The PyroJam 2023 design competition is LIVE! This is your chance to see your show design brought to life in front of thousands of people and compete for $5,000 in prizes. New to PyroJam? Don’t wait to get started, the deadline to submit your show is March 4, 2023. Get all the details at finale3d.com/pyrojam. Have a question? Need some help? Post it here!     PyroJam 2023 FAQ:   1) I’m having trouble with the simulations for some of the effects in the PyroJam catalog, what’s wrong? The PyroJam effect simulations were created using the 2022.12.19 beta release of Finale 3D. Please go to ‘File > View account details’ in Finale 3D to make sure you are running this release or newer. If you are running an older release, please close Finale 3D, then download and install the latest BETA release.   2) Which Finale 3D release do I need to download for the competition? You need to download and install the latest BETA release of Finale 3D.   3) What kind of single shot racks are used at PyroJam? The single shot racks used at PyroJam are produced by CraigCo. You can see the racks used last year in the PyroJam behind-the-scenes video.   4) Can 360-degree circle racks for single shots be used at PyroJam? No, circle racks can’t be used in the PyroJam competition because firing positions will be placed on the ground. The only exception is a special selection of single shot effects which can be shot horizontally. For details, see: Firing effects horizontally.   5) What firing system will be used at PyroJam? The StarFire firing system will be used at PyroJam. The system is capable of 1/100th of a second (0.01 second) timing resolution and can fire any number of pins simultaneously. Please keep in mind that you are only responsible for the artistic design. When you submit your show, you do not need to assign firing system modules or pins. If your show is selected to be produced, the firing system addresses will be assigned by the PyroJam organizers. You can see how this was done in 2022 in the PyroJam behind-the-scenes video.   6) Can liquid fuel mines be used in the PyroJam competition? No, liquid fuel mines cannot be used in the PyroJam competition. When designing your show, please only use effects contained in the PyroJam catalog. This effect was used at PyroJam in 2022, but not in the competition shows. If you saw this in a video, it was from the opening or closing shows which are out of competition.   7) Can more firing positions be added to the PyroJam layout? The PyroJam design template includes 53 predefined firing positions. You may use as many or as few firing positions as you like but modifying the layout by adding positions is not permitted.   7) When I import my MP3 soundtrack into Finale 3D, I hear audio artifacts like, static, crackling, popping, or clicking, how can I fix this problem? To resolve this issue, encode or convert your soundtrack to WAV before importing it into Finale 3D. We recommend using Audacity for this process. When creating a WAV in Audacity or other audio editing software, the recommended sample rate is 44.1 kHz with a bit depth of 16-bit. WAV files with other sample rates and bit depths may not work properly in Finale 3D. For more details and a tutorial video, visit the MP3 audio issues forum topic.     P.S. If you’re new to the forum, don’t forget to head over to your My Profile and customize your Display Name and Profile Picture!      

Welcome to the Finale 3D community forum and thanks for posting!   One possibility is that the bitrate of your music is incompatible with Finale 3D. I would be happy to troubleshoot if you can send your show FIN file and your music (MP3 of WAV) file to support@finalefireworks.com. The files are mostly likely too large to send as email attachments, so you can send them for free using WeTransfer.com.

I deleted music  and added a new music to an existing program but now the music volume graph does not show in the design window at the bottom of the screen. How can I get the music graph to show again? Its hard to arrange the effects without seeing when the music starts and stops. I tried quitting and restarting, didn’t help.

Missing column to sort the rows in a script report   to get the total weight per UN Number i have to sort the script window first by UN Number but i cant choose this column for sorting.    

API to MyEffects   wish to have an API to manipulate with MyEffects Database to connect them with my InHouse Inventory Management System. I know that there is Finale Inventory as a possible soulution. But we also working with a rentals and have a specific cloud solution which fits much better to our special needs. From this case a swop to Finale Inventory makes really no sense. Of course i have my workaround to get my stock amounts into finale3d but it everytime i import and export something with manual commands it feels as i where in the year 2001… 🙂 An API to interact with “MyEffects” would be really a great thing for what i would pay a price on top.

