Finale 3D Feature Requests
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AuthorPosts
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DrewFinaleJoined: Dec 2019 Posts: 632 Location: United States 
SilverHey The Novice Pyro, in short, YES! We monitor this thread in real time and we fold requests into our development schedule whenever possible. We also plan to add a dedicated feature request tool to the website to make it easier to make requests, check status, up vote, and get insight into what’s currently in development.
Is anything happening with these ideas? This would be a spectacular upgrade! This extra positions window (with groups) would be a lifesaver. Excellent idea!
The Novice PyroJoined: Jun 2023 Posts: 11 Location: Oxford, Michigan, United States 
NewcomerHey The Novice Pyro, in short, YES! We monitor this thread in real time and we fold requests into our development schedule whenever possible. We also plan to add a dedicated feature request tool to the website to make it easier to make requests, check status, up vote, and get insight into what’s currently in development.
Sorry Drew, that didn’t come out right. I meant was there anything happening specifically with that idea of having a dedicated graphical positions window. I just thought that was such a great idea and the post was a few years old so was curious if it had any traction.
DrewFinaleJoined: Dec 2019 Posts: 632 Location: United States SilverSorry Drew, that didn’t come out right. I meant was there anything happening specifically with that idea of having a dedicated graphical positions window. I just thought that was such a great idea and the post was a few years old so was curious if it had any traction.
Ahh, sorry, I misunderstood. This feature is a great idea. It’s not something we’re working on right now, but I will certainly keep it in mind.
The Novice PyroJoined: Jun 2023 Posts: 11 Location: Oxford, Michigan, United States NewcomerI’d really like to propose a keyboard shortcut that will move an effect back/forward in increments of a tenth of a second. Perhaps CTRL+SHIFT+< to move back .10 increments and CTRL+SHIFT+> to move forward .10 increments? SHIFT+Q opens the shift times dialog but it’s still tedious.
I typically use .10 for PFT on all single shots and slices. However, more often than not, I want to adjust this on the fly depending on the sight picture I’m after or whether I want to focus on the sound of the lift versus the visual. Having a quick shortcut will save me countless hours if I don’t have to SHIFT+Q and manually enter the values.
THANKS!!
DrewFinaleJoined: Dec 2019 Posts: 632 Location: United States SilverI’d really like to propose a keyboard shortcut that will move an effect back/forward in increments of a tenth of a second. Perhaps CTRL+SHIFT+< to move back .10 increments and CTRL+SHIFT+> to move forward .10 increments? SHIFT+Q opens the shift times dialog but it’s still tedious. I typically use .10 for PFT on all single shots and slices. However, more often than not, I want to adjust this on the fly depending on the sight picture I’m after or whether I want to focus on the sound of the lift versus the visual. Having a quick shortcut will save me countless hours if I don’t have to SHIFT+Q and manually enter the values. THANKS!!
Hi The Novice Pyro, this feature already exists! It’s called Nudge and uses the exact keyboard shortcuts you mentioned, Ctrl + Shift + Arrow Keys. What’s more, the nudge increment is adjustable by going to Show > Show settings > Set timeline nudge delta. The default nudge increment is your timeline snap-to resolution, but it can be adjusted to 1ms, 10ms, 50ms, 100ms, 1/2 second, or 1 second.
The Novice PyroJoined: Jun 2023 Posts: 11 Location: Oxford, Michigan, United States NewcomerHi The Novice Pyro, this feature already exists! It’s called Nudge and uses the exact keyboard shortcuts you mentioned, Ctrl + Shift + Arrow Keys. What’s more, the nudge increment is adjustable by going to Show > Show settings > Set timeline nudge delta. The default nudge increment is your timeline snap-to resolution, but it can be adjusted to 1ms, 10ms, 50ms, 100ms, 1/2 second, or 1 second.
DrewFinale OMG! Man, I have a LOT to learn still. I looked everywhere for a possible shortcut and somehow didn’t realize that was there. SO HAPPY! lol. Thanks, Drew!!!!
NECJoined: Apr 2019 Posts: 55 Location: San Antonio, Texas, United States NewcomerI think this was mentioned once before, figured I’d move it to the front of the line.
3DCONNEXTION Spacemouse support would be really nice. I already use it (Spacemouse PRO) for CAD work and it’s a huge time save moving around in space and, in the case of the PRO, definable shortcut buttons for hot-keys and macros. Unfortunately I’m not a software dev but would be willing to be a test mule if this was considered.
Homepage: https://3dconnexion.com/us/
Software Developer Program: https://3dconnexion.com/us/software-developer-program/
Developers Forum (Windows): https://forum.3dconnexion.com/viewforum.php?f=19
NECJoined: Apr 2019 Posts: 55 Location: San Antonio, Texas, United States NewcomerHaving a “Preview” option when creating/customizing reports and diagrams would be really nice, having the ability to customize everything is very helpful, but having to export a report, review PDF, go back and make adjustment(s) and repeating this cycle can get tedious and sometimes frustrating.
