Finale 3D Feature Requests
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Pyro_324800000Joined: Apr 2024 Posts: 32 Location: Hong Kong 
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Star_StuffJoined: Aug 2023 Posts: 7 Location: Omaha, Nebraska, United States Newcomer
NECJoined: Apr 2019 Posts: 66 Location: San Antonio, Texas, United States Newcomer
Leon_SutliffeJoined: Jan 2025 Posts: 2 Location: Leicester, England, United Kingdom NewcomerHi! Was great to see people at the UK Cobra Meetup yesterday. A question I forgot to ask that happens to also be a feature request. A lot was spoken about improving the dmx implementation, Are there any plans the integrate the import of the GDTF Fixture format? Even if the simulation was not made when a fixture is imported, it could massively speed up the process of creating new dmx fixtures, and could lessen the need for finale to create as large of a catalog of their own.
Crispy PyroJoined: Dec 2018 Posts: 6 Location: Redmond, Washington, United States NewcomerFeature request: Enable an event to be the start point for measuring duration on the timeline
When you click/hold on a spot on the timeline without an event on it and drag the mouse, the UI shows the duration from where you clicked to wherever your mouse is. This can be fiddly when there are nearby events and you can’t select an event as a starting point. A typical situation (at least for me) is trying to measure the duration from an event to somewhere else on the timeline (often another event). My ask is to make it possible to have an event as the “start” point for measuring this duration.
Proposal: When one event is selected, show the duration at the mouse location as it moves along the timeline. Because events highlight when you mouse over them, this enables seeing precise timing between the two events plus arbitrary timing when not mousing over an event. This could be “turned on” by holding shift, control, etc. after selecting the first event so as not to clutter the UI.
Steps:
1. Select first event,
2. Hold down shift/control/alt (no real preference)
3. Move mouse on timeline (including over another event)
4. Observe current time at mouse location with duration from selected event at bottom of timelineAn alternative that covers just the “between two events” scenario is to always show the duration when an initial event is selected and the mouse hovers over a second event. This is more cumbersome because it requires creating temporary events on the timeline if you’re trying to measure to a point that doesn’t already have one, but is also simpler for the user because doesn’t require doing anything beyond having at least one event selected and hovering over another event.
Steps:
1. Select first event
2. Hover over a 2nd event
3. Observe current time at mouse location with duration from selected event at bottom of timelineNote: For either implementation, if multiple events are selected, I think it would only consider the outermost selected event as the “start”.
Thanks for considering!
Rich (Finale user since 2014)
Crispy PyroJoined: Dec 2018 Posts: 6 Location: Redmond, Washington, United States NewcomerFeature Request: Provide more details about changes when syncing My Effects
Finale shows a high level overview of changes when syncing My Effects back to the cloud (x rows added/deleted/changed), and “Show details” doesn’t show anything additional, On more than one occasion, I’ve seen more changes than I expected, but there’s no way to know what those changes are. I DON’T think Finale is doing something funky, but I’d still really like to know more about the changes are before I hit Apply Changes.
II would like Finale to show the description fields for added/deleted rows and the description + changed fields for changed rows (bonus points for showing a diff with old/new values). In the absence of a diff or showing the changed fields, at least knowing the description field for changed rows would let me check to see if there are unexpected changes (or cancel and look at the data more deeply).
For additional bonus points, it would be great to have this info for fdb files as well.
Thanks for considering!
Rich (Finale user since 2014)
Crispy PyroJoined: Dec 2018 Posts: 6 Location: Redmond, Washington, United States NewcomerFeature Request: Limited duration “step up” to next version (with constraints)
I saw the racking functionality and CobraCon and was blown away. I also know I’m never going to be a candidate for Pro, and I expect I’m part of a class of folks in the same boat. I shoot one show a year large enough to benefit from some of the Pro features (like the new racking functionality), but don’t have customers to bill to help cover the costs. I understand the importance (and challenge) of differentiating features and not cannibalizing a higher margin product, but enabling customers to use more advanced features (and get additional revenue from them when you otherwise wouldn’t) would be a win on both sides.
