The online Finale 3D community features a forum, private messaging, your own personal homepage, a global user map, a monthly photo contest, and more. As you explore community areas, you will likely encounter references to "Pyro Points". This article is all about pyro points - what they are, how you get them, why you want them, and how you can use them.   What are pyro points? Pyro points are the virtual currency of the Finale 3D community. As a Finale 3D user and member of the online community, you can earn pyro points, spend points points, and even tip pyro points to other users. Pyro points exist only within the Finale 3D community, they can't be acquired or spent anywhere else.   Why do I want pyro points? There are multiple reasons you want pyro points. For starters, because the amount of pyro points your earn directly corresponds to your pyro status. Your pyro status conveys your level of engagement and standing in the community. Your status can be viewed by others on your public homepage and along side each of your forum posts.   Figure 1 – Pyro status as it appears on your personal homepage and along side a forum post.   How can I earn pyro points? If you're just starting out, the quickest way to earn pyro points is by completing the pyro points rewards activities on your My Profile page. By completing the pyro points rewards activities, you can earn up to 100 pyro points. The rewards activities are also a great introduction to the community and the Finale 3D software. In addition to rewards, you will also earn 1 pyro point each time another user likes one of your forum posts or directly gives you a pyro point. Last but not least, you can win pyro points by entering the monthly photo contest and other Finale 3D design competitions.   Figure 2 – Pyro points rewards on My Profile page.   Where can I see how many pyro points I have? You can check your pyro points balance any time by visiting your My Profile page. To view a complete list of all your pyro points transactions, use the View History link displayed under your pyro points balance.   Figure 3 – Pyro points balance and link to view points transaction history on My Profile page.   How does the number of pyro points I have correspond to my pyro status? Your pyro status is derived from the maximum number of pyro points you have earned in any calendar year. The more points you earn, the higher your status. Once you achieve a specific status level, you will never lose it. This means you will keep your current status until you earn a higher status; using your pyro points or entering a new calendar year will not affect your status.   Figure 4 – Pyro statuses and the amount of pyro points you need to earn within a calendar year to achieve each status.   Can others see my pyro points? Your pyro points balance, the number of points you have earned in the current calendar year, and your pyro points transaction history are private and visible only to you. Your pyro status, which is based on the highest number of pyro points you have earned in a any calendar year, is visible to all users.   What can I do with my pyro points? When you like a forum post, you give the author of the post a pyro point. You can also give any user a pyro point for any reason directly from your My Profile page. When you give a pyro point, you can enter a description which will appear in the user's pyro points transaction history.   Figure 5 – Liking a forum post and giving another user a pyro point from within My Profile.  

Reports sometimes need to represent multiple position names in a single row, but only one position column is possible.  Getting multiple position names into a single row is a conundrum.  The solution is to use position groups to create nicknames for the groups of positions that appear in a single row. The circled cell in Figure 1 shows a row representing multiple positions in the Pinboard Cue Sheet report.  Cue 05/A fires shots on Pos-01 and Pos-02.   Rather than displaying the position names in a list (which is not an option), the report tests if the set of positions to be displayed matches a position group.  If so, the report shows the group name.  You can make position group names that are recognizable, like "Front" or "Shell Positions" or "Rooftop-A", etc.  It is easy to tell position group names apart from position names themselves -- position group names always begin with the at-sign.   Figure 1 – The Pinboard Cue Sheet shows position group names in Position column for rows that represent multiple positions.     You can make position group names by selecting a set of positions and doing the menu item, "Positions > Position groups > Create position group..."  Finale 3D automatically creates position groups when you insert effects into multiple positions at once.  The position groups are displayed as orange flowers on the left side of the screen, as shown in Figure 2.  You can click on the name of the position group underneath the flower to rename or delete it.   Figure 2 – The orange flower position group names are displayed in rows that represent multiple positions.   Sometimes the automatic creation of position groups is overwhelming, so it is worth mentioning that you can turn off the automatic creation of position groups with a setting in the "Show > Show settings" submenu. If you print a report and notice that one of the cells in the position column is blank, it is more than likely that the row represents multiple positions and that you don't have a position group created that is an exact match.  The position cell will be blank in that circumstance.

