I want to preface this post with the fact that I'm super new to Finale 3d(lite), as I barely used it at Cobra-Con a couple months ago. I want to use it as much as I can for my pyromusical on the 4th, but I'm running into some problems with the cakes I have. I believe the biggest problem I have is the graphics card (or lack thereof), on my PC not being up to snuff. I've ordered a new one to replace the current one in hopes that rectifies things as much as possible. Anyway, as far as the cakes go:   I purchased several cakes from Spirit of 76 and I can't seem to find them in the network inventory. The first and biggest one I could use is Rush Hour, it's a 3-minute long cake and the youtube link is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvFlycGGXpc&list=PL_F3NMJ1O4htQ0HoksV0gppdsbCO4-J8j&index=8.   I also noticed that Party On, which seems to be more of a zipper cake is not reflected thusly in the preview. This could relate to my graphics card issue, not sure. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hIsbmi6sb0&list=PL_F3NMJ1O4htQ0HoksV0gppdsbCO4-J8j&index=9   These are just a couple I've noticed so far. Please let me know if I'm entirely off base or I need my head examined. I look forward to interacting with all of you and furthering my understanding of the hobby.   Thank you in advance.        

Hello all,   My name is Andy and I'm a backyard pyro. I was introduced to Finale 3d at Cobra-Con and am excited to learn how to apply the lite version to my backyard 4th show. I'm looking at doing a pyromusical for the first time and using the software to the best of my ability.

Will   This looks amazing cant wait to try it out! Thank you so much for your hard work on this.

Some good news on this front -- the new features for defining your own DMX fixtures and effects are coming out in a new release tomorrow.  The DMX menu now has menu items, "Create DMX effect..." and "Edit DMX effect", which enable you to define the visual appearance of the effect using VDL and define the corresponding DMX channel values for the fixture.  Here's a picture of the bottom of the dialog, as a teaser:  

Thanks Drew. I enabled the Ricasa catalog. However, I found an error in one of their effects. That is part number 044020294 44 MM WHITE W/RED TIP MOTORS MINE. The effects flies to 80m but should fly to 40m. What would be the best process to report this to Ricasa? Also, if you have any tips on how to do a quick fix for this effect, that would be greatly appreciated. I tried to study the effect parameters but could not find a cause for the wrong height.

Will,   I know we spoke about a new feature in Finale in which we would be able to set custom DMX values and then place that into the show on the timeline. Any update on when this would make its way into an alpha or beta release of the software?

Glad you figured it out. On a perhaps related note, Finale 3D will export soundtracks as mp3 in the future.

Hi PyroDad, for this kind of effect, VDL (typing descriptive words) isn't the best option. To get a good sim, a better approach is to use the effect editor. The steps would be to create a basic effect, add it to your collection, then right click on it and select 'Customize this effect simulation's parameters...'. This opens the effect editor which allows essentially infinite customization and a degree of control that's just not possible using VDL terms.   Alternatively, you don't need to create a sim at all, because Ricasa already has a supplier catalog in Finale 3D with over 20,000 effects. You can add the catalog to your account by going to File > Catalogs of effects...

After trying something i may have figured it out lol

so i got myself a first gen pyrosure firing system and im having some issues with getting the music to play after I export it from finale3d because instead of exporting as an mp3 it exports it as a wav and if I copy and paste the music file directly to the usb from out of finale 3d it plays but is not in sync where it should be. any help would be nice