Thanks…just thinking out loud here…it would be nice if each entry into My Effects had an immutable ID/index field that was used on the back end to allow part changes like this without having to to bulk replacements in existing shows.  Probably more difficult than I’m expecting but … 🙂     Thanks   J

Yes, it’s as simple as Ctrl+A (Select all), Ctrl+C (Copy), paste in Excel, do cleanup. When you’re to bring everything back, delete everything in My Effects, copy/paste from Excel, and ‘Sync with network’ to save.   You’re instinct to be concerned about in-progress shows is totally justified. The script events are linked to the effect definitions in the ‘Per-show effects’ collection. Updating My Effects won’t “break” shows. However, if you want the shows to reflect the new part numbers, you’ll need to replace items that have obsolete part numbers with the equivalent new items. By contrast, if you were to change part numbers directly in ‘Per-show effects’, this would break the links to the script events (not good).

I need to do a huge cleanup of part numbers/description in ‘My Effects’ to align with a much more usable schema.  Is it as simple as export the entire contents of ‘My Effects’ as XLSX, make all the edits (Part Number, Description, etc.), delete everything from ‘My Effects’ in Finale and copy/paste in everything from the XSLX?  Want to make sure I’m not missing something here. And I’d assume it’s best to do this with no actual shows open.  I’m a bit paranoid so probably overthinking this….   Additional question just popped into my head that is a bit scary…if part numbers change is this going to break shows already partially created with the old numbers ?

Not that it’s difficult to convert inches to mm, but having the option in the Physical Specifications for racks to change to imperial measurements would be nice as well as a rack weight field (useful for verifying total equipment load on a trailer/barge/floating dock)

Thanks

Hello Pyro_86840000,   If your show has an asterisk after the title within Finale 3D (like the screenshot shown), it’s because the show has changes that haven’t been saved yet. The asterisk is an indicator of unsaved changes in the file. Is this what you mean or are you referring to an asterisk somewhere else?  

what does the asterisk at the end of my show title mean?  Only appears on one of my saved shows.

Hey Kristine Ernzen, cake timing is specified in a couple different places within the VDL. The total duration for the cake, such as “20s”, will appear near the beginning of the full VDL. Additionally, for cakes that have timing changes (i.e. faster and slower portions), the timing is defined later in the VDL for each row of the cake. For a deep dive on cake VDL descriptions, check out the Cake descriptions documentation article in the Help Center.   Depending on the complexity of the firing pattern for your cake, you may be able to adjust the duration and timing for each row by editing the VDL. If that doesn’t seem practical, you can break apart the cake, adjust the timing, then recombine the cake. Here are the steps:   1) Select the line for the cake in the effects window 2) Go to the Effects menu and select Break apart cake > From item in effects window (this opens a new show with the cakes shots on the timeline) 3) Adjust the timing of the shots on the timeline as needed. For example, you could select all the shots and do ‘Script (menu) > Time adjustments > Stretch duration‘ to lengthen or shorten the cake 4) Put the cake back together by selecting all the shots, then going to Effects > Combine as cake effect

I would like a “Totals” row in the script and effects window tables and include those in the print/export table views. I can get the info via the “Count” number in the design window, but I’d like to also include data in the printed/exported blueprints.

Good evening! I’m not sure if this is the right thread to ask this question but…..  I’ve created some effects in Finale that I am now trying to “edit” such as change the timing.  The original “cake” that I created was longer than what it needed to be so I’m attempting to change the timing from 90s to 36s but so far I have been unsuccessful.  I go into the VDL and change the seconds but when I save the changes nothing has actually changed.   Do I just need to create a whole new cake with the new timing?   Thanks!!