Bravo! 👏👏 Happy New Year!

With this show I wish everyone a happy 2023  https://youtu.be/bWrzHR0vJLk

That’s great to hear! Thanks for posting your findings on driver compatibility, that will be very helpful if any other users encounter the problem.                   Will, Dustin Leary

Thanks for posting! Here are the current reports/labels resources from the Finale 3D Help Center:   Documentation articles: https://finale3d.com/software-documentation/toc/#reports Video tutorials: https://finale3d.com/video-gallery/reports-labels-and-diagrams   To be fair, the current set of articles and videos is by no means all-inclusive, but it’s a great starting point. If you’re stuck on something specific, don’t hesitate to post the details here so I can give you more tailored instructions.   As a starting point, it’s worth mentioning that the report and label customization features are only available in Finale 3D Pro. It is possible to make a few tweaks in Hobbyist, but nothing compared to the functionality of Pro. You mentioned a few things that make me think you’re trying to edit blueprints directly. For the most part, we don’t have documentation on the syntax for the raw blueprint data because it’s really not meant to be human-readable or edited. You also mentioned the need to create sums. At the moment, you get sums or totals by combining rows on reports. For example, a product list report combines all rows of script that have the same part number in order to provide the total quantity needed of each item. Combining rows is currently the only way to display a sum, in the future it will be possible to have a separate line on a report for totals or subtotals.     Here’s an overview of creating/customizing reports in Finale 3D Pro:   Part 1 – Select a window In Finale 3D Pro, custom reports are created using the window that contains the data you want in your report. For example, if you want a report that includes information like event times and firing system addresses, then you would create the report in the Script window, because this is the window containing the data. Similarly, if you wanted a report that lists rack quantities, you would create the report in the Racks window. Most reports come from the Script or Racks windows, although there are times when you may need a report from other windows, such as the Effects window or Positions window. As a general rule, always make reports from the Script and Racks windows, unless another window is the only place that has what you need. For example, if you want to create a product list for a show, always use the script window unless you need a specific column on the report that is only available in the Effects window.   Part 2 – Format the column layout Once you’ve identified which window has the data you want on your report, the next step is to create the column layout. This is accomplished using the blue gear menu to hide or unhide columns, move columns left or right, and adjust the relative column widths. Think of the window you’re working in as a kind of report preview. Your final PDF report will have the same columns, column order, and relative column widths that you see in the window. For example, if you’re making a report using the Script window and the Event Time column is visible, then the Event Time column will appear on your report. If you don’t want Event Time, hide it using the blue gear menu.   Part 3 – Configure and save After configuring the column layout, go to the blue gear and find the menu item titled, ‘Save current table layout to report template’. Then, either select ‘New report template’ or select an existing report. Selecting an existing report is handy because it allows you to use that report as a starting point. Regardless of which option you choose, the Report Configuration dialog will be opened. This is where all report customizations are made (except for the column layout). Here you will find 6 sections that allow you to customize the sort order, combine of rows, add page breaks, add subtitles, set page formatting and add conditional formatting. When you open the dialog, some of these sections will be out of view. Use the scroll wheel on your mouse or the scroll function on your touchpad to scroll down in the dialog. To become familiar with the configuration options, experiment and also look at the configurations for existing reports. When you’re done editing, click Enter in the dialog to save. To generate your report, go to ‘File > Reports’. To make changes go back to the blue gear in the appropriate window and find ‘Edit report template’. You can also ‘Select table layout from report template’ in the blue gear menu to display the column layout for any existing report. This is very handy when you want to tweak the column layout of an existing report or use the column layout of an existing report as the starting point for a new report.

Hi Drew, yes, problem solved 🙂 I have an incompatibility with the last two nvidia updates. I indicate you in the picture my graphic card and the two most current versions of the “Nvidia Studio” drivers that the preview of the Finale3d effects does not work. I don’t know if it helps you. I will try when nvidia releases a new update to see if there are no problems.   Thank you very much for answering and helping me. Best regards.