Move-To effects for moving head DMX fixtures animate the PAN and TILT angles of the moving head, interpolating from the dotted line trajectory angle of the previous effect to the dotted line trajectory angle of the Move-To effect.  The animation will be smooth if the interpolation involves changing PAN or TILT, but in general the animation will not be smooth if the interpolation involves both PAN and TILT moving simultaneously.  Move-To effects that would animate both PAN and TILT are usually errors. The function, "DMX > Detect and fix PAN problems with Move-To effects" identifies these likely errors, and automatically fixes a class of minor errors that occur frequently while designing.  The function displays the dialog shown in Figure 1, indicating the number of minor, fixable errors, and the number of other errors that you would have to fix manually.   Figure 1 – The function can fix minor problems automatically; it highlights other problems so you can fix them manually.   Figure 2 shows the script that yields the dialog of Figure 1.  The yellow rows represent the problems, of which one is a minor, fixable problem, and the other six require manual fixes.  In this example, you can see that all the yellow rows have different PAN and TILT values from rows above them.  Those are the seven likely errors that the dialog refers to.   Figure 2 – Look at the PAN and TILT of consecutive rows.  If a Move-To event has a different PAN and TILT from the previous row, it is probably an error.   The part numbers in this script contain "MT" if they are Move-To events.  They contain "MIB" if they are Move-In-Black events.  By quick inspection, you can confirm that the yellow rows are  Move-To events that would animate the PAN and TILT angles.   Minor, fixable errors Row #8 is the only yellow row that has a blank (zero) TILT value.  That is what makes it a minor, fixable error instead of an error that requires manual fixing.  TILT of zero is special because when tilt is zero, the head is aiming straight up.  When the head is aiming straight up, you can't tell the difference between PAN values by looking at the beam (ignoring the inconsequential exception of beams with gobos).  The PAN values just spin the beam on its axis. Since the PAN value can be anything when the TILT is zero, problems like row #8 can be fixed by simply changing the PAN value to match the PAN value of the previous row or next row.  That's exactly what this function does if you choose to fix the minor problems.   Problems that require manual fixes The other yellow rows animating both the PAN and TILT angles cannot be fixed so easily.  Consider row #2, for example.  It is a Move-To that changes both PAN and TILT from the row above it, row #1.  Since TILT of row #1 and row #2 are both non-zero, neither PAN can be changed without changing the appearance of the beams.  For problems like this, the function doesn't attempt a fix since there is no way for it to know what you want.   If the problem is indeed an error, then you should change one of the PAN or TILT values to eliminate the error, or introduce an additional Move-To in between the two rows as an intermediate "knee" that divides that animation into two steps, one that animates the PAN and the other that animates the TILT.    

DMX effects are generally not designed to overlap.  Adding a "Red Par Light" effect and a "Blue Par Light" effect over a simultaneous time range might result in purple light for LED fixtures, but that's not a guarantee.  The effect libraries are generally designed with the expectation that if you want a purple light, you'd add a "Purple Par Light" effect -- no overlapping required. There are two main exceptions: 1) modifier effects like "With Strobing" or "With Safety Channel", and 2) multi-head fixtures for which a per-head effect like "Head 2 Standard Flame" sometimes can apply in parallel with other per-head effects like "Head 3 Standard Flame", depending on the fixture. The function "DMX > Detect and fix overlapping effects" helps identify and fix overlapping effects that shouldn't overlap.  It is an important function, because improperly overlapping effects might appear one way in the simulation and another way in real life.  The function is available in the menu item of Figure 1.   Figure 1 – It is a good idea to use this function for DMX shows to ensure the simulation represents what you will see in real life.   If you choose "Fix" in the dialog of "DMX > Detect and fix overlapping effects" shown in Figure 2, the function will truncate DMX effects that overlap later effects on the same fixture by shortening the durations of the earlier effects to make them line up back to back with the later effects.  DMX effects of type "sfx" and "light" have adjustable duration, so shortening their durations is not a problem.  DMX effects of type "flame" have non-adjustable durations, though, so in order to change their durations, the function also needs to change their type to "sfx". Changing the type to "sfx" is nothing to be afraid of.  Flame effects could have type "flame" or "sfx" without much difference.   The list of differences is in: Why is ‘Type’ so important? What depends on it?.  The reason flames generally have type "flame" is that designers tend to think about flame effects as having a specific duration, similar to pyro, in contrast with DMX light flashes whose durations are more fluid.  The non-adjustable durations of type "flame" enforce that expectation and avoid the possibility of ending up with a "Long Flame" effect whose duration is actually short.   Figure 2 – The function may need to change the type of "flame" effects to "sfx" in order to adjust their duration.   Exemptions As mentioned above, modifier effects like "With Safety Channel" effects, and multi-head fixture effects may legitimately overlap.  They are exempted from this function.  The specific list of exemptions is: Effect ID is 0000 (safety channel) or 1201 (initialize fixture). Effect description contains the subphrase "AFETY" or "afety". The fixture definition contains the attribute "supportsOverlappingEvents", with value = TRUE.  This field corresponds to the checkbox "Fixture has multiple heads" on the "Create DMX effect..." dialog. Effect VDL is blank. Effect VDL contains the subphrase "odifier". Aside from these exemptions, the function will detect and fix all overlapping DMX effects.