Reports like the Wiring Script report shown in Figure 1 use conditional formatting to highlight columns or rows, change colors, and add borders based on the information in the cells.   Figure 1 – The Wiring Script report uses a variety of conditional formatting options for highlighting and borders.   In the example of Figure 1, the horizontal lines group the rows by rail and pin.  If multiple shells of different effect types are fired together from the same rail and pin then they will be split out across multiple rows, but the horizontal lines give an indication that the rows go together with the same pin.  Alternatively, you can turn on the light gray zebra striping and use conditional formatting to group rows with the same rail and pin in the same light gray highlighting, as shown in Figure 2.   Figure 2 – Alternative formatting options employ light gray zebra-striping to group rows together instead of borders between rows.   From the Script window's blue gear menu, do "Edit report template..." and choose "basic_wiring_script_portrait" to see the original Wiring Script report's configuration dialog.  Paragraph 6 of the dialog controls the conditional formatting, as in Figure 3.   Figure 3 – The conditional formatting options employed by the original Wiring Script report.   A summary of the conditional formatting choices for original Wiring Script report is, Option A and G invert the colors of the Rail and Pin columns. Option C groups the rows with the same rail and pin, putting lines between the groups. Option D and E add the colors for angled effects. Option F highlights in yellow the rows whose pins have multiple e-matches.  The full expression in the box is, "[or [= fullAddress prev.fullAddress] [= fullAddress next.fullAddress] [and [not chainRef] [> numDevices 1]]]".  Options D-H are programming language expressions.  If you are not a programmer, you can copy/paste examples from existing report templates. Option H highlights the notes in red if they are not blank. Figure 4 shows the conditional formatting choices for the modified Wiring Script of Figure 2.   Figure 4 – The modification highlights every-other-row, except it keeps rows that have the same address highlighted together.   The differences in Option C are a good jump off point for describing the how the conditional formatting options work.   Conditional formatting options The conditional formatting Option C provides two selectors for terms, and a selector to choose how to compare them.  If the comparison is true, then the choice in the formatting selector applies to the choice in the "applies to" selector.  The terms are all the fields of the report rows.  For each field you actually have an option of "this row" or "previous row" or "next row", which enables you to compare a cell value in a row to a cell value in the row above it or below it in the report.   For some uses, comparing to the previous or next row is what you need to do.  For other uses, you may compare two different fields of the same row. The examples of Figure 3 and Figure 4 compare the same field of a row to the previous row.  The expression in Figure 3 is true if the fields are the same; the expression in Figure 4 is true if the fields are different.  Looking back at Figure 1 and 2,  the table of Figure 1 adds border above every row that has a different address from the row above it.  This logical expression matches the selectors in Figure 3.  The table of Figure 2 extends the light gray zebra striping to additional rows if they have the same address as the light gray shaded or white row above it.   This logical expression matches the selectors in Figure 4. Option A and Option B are simpler types of expressions.  Option A is the simplest of all.  It doesn't even have any terms.  The expression is true if you check the checkbox, and it will apply to every row in the report.  This option offers an easy way to change the formatting for an entire column without any special conditions. Option B has a single term, which is a field of your choice.  As the wording around option B explains, the expression is true whenever the field value is not blank or zero. Options D-H are programming language expressions.  If you are not a programmer, you can copy/paste examples from existing report templates.  If you are a programmer, the terms and function names are explained below. All options A-H are expressions.  Option A is trivially true whenever you check the box.  Option B is true based on the value of a single field.  Option C compares two fields.  Options D-H are free form expressions that can compare multiple fields.  Options D-H can also be just simple expressions if you know what to type.  For example, Option G in Figure 3 and 4 is the expression "true" which is not surprisingly true all the time.  So Option G in this example is just like the checkbox Option A.  Similarly, any expression that can be represented in Option B and C can also be represented in Options D-H.  Options A, B, and C are just an easier user interface.   Free-form expressions (Options D-H) Free form expressions are written in a simple programming language that has access to the field values of the current, previous, and next row.  An expression in the programming language is either a term, or a function with terms as parameters.  The terms themselves are field values of the rows, or literals like numbers or strings, or the result of functions operating on terms.  Functions are written as square brackets containing the function name followed by the terms that the function operates on, separated by spaces.  For example, the expression in Option F of Figure 3 and 4 that highlights the Devices in yellow if multiple e-matches connect to the pin is: [or [= fullAddress prev.fullAddress] [= fullAddress next.fullAddress] [and [not chainRef] [> numDevices 1]]] The interpretation of this expression in English phrasing is, ( fullAddress = prev.fullAddress ) OR ( fullAddress = next.fullAddress ) OR ( ( NOT chainRef ) AND ( numDevices > 1 ) ) This is a complicated expression, explained in Wiring Script report.  In addition to counting the devices associated with the pin, it has to take into consideration that chains represent multiple devices but require only a single e-match (yet multiple chains can be e-matched to the same pin together). The conditional formatting is applied if the expression value converted to a boolean value is true.  Most comparison functions return a boolean result, true or false.  Other functions like abs (absolute value) return numbers.  Term values are various types including numbers, strings, booleans, and a few other types.  If the expression value is not boolean, it is converted to a boolean value following these rules: 1) undefined is false; 2) the number zero is false; 3) empty string is false; 4) everything else is true.   