Feature 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 timeline   An 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 timeline Note: 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)

Greetings, I am Kirk and I just moved to Las Vegas few months back from Philadelphia. I specialize in Close Prox and Special FX. We have a full service event production company and FX division. Stay safe and if anyone is in the Vegas area lets connect.

Welcome to the Finale 3D forum!   As you discovered, Finale 3D currently has a hard limit of 120 seconds for cakes.   As a workaround, you'll need to make the cake in two parts and then put them back-to-back on the timeline. In order to have the cake parts treated as a single effect for addressing purposes, you can select both parts of the cake on the timeline and go to Script > Chains > Combine as chain. This fuses cake parts together and ensures that only one rail and pin will be assigned when you address your show.

So, I am trying to make a cake that is 138s long.   When creating, the program won't go past 120s.    How do I overcome this?

Hi Ultimate Fireworks, check out this tutorial from the Finale 3D Master Class series by Dirk Enders in Germany:   https://youtu.be/M5Oq98I5Xs8

The arced cursor is used when dragging effect trajectories in the simulation portion of the design window. I'm not sure what could cause this cursor to be displayed in the timeline. Try restarting Finale 3D and see if that resolves the issue.

I'm eager to hear if you had success by following the instructions in my previous post. Hope to hear from you soon.

Hey EhrlichFire, over the last few months, I've been doing video recordings with the hosts of the Pyro Unleashed Podcast. You can find all the episodes that have aired in the Finale 3D Fundamentals – Pyro Unleashed Podcast Series playlist in our Help Center.   In a few weeks, an episode on racking and addressing will go live. I'm really excited about this episode. It's fairly in-depth, covers many aspects of racking and addressing, and includes good tips, tricks and best practices along the way. Keep your eye out for it and once it comes out let me know what you think!

All right. Tkanks for answer Drew. î’ll try that.

My cursor has gone from an arrow to a curved arc in the timeline.  Not sure what I have done and it's 930PM and I have some more scripting to do tonight.  No way to reach Drew.  Who can tell me why it's doing this?  What have I enabled?