My proposal builds on the functionality you have (time based subscriptions, temporary trials like PyroJam, etc.) and enable users with an active subscription to a “lesser” product (Hobbyist? Lite?) to purchase a short-term “step up” to the next version. This would be limited in frequency (once per subscription-year?) and duration (30 days?). I’d love it to be free, but acknowledge this would add costs/overhead (both development and support).
I know this is a slippery slope, and can picture the requests/escalations (I just need one more day! Can I do this twice a year? etc.). As it stands, there’s no in-between, and there could be enough “pro-hobbyists” out there to make it worthwhile even if you enable the limited scenario. Over time, you could consider supporting more options (first time is $100, second is $200, etc., so that at some point, it’s cheaper to just buy Pro) if that makes sense.
I’ve got money in hand…
Thanks for considering!
Rich (Finale user since 2014)
Crispy PyroJoined: Dec 2018 Posts: 6 Location: Redmond, Washington, United States NewcomerFeature Request: Add ability to specify type (or subtype, or other field currently allowable as a filter) for a given position; automatically filter effects list when position is selected.
The functionality that filters the events window to the appropriate effects when selecting a DMX position is great, and it got me thinking… Could it be possible to do the same for pyro effects? I’ve got positions that are intended to be specific to certain types of items (shells, single shots, cakes, slices, etc.). For folks that shoot display shells, they likely do the same for different sized shells because of distance requirements.
I heavily rely on the filtering available in the effects window, but I repeatedly select the same filters over and over again as I move between positions. Adding the ability to set a default filter for a position (from the Position Details window) would make this automatic. It wouldn’t be a required field (not every position is expected to be exclusive to a type), and the filtering shouldn’t prevent the user from manually overriding (clearing the selected filter, doing additional filtering, etc.).
Thanks for considering!
Rich (Finale user since 2014)
Pyro_51170000Joined: May 2021 Posts: 12 Location: Dansville, New York, United States Newcomer
Boom In The SkyJoined: Apr 2022 Posts: 2 Location: Fort Lauderdale, FL NewcomerYears ago – I had won a Hobbyist subscription to Finale for a year at Cobra Con – but hadn’t played too much with it and let it lapse.
Last year, I decided to sign up again in the LITE version … mainly so I could learn the software but its obviously quite limited.
I’m not sure if these features are in the other versions – but since I am not scripting shows for paying clients – its hard to justify the $350+ Hobbyist version and definitely not the Pro version.
1st Problem is – After I create a Pyromusical – I can’t export a video of it to others in the community or share on my YouTube channel to get feedback of what I could have done better. This seems like a marketing tool of itself – that users could create pyromusicals and share the videos – getting others more interested in the software.
2nd Problem – And I think I saw a few others comments about this – Being able to put parameters on a position would be helpful. I don’t want to shoot 5 inch or 8 inch shells from the front comet position… Another way to do this would be to group a line into a Position filter – and then hide those positions – to make it easier to PLACE a shell in a back position vs in the close prox position- especially when two layer positions are aligned – one behind the other.
3rd – there’s no way – that i can tell to group things together in this version – I hit G and nothing happened. I also don’t see a way to automatically line up positions or spread evenly across a horizontal or vertical line …. again – these MAY be in the other versions but not being in the lite version is frustrating – since I’m just trying to learn….
4th – there’s no way to export an event and then import into another show… a parabolic comet run for instance… It would be nice to not have to recreate 20 comets in an assortment of angles with each show.
5th – i think someone said it – I get that the advanced racking features, labels, etc do bring value – but seems like a high barrier of entry to buy the hobbyist version for maybe one or two shows a year… seems like having an event based subscription with more features would be a welcome change.
For example – you can create as many shows as you want – but you can only export scripts for up to 3 shows per year with the ability to add a 4th or 5th show for $xx if needed. Before I started helping a 1.3 display company set up shows – i – like many – only put on 2 shows per year – one for New Years and one for July 4th. I don’t NEED the unlimited exports – obviously would only be the same show with some various degree of change – like – once you change the music – it resets it as a different show.
Just my two cents – take it for what you will.
Boom In The SkyJoined: Apr 2022 Posts: 2 Location: Fort Lauderdale, FL Newcomer
ZZOJETJoined: Oct 2023 Posts: 1 Location: Nova Prata, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil Newcomer -
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