Hi,   i always tell my customers that for only a planning they should not spend so muchh time creating exact effects or implement all effects that they have. Just implement the effect tha you need in a basic way. the reason is simply – a lot of effects that are on your list will never be used again and it takes a lot of time to create them. And you should start simple because you save time and after a while you will get better and better and it will than be much easier and faster for you to tune your existing effects. Thats being said – the effect cannot be done wit vdl, you must use the effect editor. Here is a video that show you how to do that :   https://www.loom.com/share/c9148ea4c20b4e408dfe61bab17b164a   The gerat thing about the new editor is also that you can copy the resulting visual description frem the top effect node and past it over to a new generated efefct. So you can send the text instead of a fin file to a friend.  Here is the description:   (effect 1.7pft (shot 30mm (launch shell 30mm 29.5m (star (phase rising 7.5mm 1.7s (trail fuse 7.5mm (spark fuse gold 1mm)) (smoke trail 7.5mm (smoke puff 7.5mm))) (break 30mm 1.7pft 26.3m (star (phase 3mm 0.6s (tip green 3mm) (smoke trail 3mm (smoke puff 3mm)))) (sound burst 30mm)) (break 76.2mm 1.76pft {starCount 1} (star (phase rising 30mm 0.2s {durationKappa 0} (tip red 30mm) (trail slightly thick 30mm (spark silver 1mm)) (smoke trail 30mm (smoke puff 30mm)))))) (sound mortar 30mm)) (launch ground mortar flame 30mm 2m (star (phase mortar flame 30mm 0.05s (flame trail mortar flame 30mm 2m (flame puff mortar flame 1mm)) (smoke trail mortar flame 30mm 3m (smoke puff mortar flame 30mm)) (trail charcoal mortar flame 30mm 3m (spark charcoal mortar flame 0.3mm))))) (launch ground mortar spark 30mm 4m (star (phase mortar spark 30mm 0.05s (trail charcoal mortar spark 30mm (spark charcoal mortar spark 0.1mm)))))))   Just put it in a clipboard, create a new simple effect , open the effect editor and paste it over to the top effect node and you are done ! Dirk    

I would love to see support for the 3Dconnexion SpaceMouse in Finale3d; you can find development resources for adding support on the Software Developer Program homepage (https://3dconnexion.com/us/software-developer-program/).   I am a full-stack developer and would be happy to lend assistance towards this goal on my own given the opportunity, so by all means please reach out to me if you might be interested in some free labor.   Homepage: https://3dconnexion.com/us/ List of Supported Applications: https://3dconnexion.com/us/software/ Software Developer Program: https://3dconnexion.com/us/software-developer-program/ Developers Forum (Windows): https://forum.3dconnexion.com/viewforum.php?f=19

Can anyone help me with creating this cake?   I am struggling to get the single comet effect in the peony break. Thanks!

Do you have a video of the cake?

Many thanks Derik and Drew! Problem solved. Another question, I have tried my best but cannot seem to create a cake which has different effects / colours on each row. For example I would like – 100 shot cake fan 10 rows, 40 seconds. Row 1 – blue, crackle mine up to red brocade row 2 – blue, crackle mine up to red glitter and blue star row 3 – blue, crackle mine up to green glitter purple star row 4 – blue, crackle mine up to white glitter red star row 5.- blue, crackle mine up to red brocade row 6 – blue, crackle mine up to red glitter and blue star row 7 – blue, crackle mine up to green glitter purple star row 8 – blue, crackle mine up to white glitter red star row 9 – blue, crackle mine up to red palm and silver chrysanthemum row 10 – blue, crackle mine up to crackling palm   I have tried making single rows and combining as a cake but can’t seem to get that right.   Thanks in advance.  

Great answer, Dirk Enders – PyroOffice!   If you have the Pro version of Finale 3D, you can also customize your reports and labels from the blue gear menu in the Script window. For example, you could take a report that combines script rows that have the same address and change it to only combine the script rows that have the same address and description. This way, if a chain contains different effects, they will be listed as separate rows on the report. You can do the same thing with labels. There is also a checkbox in the Report and Label configuration dialogs that specifically combines chains into a single row on a report or single label. By unchecking this box, you can get a separate row on a report or separate label for each shell on a chain.

Hi,   in the script window you can tell the program to show all lines of of chain or even one line. You can reach the settin with the blue gear menue in the script window   Also , you find a report that is named chain labels (File -> Lables ->…) or a chain specification report (File -> Reports)   Hope that helps Dirk

Thank you very much!

Hi Drew,   If I create a chain of shells which has, say 2 or 3 different effect shells in it. How do I display all this info on the labels or in the script? The script will currently only show the description of the first shell, the labels also. Is it possible to some how show more info?   Many thanks

If the effect “Type” = “Flame”, you can edit the duration to be 2s and every instance of the effect in the show will be 2s.   If the effect “Type” = “SFX”, the duration of the effect will be adjustable, and each instance of the effect can have a unique duration.   Here’s a video example: