Thanks everyone for the advice - I've been traveling, but I'm testing out the recommendations tonight.   I will let everyone know what I find.    

I would like to accomplish inside of the script window to type in a specific pan angle so it would only show the effects on the pan angle.  Its not working for me.  I am trying to highlight a bunch of the same pan angled effects that I have created on one launch position with other angles effects and then create another launch position to drag and drop these same angles on.  That way when I address the show that specific angle will have its own module.

Hi Bryan, the short answer is YES! You can see your available inventory quantities count down as you design by unhiding the 'Remaining Available' column in the effects window. Then, when you're done designing your show, you can go to the Effects menu and select 'Subtract used quantities from available...' to remove the items in your show from the available inventory. Here's a video tutorial: https://www.loom.com/share/d67414abfe5e41e38cf593c6bf132cf1

While I was at CobraCon I talked with a rep at the Finale booth who quickly showed me how I could see how many an item I had available from show to show. For example, I am starting with 72 Dark Salutes in "My Effects". In "$how 1" I use 22 salutes. I am ready to move on to "Show 2". The "Available" column still shows 72 salutes available.  I am looking for a quantity column that shows I have 50 Dark Salutes available for "Show 2". Which Quantity value would do that? It would also be great if the Available quantity counted down as we used effects.   I tried this in "Per Show Effects" too. In the Per Show Effects, you have to enter how many of any one effect you have for that show and then just watch as you add to not exceed that amount. But doing that is like rebuilding your inventory for every show.   Is there an easier way to do this in Hobbyist?   Bryan E Wellington, CO  

There isn't currently any setting for changing the way the ASCII-art looks in the script window or in exported firing system scripts.  I understand what you are saying, and I think having a setting would be a good idea.  Are you referring to reports, or the script window itself, or exported scripts?  If referring to exported scripts, what firing system?   One option is adding an an export option, if the issue is the exported script.   Will

The way it is supposed to work is that you insert two effects -- Move-in-black, and Move-to.  The first effect pans to the right 45 degrees.  The second effect, slightly later on the timeline (e.g., a second later), pans to the left 45 degrees.  Finale animates the beam moving from 45R to 45L.   It is important that we are using the term "pan" to mean the same thing.   In Finale's coordinate system, "Pan" is a right handed rotation around the Y (up) axis.  If the beam is aiming straight up into the sky, then "pan" would not make any perceivable difference because pan would just be rotating the beam around its axis, still aiming straight up in the sky.  Let's assume that what you want is the beam to be aiming 45 degrees to the right in the ground plane (horizontally), and to sweep within the ground plane to 45 degrees to the left.  In the middle of this sweep, the beam would be aiming straight out at viewer.  (By contrast, if you were "tilting" 45R to 45L, then the middle of the sweep would be aiming up into the sky.)   Getting the beam to aim 45R in the ground plane requires both "pan" and "tilt".  Tilt in Finale is the right handed rotation around the X-axis that points to the right from the viewer's point of view.  So tilting the beam 90 degrees aims it straight at the viewer's face, which is where it is supposed to be in the middle of this pan-sweep from right to left.   Using both "pan" and "tilt", the Move-in-black effect that begins the sweep should have:   tilt =  90 pan = 45   The Move-to effect that ends the sweep should have:   tilt = 90 pan = -45   The animation of the beam should look correct in the 3D view, and Finale should export the correct values in the script for the fixture.  Below is an example exported script for Cobra using a TomShine 80W moving head fixture.  The "tilt" value is 28 for the full sweep, because tilt doesn't change.  The "pan" value goes from 21 initially to 149 at the end of the sweep.  This looks correct to me.   #@firmware6,,,,,,,,,, #Trigger Channel,#Trigger Button,#Deadman Button,#Return Channel,#AudioBox Filename,#Script Name,#Disable Firing Button,#Alternate Firing Button,#Alternate 2 Firing Button,#SMPTE Timecode, 0,1,,0,,cobra,,,,, #Event Time,#Channel,#Cue,#Event Description,#Disable Groups,#Fire Time,#AUX Value,#DMX Universe,#DMX Channel,#DMX Value,#DMX Duration 00:00:04.00s,,,TSMHG80W [1200] Move-In-Black // P-01 -- Pan (+0),,,,1,1,21, 00:00:04.00s,,,TSMHG80W [1200] Move-In-Black // P-01 -- Tilt (+1),,,,1,2,28, 00:00:04.00s,,,TSMHG80W [1212] Red Move-To (lg) // P-01 -- Color (+5),,,,1,6,12, 00:00:05.00s,,,TSMHG80W [1212] Red Move-To (lg) // P-01 -- Pan (+0),,,,1,1,149, 00:00:05.00s,,,TSMHG80W [1212] Red Move-To (lg) // P-01 -- Motor Speed (+2),,,,1,3,157, 00:00:05.00s,,,TSMHG80W [1212] Red Move-To (lg) // P-01 -- Dimmer (+3),,,,1,4,255,2.0 END,,,,,,,,,,   If you are getting a different result, then can you create a test show with just two effects (the move-in-black and move-to) to illustrate the problem?  Please send the test show to will@finale3d.com, and I'll answer here on the forums after figuring out the issue.  

The version of Finale that supports drone shows will be available in beta in the first half of June (within about two weeks from now).  We expect it to be in the full release before the end of the month.   The features include the ability to slide the drone show around on the ground to reposition the whole show, but not the ability to manipulate/alter the drone show itself.  We expect users to design drone shows using drone show software, and then import the designed shows into Finale to choreograph hybrid fireworks displays along with them and to create videos of the combined shows.  We are optimizing Finale's features to support a workflow in which users can iteratively edit or modify their drone shows in the drone show software, export, and reimport into Finale to update the drone show portion of a hybrid show being scripted in Finale.   We worked with Verge Aero to come up with an interchange format for drone show software to export that Finale could import.  Verge Aero was in the news recently for winning a Gold Buzzer award on America's Got Talent Extreme.  We actually used that AGT show as a test case for working out the details of the file format.   (For those who are seeing this post as the first mention of drones for Finale, we posted a video to our Instagram account (finale_3d) over the weekend, which teased the upcoming feature.        

Where can I find the update that allows us to import a drone script into Finale 3D?   Also, are we able to  manipulate the drone positions/images? Or is this strictly just for importing pre-scripted flights?

Hi PyroWalker, I'm sorry, I hear your frustration, we'll get this fixed as soon as we can. Unfortunately, it's not a quick task, we estimate we need to allocate a full week of development time troubleshoot and resolve the issue. In the meantime, you can still you MP3s in Finale 3D, not just WAV files. You just need to convert your soundtrack to WAV and then back to MP3. Here's a tutorial that demonstrates the process: https://www.loom.com/share/a3c30e578310494a9176c9564a02db20

Hi PAJ06A and Eric G,   Try loading the script one more time and watch very closely for the first error message. I suspect you will see Error 26 flash once before Error 5 is repeatedly displayed. If so, then the problem is "Audio Box file name too long", and the solution is to shorten your Audio Box filename in the Finale 3D export options dialog before exporting your script. For more error info, check out the COBRA Error Code Reference Guide.   Cobra is a little inconsistent about Audio Box filename length limitations in their documentation. I have worked with Zach on testing this an found that the actual limits are as follows: • v5.0.X - 12 characters including the .mp3 • v5.1.X - 45 characters including the .mp3 • v6.0.X - 31 characters including the .mp3   Additionally, the Audio Box filename is limited to letters, numbers, "-" (hyphen), "_" (underscore), and " " (space). No other characters are permitted.