Table 1 – Functions in conditional expressions Function Arguments Description and One or more terms Logical conjunction of terms. or One or more terms Logical disjunction of terms. = Two terms Compares if two terms are equal according to the following rules: 1) numbers compare to each other naturally; 2) symbols compare to each other naturally; 3) boolean values compare to each other naturally; 4) strings compare to each other naturally (case sensitive comparisons of characters in the strings); 4) undefined is equal to undefined; 5) all other comparisons between terms of different types are false. < Two terms Compares if two terms for the "less than" relationship according to the following rules: 1) numbers compare to each other naturally; 2) symbols compare to each other lexicographically (case sensitive comparisons of characters in the symbols); 3) boolean values compare to each other naturally, false being less than true; 4) strings compare to each other lexicographically (case sensitive comparisons of characters in the strings); 4) undefined is not less than undefined; 5) all other comparisons between terms of different types are the result of comparing the types themselves in an enumerated order, not comparing the values. > Two terms Similar to less than comparison. <= Two terms Similar to less than comparison. >= Two terms Similar to less than comparison. != Two terms Similar to equal comparison (but the opposite). not One term True if and only if the term's value is false or undefined.  If the term is zero or empty string, the result of not is false (in some programming languages this is not the case). abs One term Absolute value function. containsSubstring Two terms and then optionally the symbol :caseSensitive True if the first term contains the second term as a substring, after converting terms to strings if they are symbols or string-type arrays.  The search function is not case sensitive unless you add the :caseSensitive parameter. + One or more terms Adds the terms and returns the result. - One or more terms Subtracts the terms after the first term from the first term and returns the result. * One or more terms Multiplies the terms and returns the result. / One or more terms Divides the first term by the remaining terms and returns the result. round One term Rounds the number to the nearest integer. if Three terms If the first term converted to a boolean value is true, then return the second term; else return the third term. stringsEqual Two terms and then optionally the symbol :caseSensitive Compare two terms, after converting them to strings if they are symbols or string-type arrays.  Returns true if they are the same.  The function is not case sensitive unless you add the :caseSensitive parameter. string One term Convert the term to a string if it is a number or symbol or string-type array or already a string. symbol One term Convert the term to a symbol if it is a number or string or string-type array or already a symbol. int One term Convert the term to an integer if it is a double or already an integer (rounding down). double One term Convert the term to a floating point number if it is an integer or already a floating point number. type One term Return the type of the term, :bool, :string, :symbol, :int, :double, or :array. numberFromString One term Convert the term from a string to a number, after converting the term to a string if it is a symbol or string-type array.  The conversion to a number permits both a dot or comma character as the decimal radix and allows characters after the number that are part of the number in the string, and allows leading whitespace.  For example, "   1,23abc" converts to the number 1.23.  The type of the returned number is integer if has no fraction; otherwise it is a floating point number. stringLength One term and then optionally the symbol :utfi Returns the length of the string, after converting the term to a string if it is a symbol or string-type array.  The length is in Unicode characters (code points), unless the optional symbol :utfi is present, in which case the length is in UTF-8 or UTF-16 or UTF-32 code units, which is platform dependent.  On Windows, :utfi means UTF-16 code units, and the length of the string is equivalent to the C++ function wcslen().   Table 2 – Terms in conditional expressions Term Example Description All row fields fullAddress The internal name (not the English name and not the localized name) of any script column, as defined in Script table columns.  Terms are case sensitive, so exact capitalization is required.  The value of the term is based on the internal representation of the field value, not the formatted representation.  The value is the internal representation itself unless: 1) if the field is a numeric field and its value is undefined (blank), then the value of the term is zero; 2) if the field's internal representation is a symbol, then the value of the term is the symbol converted to a string. Literals "red", 0.0762, or 'pos1 Strings, numbers, and quoted symbols.  Strings and symbols can contain backslash and double quotes internally if preceded by backslash.  For example, "2.5"" is the string that prints out as: 2.5".  A quoted symbol is a symbol preceded by single quote.  If a symbol contains spaces or certain punctuation characters, it should be written as: #<"MYSYMBOL"> to avoid breaking apart.  Since row fields are converted from symbols to strings automatically the need for quoted symbol literals is uncommon. prev prev.fullAddress A representation of the previous row in which the fields of the row can be accessed with the dot character. next next.fullAddress A representation of the next row in which the fields of the row can be accessed with the dot character. The script table has a field named "next" which conflicts with the term "next" that means the next row.  To access the value of the field name, write: "this.next" instead of just "next". this this.fullAddress A representation of the current row in which the fields of the row can be accessed with the dot character.  Since fields themselves are also defined terms, this "this" term merely provides an alternative representation for the fields themselves.  Typing "this.fullAddress" is the same as typing "fullAddress" (both expressions without quotations). true true A boolean term whose value is true. false false A boolean term whose value is false. undefined undefined A term whose value is the undefined value.   Numerical comparisons All functions including numerical comparisons operate on the internal representation of the field values, which are defined in Script table columns.   Non-integer numerical comparisons require care because you need to know what the internal representation is, and you may need to take into account possible precision error such as with the conversions between inches and millimeters. In Finale 3D, distances and lengths are always represented internally in meters, with the exception of effect size which internally is a floating point number representing typed microns (1/1000th of a millimeter), for which the integer part of the number is the actual size and the fraction part of the number is type information indicating whether the size is to be displayed as inches or millimeters.  