OK, try this — made in effect editor, you could tweak it from there   {2KLUv/WANAG0EAGJIGxxwtW0DqrzJ1acmJPvfbjughmDgIma/leNR9T9fiIh8DrZks6YpY8DRQ4/ebP5ACZpa+DbVDIglgCPiWgLEJqOW3L7zKRKnwtw3m+/LOGxKjlRLjljTNrmCsCbVfa1jvJvC94RCyhSB80aSaroKAFoML+3YGtrG5h0jUMIFG1kqhPQ09UENqat8AQ==}

I did try the “make into a cake effect” like you did, but that doesn’t really work.

Does this get you part of the way there ?   30mm 20.41s 0.20 PFT 2 Shot Cake (a) 3.0 HTM 20.0 DUR Gold Gerb + (b) 3.0 HTM 20.0 DUR Silver Gerb, 1 Row (ab/STR)

The reason drones remain on the ground after reopening your show turns out to be a technical limitation, not really a bug. When you import a drone show, each drone is added as a position in the Positions window. The movement for each drone is stored in the ‘Motion Data’ column of the Positions window. This column has a data size limit of 10K. The motion data for each of the drones in your show is over 10K. This is what’s causing the movement to be lost when you close and reopen your show.   The reason your drones initially look good when you import the VVIZ file is because the Motion Data field size limitation doesn’t kick in until you save your show as a FIN file. In other words, the VVIZ file is successfully imported, but the motion data is too large to be saved as a FIN file. To work around the limitation, you’ll either need to reduce the size of your VVIZ file, or you’ll need to re-import you VVIZ file each time you open your Finale 3D show file. To learn about how to reduce the size of your VVIZ file, check out Figure 4 and the references to ‘Quality’ in the Importing drone shows documentation.

How did you get on with getting an API I am building my own software to feed to the market that does all our tracking aswell as all our permits shipping etc and an api into finale would work wonders  

I am creating a database of my effects and want to get everything into the database that I can.   The item I want to create is a Gerb that last for 40.00 seconds, starts as a gold gerb and at about the 20.00 second mark, changes to a silver gerb. I think the gerbs are like 30mm and would need a 0.2 pft for sure to get the sparks rolling.   I’ve tried using a single VDL, and I’ve tried creating 2 gerbs, overlapping them, and turning them into a “cake” but that doesn’t seem to work either.

Hi Pyro_1440000, welcome to the Finale 3D forum and thanks for posting. Please send your VVIZ file and Finale 3D show FIN file to support@finale3d.com. We will try to reproduce the issue using the files you send. If we can reproduce the problem, there’s a very good chance we can fix it.

Im working on and integrated drone / pyro  show , the drone component via the viz file imports fine and runs great , but after i save the finale file and come back to it later the drones stay on the ground … seems like the colors are all active but the movement is gone … any one any ideas ?

This is part III of IV. Results of a design seminar on firework architecture at the Bauhaus University Weimar.   I. The design seminar and its results II. the cooperation of ArchiCAD and F3D III. F3D as a tool for the reconstruction of historical fireworks IV. Weehls & volcanoes   In 1923, at the end of the Bauhaus Week, fireworks were set off in the Ilmpark on Sunday, 19 August. As far as is known, these were not high-altitude fireworks, but mechanical sculptures equipped with fireworks. The only surviving evidence of the fireworks are two sketches by Kurt Schmidt (1901-1991). He was a student at the Bauhaus in Weimar from 1920 to 1925 and studied with Oskar Schlemmer and Wassily Kandinsky, among others. The first sketch was published in one of the first Bauhaus books, which appeared on the occasion of the Bauhaus Week: “Staatliches Bauhaus in Weimar 1919-1923” on page 157. The second sketch is a pencil sketch. Both sketches show standing sculptures consisting of several composite forms. The elongated appliqués can be clearly identified as firework effects, but it is not clear from the sketch which effects or colours are involved.   The reconstruction In both sketches, rotating elements reminiscent of firework suns can be seen. In the colour lithograph, there is a red square at the top and a yellow triangle that must have been equipped with drivers and fountains. The red sun rotates around a central axis. The yellow triangle, on the other hand, seems to have rotated around an axis in the upper corner.   With the help of Archicad and Finale3d I recreated this construction and fitted it with fireworks. The graphic does not give any information about the type and colour of the effects. Only guesses can be made here. In this case, I also did not take into account what kind of effects were available at the time. The simulation is therefore an interpretation of how I would set the sculpture today.     The images of historical fireworks are usually difficult to decipher in terms of the sequence and duration of the fireworks, as they are usually not monthly shots and conclusions can rarely be drawn about a sequence. The ephemeral nature of fireworks makes them very difficult to document, especially in still images. Finale3D, however, can easily provide insight into possible sequences and structures of historical fireworks. Much like the remains of dinosaurs, what they actually looked like can only be speculated. But these animations bring the viewer one step closer to historical fireworks. A good example is the design by Kurt Schmidt. In his sketches, the actual moment of the fireworks is not recognisable. The unexpected enlargement of the sculpture and the shapes created by the suns and fountains show the previously invisible appearance of the design.

This is part II of IV. Results of a design seminar on firework architecture at the Bauhaus University Weimar.   I. The Design Seminar and its Results II. the collaboration of ArchiCAD and F3D III. F3D as a tool for the reconstruction of historical fireworks IV. wheels & volcanoes   A good design simulation depends on the easiest possible transfer of the architectural design from a CAD programme, in this case Archicad 26, to the simulation programme. The easier it is to switch back and forth and exchange designs, the better the designer can concentrate on the essentials. Saving objects from Archicad in SketchUp format is just as easy as loading them into F3D. The challenge is to define the positions in Archicad and transfer them to F3D.   The solution is to create a fireworks position object in Archicad. This can be placed in floor plans, sections as well as in 3D. In order to ensure a correct evaluation we have used a generic Finale CSV file as a guideline.   It is important that each position has a unique name. The name is composed of three parts. (Type (P-Position), Group (R1 -Row 1), Number (01) P-R1-01. The definition of a group facilitates the later work in F3D.     The coordinates are measured in metres XYZ from the origin male. The orientation of the position is given in degrees H (Horizontal Rotation) P (Pitch) R (Role).   These values can be set in the Archicad object settings and evaluated in a list. When setting the project position in Archicad, please note. All values must be set to 0.   With the help of Excel, the evaluation from Archicad can be converted into a CSV file that Finale3D can interpret. Now all that remains is to load the CSV file into Finale3D and the model into Finale3D.     Using this method, we were able to quickly populate and check different variants of the fireworks architecture with fireworks in Finale3D. The knowledge gathered in Finale3D could then be quickly transferred to Archicad. While working with Finale3D and the Sketch Up model, we found that important aspects for the fireworks architecture could not be simulated. In particular, the casting of shadows as well as transparent and reflective materials. Both properties we would have liked to check in Finale3D, but could not find a way to simulate this reliably, even a workaround using holes in surfaces to create translucency did not produce satisfactory results. From our point of view, however, these two points are essential in order to use Finale3D as a robust tool for the verification of firework architectures.   We hope that this brief insight into trying to import positions and architecture from a professional CAD programme into Finale 3D has been helpful. We would like to invite everyone to improve this approach and welcome comments.