Locking addresses prevents addressing functions like “Addressing > Address show…” and “Addressing > Clear all addresses” from changing them. The most common situation requiring locking addresses is when you have a completed show that is already labelled or wired and you want to add additional items to the show. In a situation like this, you can’t change the existing addresses without creating additional work, but you need firing system addresses and maybe rack assignments for the new items you’ve added to the show. The menu item, “Addressing > Lock addresses” is the function that enables you to lock the script rows that you don’t want to change.
Figure 1 – Locking addresses protects the firing system addresses and rack assignments from being changed.
Locking addresses protects all five fields that the addressing functions otherwise set, including firing system related fields and rack related fields: Universe, Section, Module Or Slat Type, Rail, Pin, Rack, and Tube. The padlock icons appear only in the Rail and Pin columns. Having locked the addresses you don’t want to change, you can execute any of the addressing functions to fill in the firing system addresses and rack assignments of any non-locked items that you add to the show. You can repeat the process of locking and adding more as many times as you like.
Racks
The addressing functions in the addressing menu set both the firing system addresses and the rack assignments (rack and tube) simultaneously, which is what enables you to limit modules to single racks or rack clusters, and that sort of thing. You can also assign firing system addresses first — without racks — and subsequently add racks and load the effects into racks using functions like “Racks > Load effects with firing system addresses into racks…”. These rack related functions in the Racks menu will apply whether or not the addresses are locked, overwriting the Rack and Tube fields.