Since a fraction of a micron is insignificant in pyro it doesn't affect the size in a meaningful amount, but it can affect comparisons for equality with literals.  For example, you should not directly compare a size to 75mm using the expression [= size 75000] because even if the size is 75mm the type information in the fraction will make the comparison false.  If you want to compare to 75mm explicitly you could use the expression, [= [round [/ size 1000]] 75]. For pyro it is usually not a great idea to compare effect sizes for equality because the conversion between inches and millimeters in pyro is extremely loosey goosey (is a 3" shell 75mm or 76.2?).  If you need to compare sizes, compare in ranges.  Instead of [= size 75000] please write something like [< [abs [- size 75000]] 2000] for whatever error tolerance you want.   Types of numbers Numbers are either integers or floating point numbers.  For comparisons, the type of a number doesn't matter because comparison functions will convert integers to floating point numbers when necessary.  However math expressions involving only integers use "integer math" in which all intermediate and final values are themselves integers, incapable of representing fractional values.  For example, [/ 3 2] is 1, whereas [/ 3.0 2] is 1.5 because the terms of the first expression are all integers and the terms of the second expression are not all integers. Expressions involving integers and floating point numbers will automatically convert the integers to floating point so the calculation can be completed entirely in floating point math.  Comparing to the previous example, [/ [+ 3 0.0] 2] is 1.5, because [+ 3 0.0] converts the type of the number 3 from integer to floating point so it can be added to a floating point number.  From that point, the final result of the expression is the same as [/ 3.0 2], which is 1.5.  An equivalent expression to [/ [+ 3 0.0] 2] is [/ [double 3] 2]. Using integer math and the available functions in Table 1, you can test if a number is even or odd using an expression like [= [/ chainRef 2] [/ chainRef 2.0]], which has the value true if the variable chainRef (which holds an integer value) is even.  

The Pinboard Cue Sheet report presents the list of cues for an operator to take some action in a manually fired show: to press a button on a firing system controller or to electrify a pin on a manual firing pinboard.   Each cue is a pin number or a pin/bank number if the controller has multiple banks of pins.  Since the cues are sequential for the benefit of the operator, the distinguishing characteristic of manually fired show scripts is that the pin or pin/bank numbers of the show are always in chronological order. In Finale 3D, the banks of pins are represented by the "Rail" addresses, which are often letters.  Thus, analogous to how the the rail/pin address represents a module/pin or module/slat/pin for a computer fired show, the rail/pin address represents the bank/pin for a manually fired show, the only difference being that the rail/pin addresses in the manually fired shows are in chronological order. The Pinboard Cue Sheet report lists the pin number first and highlights it for the operator since the pin number is the button the operator needs to press for every action.  The operator doesn't need to concern himself with the rail address for every single cue, only when the bank changes.  Since banks of pins may have 25 or 50 or even 300 pins, the bank switching actions are relatively rare.   Whenever a bank switch is required, Pinboard Cue Sheet reports calls attention to the fact with a black outline around the bank number.  You can see in Figure 1 that bank "A" is outlined on the first row; and that the next outlined bank is "B", twenty-five rows later!   Figure 1 – The Pinboard Cue Sheet shows position group names in Position column for rows that represent multiple positions.   Every line in the Pinboard Cue Sheet report is a separate action.  If an action fires effects from multiple positions in parallel, the names of all the positions involved would need to be combined somehow into the Position column in the report, but there would rarely be enough room to list them all on the page. The circled cell in Figure 1 shows the solution to this formatting conundrum.  Cue 05/A fires shots on Pos-01 and Pos-02.   Rather than displaying the position names in a list, the report shows a position group name chosen by the user for the group of positions.  In this case "Pos-01/02" is shorter than "Pos-01, Pos-02" but it could be even better.  The user can make position group names that are recognizable, like "Front" or "Shell Positions" or "Rooftop-A", etc. You can make position group names by selecting a set of positions and doing the menu item, "Positions > Position groups > Create position group..."  Finale 3D automatically creates position groups when you insert effects into multiple positions at once.  The position groups are displayed as orange flowers on the left side of the screen, as shown in Figure 2.  You can click on the name of the position group underneath the flower to rename or delete it.   Figure 2 – The orange flower position group names are displayed in rows that represent multiple positions.   Combining all events with the same rail/pin onto the same row is a little different from the combining that the Wiring Script report does.  Notably, the Wiring Script requires that combined rows have the same Position, but the Pinboard Cue Sheet report does not.  You can see the Pinboard Cue Sheet report's combination criteria in paragraph 2 of its report configuration dialog, which you can get from the Script window's blue gear menu by doing "Edit report template..." and choosing "basic_cue_sheet_portrait".  The word "Position" is not in any of the selectors of Figure 3.   Figure 3 – Script rows are combined only if they have the same Rail, Pin, and Effect Time; but having the same Position is not required.   The Pinboard Cue Sheet report also highlights non-empty notes fields in red, to call your attention to the notes.  The highlighting and the outlining of the rail addresses are accomplished with the conditional formatting options in paragraph 6 of the report configuration dialog shown in Figure 4.   Figure 4 – The conditional formatting parameters highlight fields based on logical expressions.   Conditional formatting From the Script window's blue gear menu, do "Edit report template..." and choose "basic_cue_sheet_portrait" to see the configuration dialog with the paragraph 6 shown in Figure 4.  For this report, Option A inverts the colors of the Pin column. Option B highlights the notes in red if they are not blank. Option C outlines the Rail cell whenever it changes from the row before. Option D and E add the colors for angled effects. The checkbox at the bottom turns on the zebra striping of every other row in light gray.

