Measure to feet if you want, which applies to all distances including height and safety distance. Finale 3D will convert between feet and meters automatically, if necessary, when it connects to Finale Inventory, but we recommend you use meters, for simplicity. |
| Size | size | Caliber | The caliber of the effect, in inches or millimeters, e.g., 3” or 75mm. This field determines the size of the visual simulation. If the field is blank, the default value of 3″ will apply. |
| Storage Location | stdLocation | Std Bin ID | The standard storage location for the item, for simple inventory management of items stored in fixed locations, and for picking instructions. Item quantities from Finale Inventory are based on Sublocations and Locations, which are not directly visible in Finale 3D. |
| Subtype | subtype | Effect Subtype | A user defined field, such as “500g Cakes”, or “Special Shells”. This field does not affect any application functions, so you can use it for whatever you want. |
| Tubes | numTubes | Rack Tubes | For racks, the number of tubes in the rack.
This field can also be used for effects, to count the number of shots while taking into account multi-shot devices like cakes (in Finale 3D‘s terminology a cake is a single device with multiple shots; thus counting devices always counts cakes as one). For cake effects, enter the number of tubes in the cake; for roman candles, lie and enter the number of shots even though the roman candle has only one tube; for other effects, enter the number 1. If you want to count only aerial shells, then leave non-aerial effects blank or enter the number 0 for them. |
| Type | partType | Choreography Tab | One of these predefined English terms (exactly): shell, comet, mine, cake, candle, other_effect, single_shot, ground, rocket, flame, not_an_effect, rack, macro. The Type field is important, because a number of the application functions behave differently depending on the Type. For example, the rack layout functions will allocate mortar rack tubes for effects of type “shell” but not effects of type “cake”; the e-match count functions will not allocate e-matches for effects of type “flame”; effects of type “other_effects” have editable durations in the script window, whereas other effects have constant durations defined by the effect definition; etc. The full list of differences based on Type is given in Why is ‘Type’ so important? What depends on it?. Please note that these values are slightly different from the corresponding values in Finale Inventory. |
| UN Number | unNumber | Hazardous Material | A field that is useful to include for all users. This number must be in the format: UNXXXX, where XXXX is a four digit number like 0336 or 0337. Example: UN0337. As of Jan 17, 2020, this field is synchronized from Finale Inventory to Finale 3D but not in the other direction. |
| Used | used | — | The number of devices currently used in the active show. This field is not an attribute, so it cannot be edited. See Inventory management basic instructions for further instructions. Most of the quantity filters in the effect palette and the effect window blueprints compare the Used quantity with other quantities like Quota, On Hand, and Available. |
| VDL | vdl | VDL Description | The description of the effect in standard pyrotechnics terminology (See “finale3d.com > Documentation > VDL documentation”). This field defines the visual simulation of the effect, along with a few other specifications like Size, Height Meters, and Duration. There are some differences between Finale Business and Finale 3D with respect to VDL, particularly with respect to cake durations. If you are importing or connecting your Finale 3D inventory from Finale Business cakes, please see Inventory compatibility with Finale Business (and how to fix cakes) for instructions to fix the prefires and durations. |
| Weight | weight | Weight per unit | The weight of one device (shell, cake, etc.). If you are synching to Finale Inventory, whatever units you use in Finale Inventory apply (grams, kilograms, etc.). The “Basic Product List” report and other similar reports in Finale 3D will show the total weight for all items in the show. For chains, you can decide whether the weight means the weight of the full chain or whether it means the weight per device (i.e., per shell). From within the Finale 3D application, select “File > User settings > Chain price, cost, NEQ, and weight are for entire chain” to make the weights and weight summaries display correctly for either meaning. |