To create and export a pyro script for the Showven FXcommander firing system, please follow these steps:
- Address the show (“Addressing > Address show…”) and select “Showven” and “PyroSlave X16” as the controller and module type.
- Export the script (“File > Export > Export firing scripts“).
Step 2 creates the script file, which has the “CSV” extension. The file format details are described in this section.
The Showven FXcommander system also supports DMX fixtures. Please see DMX basic instructions for general DMX scripting instructions. If you are interested in how the script format incorporates the DMX commands along with the pyro commands, the details are presented in Table 2 and Table 3 in this section.
Figure 1 – Showven FXcommander firing system
Table 1 – File format and encoding
| File format | Extension | Text encoding | Field delimiter | End-of-line |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Text | .CSV | ASCII | Comma | CRLF |
The script contains rows for the pyro firing events and DMX channel state vectors. Multiple pyro effects fired at the same effect time can be combined in a single row if their effects have the same part number. 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 first by effect time, then by event time as secondary criterion. |
| What rows represent | Each row represents a one or more module/pin addresses of pyro effects with the same part number, fired at the same effect time (and therefore the same prefire and event time); or a DMX channel/value state vector starting with channel 1, the length of the state vector covering all non-zero values. |
| Header | The first line of the file is the CSV header row, which specifies the fields of the following data rows:
|
| Time resolution | Milliseconds. |
| DMX support | Showven FXcommander supports DMX fixtures sharing a single 512 channel DMX Universe. The DMX related rows in the script are state vectors defining the values of all 512 channels at the time of the event, which are to be held for the duration of the event and then reset to zero if another event does not follow at exactly the time of the event plus its duration. As an economy, the state vector can be shorter than 512 channel values, implying the remaining values are zero.
Representing any change to any one or more channel values at a given time requires the state vector defining the state of all 512 channels at that time. Thus rapidly changing channel values, such as an animation of a light color or moving head angle, require approximately 1.5KB times the sampling rate of memory for the script, e.g., 15KB/sec for 10Hz sample rate, if the 512 DMX Universe is fully allocated. |
| Special characters | Characters in the script are limited to low ASCII excluding single-quote, comma, semicolon, double-quote, tab, newline. |
Each row in the script has a number of fields separated by the comma character. The names of the fields and their descriptions are in following table.
Table 3 – Specifications of script Showven FXcommander fields
| Field name | Description |
|---|---|
| Device | “Pyro” or “DMX” or “SAFETY”, indicating the meaning of the row. A Pyro row is a trigger of one or more pyro ignition pins; a DMX row is a DMX state vector consisting of a variable length array of channel values; a SAFETY row is a DMX state vector consisting of a variable length array of channel values — 0 for non-safety channels, and the armed value for safety channels. |
| Name | For Pyro rows, the name of the triggered effect; for DMX rows, the fixture type of the first fixture involved in the change to the DMX state vector, where first means lowest DMX Channel Base address; for the SAFETY row, empty-string. Maximum 128 characters, low ASCII excluding single-quote, comma, semicolon, double-quote, tab, newline. |
| Timecode | The effect time in the format HH:MM:SS:DDD. The actual ignition time will precede Timecode by Prefire(s). |
| Addr | For Pyro rows, one or more three-digit hex numbers separated by semicolons, indicating module number (first two digits) and pin number (third digit); for DMX rows, a channel state vector consisting of a sequence of 1 to 512 two-digit hex numbers separated by semicolons indicating channel values of the corresponding channels (the first hex number is value of channel 1, not channel 0 which doesn’t exist, second hex number is value of channel 2, etc.); for the SAFETY row, a sequence of one or more two-digit hex numbers indicating whether the corresponding channels are safety channels (by non-zero values that put the fixtures in the armed state) or non-safety channels (by zero values). The channel values in DMX rows for channels that have non-zero values in the SAFETY row are ignored. Channel value sequences in the DMX rows and SAFETY rows are variable length, up to 512 channels. If they are shorter than 512 channels, they are equivalent to a full 512 channel sequence with zeros for the remaining values. |
| Duration(s) | For Pyro rows, empty-string; for DMX rows, the duration for which the state vector applies before channel values revert automatically to zero; for the SAFETY row, empty-string. |
| Prefire(s) | For Pyro rows, the delay from the ignition time and the effect time in floating point seconds (the ignition time = Timecode – Prefire(s)); for DMX rows and the SAFETY row, the value 0.0. |
| Position | For pyro, the name of the first involved launch position represented by the row, where first means lowest module/pin address; for DMX rows, the first fixture position involved in the change to the DMX state vector, where first means lowest DMX Channel Base address or fixture.; for the SAFETY row, empty string. Maximum 128 characters, low ASCII excluding single-quote, comma, semicolon, double-quote, tab, newline. |
| Angle | For Pyro rows, ASCII art (\|/) representing the directions of the triggered effects if they are all the same or empty-string otherwise; for DMX rows and the SAFETY row, empty-string. |
The example script shown in Figure 2 is also available for download in Table 4.
Device,Name,Timecode,Addr,Duration(s),Prefire(s),Position,Angle
SAFETY,,,00;FF;00;FF;00;FF;00;FF;00;FF;00;FF,,0.0,,
DMX,Sparks Flash,00:00:01:100,FF,3.0,0.0,sparkular-01,
Pyro,Crossette Switch,00:00:03:842,010;110;210;310;410,,0.0,pyro-01,|
Pyro,30mm Red Comet w/ Tail,00:00:09:890,850,,0.0,pyro-06,|
DMX,Sparks Flash,00:00:10:000,FF;00;FF;00;FF,2.5,0.0,sparkular-03,
Pyro,30mm Red Comet w/ Tail,00:00:10:811,860,,0.0,pyro-07,|
Pyro,30mm Red Comet w/ Tail,00:00:18:395,870,,0.0,pyro-08,|
Pyro,30mm Red Comet w/ Tail,00:00:19:286,880,,0.0,pyro-09,|
Pyro,Crossette Switch,00:00:25:452,011;111;211;311;411,,0.0,pyro-01,|
Pyro,1.1 PFT Green Comet w/ Tail,00:00:41:893,050;150;250;350;450,,1.1,pyro-10,|
Pyro,Green Comet w/ Tail,00:00:42:980,051;151;251;351;451,,0.0,pyro-10,|
Pyro,2.1 PFT Green Comet w/ Tail,00:00:46:698,052,,2.1,pyro-10,|
DMX,Sparks Flash,00:00:48:100,00;00;00;00;00;00;FF;00;FF;00;FF,4.0,0.0,sparkular-06,
Figure 2 – Example Showven script for pyro and DMX
Example files for a mixed pyro and DMX show are available for download in Table 4. The example show contains six DMX fixture positions and fourteen pyro positions. The DMX fixture positions contain flashes of the Sparkular fixture with adjusted durations. The DMX fixture positions also contain safety channel events covering the duration of the firing. The timeline for the example show is shown in Figure 3.
Figure 3 – Timeline for example mixed pyro and DMX show.
Table 4 – Downloads
| Download link | Explanation |
| test-showven-fxcommander-sparkular01.fin | Example show file |
| test-showven-fxcommander-sparkular01.csv | Example exported script file (CSV) |
| fixture-setup01.pdf | Example DMX Fixture Setup report |