NECJoined: Apr 2019 Posts: 55 Location: San Antonio, Texas, United States NewcomerNECJoined: Apr 2019 Posts: 55 Location: San Antonio, Texas, United States NewcomerAnother nice to have:
When opening a show and getting the notification that there are Updates to blueprints as well as missing blueprints, it’s an all or nothing option. I’d like to have the ability to only get the updated blueprints and not the “missing” as I’ve created a lot of custom versions and purposely removed all of the ones I do not want (ex: I only use 3 Avery labels so having all of the other options are just a distraction).
<edit> If easier, have a column that tags a blueprint as “Default” or “Custom” for quick filtering
NECJoined: Apr 2019 Posts: 55 Location: San Antonio, Texas, United States NewcomerIt would be nice to have a horizontal scroll option in all windows other than design. There are time I have more columns unhidden than fit on screen and I have to muck around with column widths or start hiding stuff.
If I’ve missed a way to solve this let me know
The Novice PyroJoined: Jun 2023 Posts: 11 Location: Oxford, Michigan, United States NewcomerWhen grouping effects and editing that group, you can only see the effects in that group. I use grouping to help reduce clutter on the timeline only, but when editing a group of effects, it’s helpful to know how my changes are affecting the show segment overall without having to go in and out of group editing. I envision an “eye” icon next to the zoom and hazard icons that can be toggled to show all show effects in the design window or use current behavior; however, the timeline would still only show the group’s effects. A user setting to set the default behavior would be nice as well as I don’t think I would use the current behavior much if this were available.
Star_StuffJoined: Aug 2023 Posts: 6 Location: Omaha, Nebraska, United States NewcomerI haven’t gone through this whole thread, but my search landed on your post. Did Drew get back to you on any of these? Speed of play back was what I was interested in. I liked all of your recommendations. CTRL Y gets me sometimes. …and mirroring. …but then I saw your last note. Even without the immersive aspect putting a show through the occulus Quest3 it was very nice!
Star_StuffJoined: Aug 2023 Posts: 6 Location: Omaha, Nebraska, United States NewcomerMy apology. I thought I was replying to your original post from last May here it is again:
I haven’t gone through this whole thread, but my search landed on your post. Did Drew get back to you on any of these? Speed of play back was what I was interested in. I liked all of your recommendations. CTRL Y gets me sometimes. …and mirroring. …but then I saw your last note. Even without the immersive aspect putting a show through the occulus Quest3 it was very nice!
Hi All, now that the PyroJam competition is over (congrats to the winners, looking forward to being there in person), I wanted to share some of my thought on using Finale 3D, now that I finally got them down on paper. This was really my first time seriously using Finale and first and foremost, I found it a great piece of software to use. It is very user friendly and intuitive. However, being the good engineer, I have a few fixes and improvements I’d like to see. Please take these with a grain of salt since I am a true novice and may not have found some of these in the software. Also, these comments are limited to scripting as I didn’t do anything with addressing, site layout, or rack design and are based on version 2024.02.23-18f9290b1. Fixes: – In the script window, when setting a filter for cue count, it only shows the first 999 cues. It should go all the way to the end of the show. – In the script window “Part Number” is available to be used as a filter. However, it is not available in the effect window. This would be very handy to have in the effect window as well. – In the “Render Settings”, all the settings seem to save between session of using Finale, except “Particle Limit”. Please consider having “Particle Limit” save between sessions. – Similar to other Windows applications, pressing Ctrl the dragging an item or items will copy them in the timeline or in the render window. However, unlike other windows applications, you cannot drag the item(s) then press Ctrl to copy. Please fix so that order of operation doesn’t matter. Improvements: – Sometimes, I found I was accidentally opening a window (example, the fan window) and wanted to get out of it right away using the keyboard. I found myself hitting ESC to close the window, but that doesn’t work. I would suggest having ESC assigned as the cancel button. – Being used to the Windows standard redo of Crtl-Y, it took a while to get used to Ctrl-Shift-Z for redo, I would suggest adding Crtl-Y as redo. – It would be nice to have the ability to adjust playback speed in the simulation and not just when generating a video to help fine tune timing. – A few times I just wanted to see what a single cue looked like. An isolated window that showed just a preview of the selected cue might be helpful. – Several times I created an effect on one side of the layout but wanted to quickly mirror it to the other side using the same timing and effects, just the opposite angles. A mirror function would be really handy instead of manually having to set the other side up. Really Cool Idea: – Any thoughts about integrating VR headsets (like Oculus) into Finale 3D? I think that would be totally amazing to watch a simulation in a fully immersive 3D environment!!! Thanks for listening, Tim
Sky Fire ForgeJoined: Sep 2019 Posts: 18 Location: West Chester, Pennsylvania, United States NewcomerHi Star Stuff, thanks for the bump. Unfortunately, no, I haven’t seen any response. I know the VR is probably a big effort, but I still think it would be a game changer.