The Safety Distance report lists the positions and the relevant safety distance information.  The "Position Safety Distance" is a property of the positions themselves, editable in the Positions window or in the Position Properties dialog.  For each position, the report compares the Position Safety Distance with the maximum "Safety Distance" field of the effects launched at the position.  Rows with inadequate Position Safety Distance values are highlighted in red.   Figure 1 – The Safety Distance report highlights rows for positions with inadequate safety distances.   The Safety Distance report is generated from the script rows by sorting the rows by position and combining together all the rows for each position.  The combining operation for the effects' Safety Distance field takes the maximum value of the combined rows.   Figure 2 shows the combining operation in the report configuration dialog, which you can edit from the Script window's blue gear menu, "Edit report template..."   Figure 2 – Script rows at the same position are combined, resulting in one row per position.   The highlighted rows of Figure 1 result from conditional formatting settings in the report configuration dialog.  Option C of paragraph 6 in the dialog compares the "Effect Safety Distance" of each row to the Position Safety Distance, as shown in Figure 3.  The Effect Safety Distance in script rows is simply a reference to the Safety Distance field of the effect definitions in the Effects window.   Figure 3 – The conditional formatting parameters highlight fields based on logical expressions.

The Wiring Script report contains the information to wire up the effects in the show.  Sorted by rail and pin, the rows in the script provide the position, effect part number and name, size, number of devices, angle, and notes.  Notably, the report also has conditional formatting to group together rows that are on the same firing pin, and to highlight pins with multiple e-matches, angled effects, or notes. Since every pyro display company has its own style, you may want to customize this report to add or remove fields or to change the formatting.  The default report works for most purposes, and is also a good basis to work from if you make your own report.   Figure 1 – The Wiring Script report contains the information to wire up the effects -- and some fancy formatting.   The first two columns are inverted colors just to emphasize them and to make this report recognizable.  The horizontal lines group the rows by rail and pin.  If multiple shells of the same effect type are fired together from the same rail and pin, then they will appear as a single row in the script with the Devices column counting the number of shells; but if the shells are of different effect types, then they are split out across multiple rows, one for each type of effect. From the Script window's blue gear menu, do "Edit report template..." and choose "basic_wiring_script_portrait" to see the report configuration dialog.  Paragraph 2 of the dialog controls what script rows are combined together versus listed separately in the report.  As shown in Figure 2, script rows are combined only if they have the same Rail, Pin, Position, and Part Number; or if they are chains.   Figure 2 – Script rows are combined only if they have the same Rail, Pin, Position, and Part Number; or if they are chains.   In the example in Figure 1, the group of three rows on 01/01 represent three shells; the group of three rows on 01/03 represent four shells; the single row for 02/03 represents two shells; and the single row 02/04 represents six shells.  The yellow highlights call out any row whose pin has multiple e-matches attached to it.  The yellow sections in the Figure 1 illustrate the e-match counting logic.  It is easy to see why the yellow cells are yellow, but what about the "3" cell just above the yellow "6" cell at the bottom of the page?  Why isn't it yellow? The red notes fields offer a hint.  The effects on rail, pin 02/05 and /02/06 are in chains of three shells.  Thus the 02/05 row only requires a single e-match for the chain and is therefore NOT yellow; whereas the 02/06 row has two chains of three shells and therefore requires two e-matches, turning it yellow.   Figure 3 – The conditional formatting parameters highlight fields based on logical expressions.   Conditional formatting From the Script window's blue gear menu, do "Edit report template..." and choose "basic_wiring_script_portrait", to see the configuration dialog with the paragraph 6 shown in Figure 3.  For this report, Option A and G invert the colors of the Rail and Pin columns. Option C groups the rows with the same rail and pin, putting lines between the groups. Option D and E add the colors for angled effects. Option F highlights in yellow the rows whose pins have multiple e-matches.  The full expression in the box is, "[or [= fullAddress prev.fullAddress] [= fullAddress next.fullAddress] [and [not chainRef] [> numDevices 1]]]".  Options D-H are programming language expressions.  If you are not a programmer, you can copy/paste examples from existing report templates. Option H highlights the notes in red if they are not blank.

