Howdy,   So I’m working on Tah Dah! The cake is listed with 36 shots. I cannot think of a way to create the tail comet and the crossette to fire as one shot. I can’t tell if this is the challenge of the cake or a typo. Any advice on this one?

OK Thanks Drew.

Hi Pyro_37110000, great question. The primary goal of the contest is to hire designers to help make improvements to the built-in supplier catalogs. We limited the contest to VDL because we plan to make the catalog improvements primarily with VDL. Using VDL allows effects to be created and edited more quickly, and it will allow users who are pulling effects from the catalogs to make basic edits much more quickly in the future. Limiting the contest and catalog improvements to VDL will also force us to continue improving the capabilities of VDL itself.   The undisputable advantage of the effect editor is the ability control almost every simulation parameter of an effect. This makes it possible to create extremely realistic simulations. The downside is that once an effect has been customized in the effect editor, the only way to further edit the effect is in the editor. For example, suppose that you create a 3″ Red Peony. Then, in the future you need to change the prefire time, duration, or height. If the effect is represented by VDL, you can simply enter a new value directly in the Effects window. But, if the effect has been customized in the effect editor, changes made in the Effects window will not change the simulation whatsoever. Bottom line – once a custom effect, always a custom effect, and you have to go back into the effect editor to make any future changes. In this way, custom effects are somewhat harder to edit. Cakes also can’t be edited directly in the effect editor. Yes, you can make individual custom effects, and use those effects to create a cake. But to edit a custom effect used in a cake, first you have to break apart the cake, then edit the individual effects, then put the cake back together. Bottom line, the effect editor is awesome, we just decided it wasn’t the best approach for this project.

  Hi Drew,       Why can’t you use the effects editor?  

  Welcome to the official FAQ and discussion topic for the November 2023 Cake Design Contest. For full contest details, visit finale3d.com/contests/cakecontest2023 Don’t wait to get started, the deadline to submit your contest entry is November 30, 2023. Have a question? Post it here!   November 2023 Cake Contest FAQ:   Do I need a Finale 3D license to enter the contest? To enter the contest, you need to create and submit the full VDL description for 10 cakes simulations. Technically, you can create effects without a license, but it would be more difficult because you cannot save your progress if you close Finale 3D. What version of Finale 3D do I need to enter the contest? Any version of Finale 3D (Lite, Hobbyist or Pro) can be used to enter the contest.

Hi, I want to use the new function for Midi input, but in my system i always have 2 active midi devices. I don’t see any way to choose which one i want to use, and by default it seems to be using the wrong device as i am not getting any input. Is this a function that is coming or is there any way to force it to use the next available device?

Hi Folks!  Has anyone found a solution to provide file locking when two people are in the same job at the same time?  We have had a couple situations where the Designer has the file open, and the build team opens it up to look at what they are building.   Would be really nice to have a locking function on the design file that allows first in to have write ability and everyone else that opens it gets read only.   I just haven’t found a good way to do that other then to make the network folders read only  for everyone but the designer.  But that hoses the idea of keeping all files in a single file tree.    

Hey Josh, thanks for posting. Speaking on behalf of the Finale team and reflecting on conversations we’ve had with other pyros/users – your solution is great. Conceivably, at some point in the future we could add a feature that allocates cues to provide redundancy for chains. Although, in full transparency, this is just me thinking out loud, not something we have in the works or any kind of timeline for developing.  At least for now, having an effect dedicated to adding redundant cues is the way to go.

Have a question for the community!  When I use time chains, I will typically follow a progression where I will fire the first chain, and the on the 2nd chain, I’ll fire the 2nd chain and also fire a redundant match to hit the other side of the first chain to ensure the whole chain fired (redundancy).  I typically create an effect for this to script in just called ‘Redudant Ematch’ so it assigns the cue and pops a match and we know what to do with it.  My question is what everyone else is doing that wants to accomplish this only using the modules cues?  Meaning not bring in additional equipment (like a quicksplit or breakout board) or series wiring because we use quickplug and it is a pain to wire in series without a quicksplit or breakout board and we also prefer not to bring in additional equipment.  I know it takes up more cues on the mods but this is typically for shows that don’t have high cue counts.  Curious to hear others thoughts on the matter or if the Finale team has a better answer to what we have traditionally done. Thank you – Josh

Great question. You’re not missing an option in the effect editor. Flames are currently limited to the standard yellow/orange color.