Tim
My apology. I thought I was replying to your original post from last May here it is again: I haven’t gone through this whole thread, but my search landed on your post. Did Drew get back to you on any of these? Speed of play back was what I was interested in. I liked all of your recommendations. CTRL Y gets me sometimes. …and mirroring. …but then I saw your last note. Even without the immersive aspect putting a show through the occulus Quest3 it was very nice!
Hi All, now that the PyroJam competition is over (congrats to the winners, looking forward to being there in person), I wanted to share some of my thought on using Finale 3D, now that I finally got them down on paper. This was really my first time seriously using Finale and first and foremost, I found it a great piece of software to use. It is very user friendly and intuitive. However, being the good engineer, I have a few fixes and improvements I’d like to see. Please take these with a grain of salt since I am a true novice and may not have found some of these in the software. Also, these comments are limited to scripting as I didn’t do anything with addressing, site layout, or rack design and are based on version 2024.02.23-18f9290b1. Fixes: – In the script window, when setting a filter for cue count, it only shows the first 999 cues. It should go all the way to the end of the show. – In the script window “Part Number” is available to be used as a filter. However, it is not available in the effect window. This would be very handy to have in the effect window as well. – In the “Render Settings”, all the settings seem to save between session of using Finale, except “Particle Limit”. Please consider having “Particle Limit” save between sessions. – Similar to other Windows applications, pressing Ctrl the dragging an item or items will copy them in the timeline or in the render window. However, unlike other windows applications, you cannot drag the item(s) then press Ctrl to copy. Please fix so that order of operation doesn’t matter. Improvements: – Sometimes, I found I was accidentally opening a window (example, the fan window) and wanted to get out of it right away using the keyboard. I found myself hitting ESC to close the window, but that doesn’t work. I would suggest having ESC assigned as the cancel button. – Being used to the Windows standard redo of Crtl-Y, it took a while to get used to Ctrl-Shift-Z for redo, I would suggest adding Crtl-Y as redo. – It would be nice to have the ability to adjust playback speed in the simulation and not just when generating a video to help fine tune timing. – A few times I just wanted to see what a single cue looked like. An isolated window that showed just a preview of the selected cue might be helpful. – Several times I created an effect on one side of the layout but wanted to quickly mirror it to the other side using the same timing and effects, just the opposite angles. A mirror function would be really handy instead of manually having to set the other side up. Really Cool Idea: – Any thoughts about integrating VR headsets (like Oculus) into Finale 3D? I think that would be totally amazing to watch a simulation in a fully immersive 3D environment!!! Thanks for listening, Tim
The Novice PyroJoined: Jun 2023 Posts: 11 Location: Oxford, Michigan, United States NewcomerI’d like to see “child effects” or effect groups with a parent effect. For example, I have a 49 shot cake. 7 rows of 7. I can use this cake as a whole (parent effect), or I can break it down into rows, or even single shots. Most 25s or 49s 30mm cakes I will break into singles or rows. I rarely will ever shoot them a whole. We need a way to manage that reality in Finale 3D. I envision an option to “Create child effect > from item in show OR from item in effects window”. Or, another option is to do this from the break apart cake. Haven’t thought out all the scenarios this could be used for, but just to make the general point… Maybe even have Finale smart enough to know you want rows or singles from a cake. Perhaps extending the “Break apart cake” feature where Finale smartly knows you might want rows or single shots and do this for you.
The primary reason for doing this is two-fold. One is obviously to create new effects from the parent, the second is to manage inventory better. When you have 49 possible single shots in a cake, how do you know what inventory you have available? You either have 1 cake to use, or 7 slice rows, or 49 single shots. If you use 5 as single shots in a show, you now have 0 cakes, 6 rows, and 2 singles available.
I also see other possibilities in this, so this is a start to get the innovation juices flowing. 🙂
Curtis BJoined: Jan 2023 Posts: 49 Location: 1808 E St Louis St, Springfield, MO 65802, USA NewcomerI’d like to see the ability to dial the smoke particles back either through render settings or the VDL itself. I’ve done some testing of vdl’s lately and it seems that once you get a LOT of smoke particles on screen, they really start to lag your show simulation down.
If there is already a request for this or if it already exists, please let me know!
DrewFinaleJoined: Dec 2019 Posts: 632 Location: United States SilverI’d like to see the ability to dial the smoke particles back either through render settings or the VDL itself. I’ve done some testing of vdl’s lately and it seems that once you get a LOT of smoke particles on screen, they really start to lag your show simulation down. If there is already a request for this or if it already exists, please let me know!
Hi Curtis, did you try the Draw smoke and Smoke thickness settings in File > Render settings?
Curtis BJoined: Jan 2023 Posts: 49 Location: 1808 E St Louis St, Springfield, MO 65802, USA Newcomer -
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