If you sort by angle when addressing and your racks have fixed angle tubes, there is a possibility of gaps in module number sequences in the racks as shown in Figure 1.  Why would the first rack have modules 01 and 03 instead of 01 and 02?  Fortunately, there's a good reason, and there's a good solution.  You just need to understand what is going on.  Or if you just want to know the solution, Figure 3 sums it up.   Figure 1 – A gap in the module number sequence.  Why does the first rack have module 01 and 03 instead of 01 and 02?   Figure 2 shows the addressing sort order that produces the rack assignments of Figure 1.  Figure 2 looks pretty normal.  There's nothing strange about about sorting by "Position > Angle > Event Time".   So why is Figure 1 so weird? You would need to know a little more information.  The racks in these figures are PyroLamas single shot racks with fixed angle tubes in 15 degree increments between the rows.  The left-most row of tubes has -45 degree angling tubes to the left, the next row over to the right has -30 degree angling tubes, and so on to the right-most row of tubes at 45 degrees to the right.  Thus in the first rack, the shots 0-9 of module 01 are all -45 degree shots, and A-F of module 01 are all -30 degree shots.   Figure 2 – Sorting by "Position > Angle" can yield gaps if your rack tubes have fixed angles.   The addressing procedure The apparent gaps in the module number sequence arise from the addressing procedure, which is: Sort the effects according to the sort criteria in paragraph 2 of the addressing dialog. For the effect that is first in the sorted list, follow step (3) on any unused pins of partially allocated rails (modules) and if none of them work then allocate a new rail and try its first pin. For the pin, try to find a rack and tube such that all the constraints in paragraph 3 of the addressing dialog are satisfied; if successful, assign the pin and tube to the effect being addressed. Repeat. The gap in Figure 1 can now be understood by walking through the addressing procedure: Sorted by angle, the first 10 effects easily fit in the left row of the first rack. The next 6 effects being assigned are also -45 degrees to the left (that's how many pins fill into the left-most rows of tubes in Figure 1).  The problem is, the first rack doesn't have any more tubes angling that direction, so they must go into the second rack.  But the "Rack Cluster" constraint in paragraph 3 of the addressing dialog prevents modules from being shared across racks that are not in the same cluster.  Hence these 6 effects in the second rack get module 02.  At this point, a gap in the module number sequence of the first rack is assured.   Sorting by "Same Rack" or "Rack Number" Following the addressing procedure, you can see that the only way to avoid a gap in the module sequence in the first rack would be to sort the effects such that the effects that fit into the first rack get sorted first, before the effects that spill over into the next rack.  The addressing sort options include a term that does just that -- Same Rack.  Figure 3 shows where to put it.   Figure 3 – Add the term "Same Rack" before "Angle" to fill out a rack before moving onto the next.     The Same Rack term gives priority to effects that can fit into the same rack as the previous assignment.  In this example, after filling the first 10 effects at -45 degrees into the first rack, the remaining -45 degree effects can no longer fit in that rack so they receive a lower sort priority.   The -30 degree effects are the left-most effects that can fit into the empty tubes of the first rack, so they get allocated next.  The result is shown in Figure 4.   Figure 4 – Sorting by "Same Rack" avoids the gaps in module number sequences.   Finale 3D has other special sort terms like Same Rack that can solve similar problems.  The term "Rack Number" would also work fine in this example in place of Same Rack.  Rack Number not only fills one rack before moving onto the next; it fills the racks in order of their Rack Number.  Rack Number enables you to avoid gaps while filling racks according to how you've arranged them visually, as described in detail in Addressing based on layout of racks (Rack Number).  The full set of special sort terms, useful for all kinds of purposes, is given in Special sort terms.

