The Generic Light Fixture ON/OFF and Dimmer fixtures are single channel DMX fixtures with pre-defined effect libraries in Finale 3D for turning ON/OFF or setting a fader value of any single-channel DMX fixture. The simulation in Finale 3D is a simple par light beam, which you can view as a placeholder for whatever effect the fixture produces in the real world. Some example fixtures are,
- Confetti fixtures with a single ON/OFF DMX channel personality
- Ceiling lights in a conference room that have single channel DMX dimmer intensity control (0-255)
- A BBQ grill that has DMX control
- Any other DMX fixture or relay that you want to script in Finale 3D
Figure 1 – A 1-channel DMX ceiling light that is a perfect match for the Generic Light Fixture Dimmer in Finale 3D
Both the ON/OFF (Standard Fixture ID 068) and Dimmer (Standard Fixture ID 069) fixtures have a 1-channel DMX personality. The ON/OFF effects use the value 0 = OFF and 255 = ON. The Dimmer effects use values from 0-255.
Table 1 – DMX personality choices
| DMX personality (“DMX Channel Mode”) | Supported in Finale 3D |
| 1CH | YES |
Instructions
To design a show for Generic Light Fixture ON/OFF and Dimmer fixtures, please follow the steps in DMX basic instructions and Light fixtures basic instructions. If you don’t already have a compatible firing system or controller capable exporting a DMX script, please refer to Supported firing systems and controllers (DMX) for the list of available hardware options.
Choosing the DMX channel ranges for fixtures
Each fixture requires one channel, so if you are putting multiple fixtures in the same DMX Universe, you need to set the Start Address on the fixture in the real world and the corresponding DMX Channel Base on the fixture in Finale 3D to a single channel that doesn’t overlap with others. A DMX universe has channels 1-512. If you want to pack as many fixtures into the 512 channels of a DMX universe as you can, back-to-back ranges are the most efficient. Table 2 shows an example for 1-channel fixtures. Some DMX firing systems and controllers only support 50 or 100 channels, so you may not have all 512 channels to work with.
Table 2 – Example channel ranges for 1-channel fixtures in a DMX universe
| Fixture | DMX Channel Base | Channels Used |
| 1 | 1 | 1 only |
| 2 | 2 | 2 only |
| 3 | 3 | 3 only |
| 4 | 4 | 4 only |
| 5 | 5 | 5 only |
| … | ||
| 512 | 512 | 512 only |
Technical details
The following tables show the technical specifications of the fixtures, as tested by the Finale support team.
Table 3 – DMX channels for 1CH personality
| DMX Channel | Meaning |
| Channel 1 (DMX Channel Base + 0) | ON/OFF (0 = OFF, 255 = ON) or Dimmer (0-255) |