The Hansol Volcano unit (Standard Fixture ID 053) is a vertical, fixed height flame machine that can be controlled by any of the DMX-capable firing systems, such as Piroshow, Pyromac, PyroSure, fireTEK, Cobra, and Mongoose.   It generates a flame column 2-4 meters high, depending on nozzle used.   Figure 1 – Hansol Volcano   The Volcano fixture has a one-channel DMX personality, plus a separate Pilot Light / Safety Channel address defined to be channel 100 always.   Since the Pilot Light / Safety Channel address is separate from the DMX personality for Hansol Volcano fixtures, you need to create a separate Pilot Light / Safety Channel fixture position with the DMX channel base address equal to the Pilot Light / Safety Channel address (100).   Table 1 – DMX channels DMX Channel Meaning Effect in Finale 3D that controls channel Channel 1 (DMX Channel Base + 0) ON/OFF (0 = OFF, 255 = ON) See Assorted DMX supplier catalog.     Table 2 – DMX channels for safety position (DMX Fixture Type of "Hansol [054] Pilot Light / Safety Channel") DMX Channel Meaning Effect in Finale 3D that controls channel Channel 1 (DMX Channel Base + 0) Pilot Light / Safety channel (0 = OFF, 255 = ON) Part number HS10006, “HANSOL [054/0000] Safety Channel / Pilot Light”   Instructions To design a show for Hansol Volcano units, please follow these steps:  Set up.  (A) Follow the flame set up instructions in the Flame systems basic instructions. Depending on your DMX controller, you may choose to give each Volcano its own DMX universe, or give each Volcano a channel in a shared DMX universe.  (B) In the real world configure each physical unit's "Start Address" to be the channel you allocate for it (a single channel). (C) In Finale 3D configure the "DMX Channel Base" of the fixture position to match the Start Address exactly.  (D) In Finale 3D create one or more Pilot Light / Safety Channel fixture positions, and configure their "DMX Channel Base" to be 100, matching the required Pilot Light / Safety Channel Address exactly. Add the Assorted DMX supplier catalog to your Finale 3D account.  Login to the finale3d.com website.  At the top of the page, go to “My Account > Supplier Catalog Settings” (www.finale3d.com/supplier-catalogs-settings/).  Find the Assorted DMX supplier catalog in the table, and turn the switch to ON.  Then launch the Finale 3D application and synch to network.  The Assorted DMX catalog will appear as one of the available collections in the effects window, which you can choose from the selector at the top of the window. Add flame effects to the show.  (A) Right-click on the Hansol Volcano positions to add compatible effects from the context menu or to filter the effects window to compatible effects.   (B)  Add a "Pilot light / Safety Channel" effect to the Pilot Light / Safety Channel fixture position and adjust its duration to cover the time range of activity.   Choosing the DMX channel ranges for fixtures Each Hansol Volcano fixture requires one channel plus the Pilot Light / Safety Channel.  The Pilot Light / Safety Channel can be shared by multiple fixtures.  The Hansol Volcano fixture requires the Pilot Light / Safety Channel address to be 100.  You have no choice. 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 range of channels 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.  Some DMX firing systems only support 50 or 100 channels, so you may not have all 512 channels to work with.   Table 3 – Example channel ranges for 511 1CH fixtures with a shared Pilot Light / Safety Channel at channel = 100. Fixture DMX Channel Base Channels Used 1 1 1 2 2 2 3 3 3 4 4 4 5 5 5 6 6 6 7 7 7 8 8 8 9 9 9 ... 99 99 99 safety 100 100 100 101 101 ... 511 512 512     Table 4 – Example files and downloads Download link Explanation Volcano0811-Black-1-1.pdf Hansol Volcano user manual test-hansol-volcano.fin Example script test-hansol-volcano.csv Example export for Cobra firing system

The MARQ Gesture Spot 100 15W LED Moving Head Spotlight fixtures, Standard Fixture ID 052, are available from Amazon (ASIN B01LXUP323).  The capabilities include gobos in addition to the moving head with a color wheel.   Figure 1 – MARQ Gesture Spot 100 15W LED Moving Head Spotlight   The fixtures have 9 channel and 11 channel options, which you can select from the fixture's DMX panel.  Effects in Finale 3D are compatible only with the 11 channel variation, since the 9 channel variation does not include pin/tilt speed.   Table 1 – DMX personality choices DMX personality ("DMX Channel Mode") Supported in Finale 3D 9CH NO 11CH YES   Instructions To design a show for MARQ Gesture Spot 100 15W LED Moving Head Spotlight 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 multiple channels, 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 range of channels 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 11-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 11-channel fixtures in a DMX universe Fixture DMX Channel Base Channels Used 1 1 1-11 2 12 12-22 3 23 23-33 4 34 34-44 5 45 45-55 6 56 56-66 7 67 67-77 8 78 78-88 9 89 89-99 10 100 100-110 ... 46 496 496-506   Technical details The following tables show the technical specifications of the fixtures, as tested by the Finale support team.   Table 3 – DMX channels for 11CH personality DMX Channel Meaning Channel 1 (DMX Channel Base + 0) Pan Channel 2 (DMX Channel Base + 1) Pan fine Channel 3 (DMX Channel Base + 2) Tilt Channel 4 (DMX Channel Base + 3) Tilt fine Channel 5 (DMX Channel Base + 4) Motor speed (0 = max; 255 = min) Channel 6 (DMX Channel Base + 5) Dimmer (0 = OFF; 255 = max) Channel 7 (DMX Channel Base + 6) Shutter/Strobe (see table below) Channel 8 (DMX Channel Base + 7) Color (see table below) Channel 9 (DMX Channel Base + 8) Gobo (see table below) Channel 10 (DMX Channel Base + 9) Set to zero Channel 11 (DMX Channel Base + 10) Set to zero   Moving head effects are implemented by setting the motor speed based on the "from" and "to" trajectory angles and the span of time between the "from" and "to" effects.  The speed channel value is calculated from the inverse of the degrees-per-second-for-speed-channel-value function.  Figure 2 shows the measured degrees per second for various speed channel values between 0 and 255, and the curve chosen to fit those values.   Figure 2 – Motor speeds   Table 4 – Shutter values for strobe DMX Value Shutter/Strobe 0-3 Closed, beam not visible (Finale 3D never uses values in this range; see programmer note below) 4-7 Open, beam visible 8-76 Strobe slow to fast 77-145 Pulse slot to fast 146-215 Random strobe, slow to fast 216-255 Open, beam visible   Table 5 – Color wheel values DMX Value Color 0-6 White 7-13 Red 14-20 Orange 21-27 Green 28-34 Light blue 35-41 Purple 42-48 Yellow 49-55 Blue 56-62 White 63-111 Combinations 112-118 Blue 119-127 White 128-189 Cycle clockwise 190-193 Stop cycle 194-255 Cycle counter-clockwise   Table 6 – Gobo patterns DMX Value Finale 3D Identifier Image 0-7 NoGobo 8-15 Ring 16-23 Dandelion 24-31 BubbleStar 32-39 Shale 40-47 Bubbles 48-55 WaterWheel 56-63 Mica 64-127 Shaking, no gobo 128-255 Other options   Programmer notes The color and gobo mechanisms of these fixtures require careful programming of the DMX Patches.    Programmers who are implementing effect libraries for MARQ Gesture Spot 100 fixtures may benefit from these notes: The fixture's shutter channel requires an initialize/reset fixture effect at the beginning of the show to set the shutter channel to 255, opening the shutter fully.  The "Flash" effects in Finale 3D do not write to the shutter channel; the "With Strobing" effects do. DMX Patches for one-shot "Flash" effects set the color in setup phase because the color wheel needs to move to the correct rotation in advance of the effect to be prepared.  Otherwise the audience sees the color wheel spinning to the correct color at the beginning of the effect.  The setup phase in the MARQ Gesture Spot 100 DMX Patches is a luxurious one second by default, but since it compresses against any previous effect rather than overwriting the previous effect, the luxury has no consequence. Since the fixture requires an initialize fixture effect, its fixtureDef needs to identify it for the error checking and user facing warning messages.   Table 7 – Example files and downloads Download link Explanation Gesture Spot 100 - User Guide - v1.3.pdf MARQ Gesture Spot 100 User Manual

The Chauvet SlimPAR 56 Par fixtures are widely available, easy-to-use, mid-level RGB LED par fixtures. Figure 1 – Chauvet SlimPAR 56 Par   The fixtures have a 3-channel and 7-channel DMX personality.  Finale 3D supports the 7-channel variation.   Table 1 – DMX personality choices DMX personality ("DMX Channel Mode") Supported in Finale 3D 3CH NO 7CH YES   Instructions To design a show for Chauvet SlimPAR 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 multiple channels, 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 range of channels 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 7-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 7-channel fixtures in a DMX universe Fixture DMX Channel Base Channels Used 1 1 1-7 2 8 8-14 3 15 15-21 4 22 22-28 5 29 29-35 6 36 36-42 7 43 43-49 8 50 50-56 9 57 57-63 10 64 64-70 ... 73 505 505-511   Technical details The following tables show the technical specifications of the fixtures, as tested by the Finale support team.   Table 3 – DMX channels for 7CH personality DMX Channel Meaning Channel 1 (DMX Channel Base + 0) Red Channel 2 (DMX Channel Base + 1) Green Channel 3 (DMX Channel Base + 2) Blue Channel 4 (DMX Channel Base + 3) Set to zero Channel 5 (DMX Channel Base + 4) Strobe (0-15 = no strobe; 16-255 = slow to fast) Channel 6 (DMX Channel Base + 5) Set to zero Channel 7 (DMX Channel Base + 6) Dimmer     Table 4 – Example files and downloads Download link Explanation SlimPAR_56_UM_Rev1.pdf Chauvet SlimPAR 56 Par User Manual