Finale Inventory (finaleinventory.com) is a top-ranked inventory management system used by e-commerce companies, fireworks display, retail, wholesale, and manufacturing companies, and other businesses ranging from "Mom and Pop" size businesses with a few orders per month to some of the largest companies in the world, with over a million transactions per month. While today Finale Inventory is used by all kinds of companies, it was originally developed specifically for fireworks display companies, so from its very early stages it has always had specialized inventory management features that fireworks companies need, like ATF-compliant "Daily Summary of Magazine Transactions" (DSMT reports), management of packed shows, and user interface design options that are suited for fireworks companies that may have dozens or even hundreds of items in their sales orders. Finale Inventory is a separate software service from Finale 3D, but they are seamlessly integrated with each other to facilitate designing shows with real-time access to your inventory quantities on hand, or available, optionally taking into consideration reservations or unreceived orders.  You can create sale orders in Finale Inventory and then design shows in Finale 3D filtered to the exact items in the sale order.  You can design a show in Finale 3D and update a Finale Inventory sale order based on the items you've used in your show design.  Or you can go back and forth. The integration with Finale Inventory also enables you to share your Finale Inventory inventory list with other employees or contractors through their own Finale 3D licenses; and you can control permissions like hiding prices or enabling/preventing making changes. You can find out about Finale Inventory from finaleinventory.com, but when you buy a license for it you'll want to buy one of the "Pyro" service plans that has the Finale 3D integration.  The available plans and their prices are described in Table 1.   Table 1 – Finale Inventory prices and features Finale Inventory Plan Price Users Storage Containers / Magazines Barcode Scanner Support Software Integrations Pyro Basic $99/month 2 users 2 No Finale 3D Pyro Small $199/month 4 users 10 No Finale 3D Pyro Medium $349/month 6 users 20 Yes, up to 2 barcode scanners Finale 3D, and up to 4 others (Quickbooks, Shipping, POS, etc.) Pyro Large $449/month 8 users 30 Yes, up to 4 barcode scanners Finale 3D, and up to 8 others (Quickbooks, Shipping, POS, etc.) Pyro Custom $649/month 12 users (more available at additional cost) Unlimited Yes, up to 8 barcode scanners Finale 3D, and unlimited others (Quickbooks, Shipping, POS, etc.), and API Access for your own custom integrations   Table 2 – Files Download link Explanation letter_of_determination.pdf Letter of Determination from ATF

The effect window in Finale 3D and the effect palette in the upper right of the design view are the two ways of viewing your effects.  Both the window and the palette show one specific "Collection" of effects at a time, which you can select from the blue selector of the effect window or from a link at the bottom of the effect palette.  The collections are, "Generic effects", "Per-show effects", "My effects", plus any effect databases that you've created as local files, plus any Finale Inventory accounts that you are connected to (see Account setup) . The Generic effects are the 6,000 or so default effects included with the application as a starting point.  They are read-only effects.  The Per-show effects is the collection of effects that is saved with the current show being edited.  When you insert an effect into a show from any collection, the effect definition is copied into the Per-show effects so that the show is self-contained, without any references to external effects lists.  The My effects is your personal effects collection, saved in the cloud. Figure 1 – The effect window shows one collection of effects at a time.   To create new effects, use the menu item "Effects > Create new effect..." which brings up the dialog shown in Figure 2.  In this dialog enter a full description of the effect into the Input description field, and then look at the green fields below, which show how Finale 3D interprets your input description.  Your input description should always include the caliber/size of the effect.  Depending on the how much detail you want to provide, you can also provide the duration, height, and prefire, as well as timing and firing pattern information for cakes.  Instructions for typing in the input description are given in the "VDL" section, "finale3d.com > Documentation > VDL documentation".  VDL, which stands for "Visual Description Language", is the pyrotechnics language in which you can define arbitrary effects.   Notably, the input description in this dialog is not a search box.  The software will actually construct a new simulation based your description as a recipe.  Try typing something complicated like "50mm red to blue to green chrysanthemum with strobing pink pistil with gold tail" to see how your description is interpreted! Figure 2 – Enter a full description, including caliber, into the input description field   The easiest way to edit effects is to right click on them in the effect window, and then to select "Edit this effect simulation or rack..." in the context menu, as shown in Figure 3.   Figure 3 – Right click on an effect row and select "Edit this effect simulation or rack..." to edit effects.   The rows in the effect window are effect definitions themselves, comprising about 30 attributes that are shown in the columns.  Most of the columns are hidden by default to make the information manageable.  From the blue gear menu in the upper right of the effects window, select "Hide or unhide columns" to look at the available columns, and unhide any that you are interested in.   Figure 4 – From the blue gear menu in the upper right, select "Edit this effect simulation or rack..." to edit effects.   There are a few special columns in the effect window that are not attributes -- "Line Number", "Icon", "Used", "Quota", "On Hand", and "Available".  The Icon is automatically generated based on the other column values.  The Used, Quota, and other quantity columns are described in Inventory management basic instructions.  All the rest of the columns are the attributes that define the effect itself.   Their meanings are defined in Effects table columns. To import effects from a CSV file (see Importing inventory) , you simply need to have the columns in your CSV file that you want to import, and one row per effect.  The only required column is "Part Number" because the part number is the identifier for each effect.  Depending on your language setting ("File > Languages"), the column names may not be in English.  When you import, your CSV file column headers should match what you see in the effect window in your selected language -- or, to create a language independent CSV file, you can use the Finale 3D internal column names in your CSV file (column 2 in Table 1, below), which will always work no matter what language you have selected.

If you have a manual firing system, or a do-it-yourself firing system, or some other firing system that is not directly supported by Finale 3D, you can still use Finale 3D to design and export a script for your firing system by creating custom module specifications.  In fact, even if your firing system is directly supported by Finale 3D, you may find it useful to create custom module specifications in order to add virtual slats or reserve some pins for other uses (common examples are limiting a module to use only 30 pins of 32 or 15 of 16).  The menu item, "Addressing > Addressing settings > Set custom module specification..." is the first step. The custom module specification dialog shown in the figure below enables you to define the format of the firing system addresses, including, Are the addresses two part addresses (module + pin) or three part addresses (module + slat + pin)? If addresses have three parts, how many slats per module? How many pins per slat or module? Are addresses numeric, or letters? If numeric, do addresses start with 1 or 0? If numeric, are addresses in decimal (normal) or hexadecimal (Pyrodigital-like)? You can specify the answers to all of these question by filling in the "Rail Address Template" field of the custom module specification dialog.   Figure 1 – The rail address template in the custom module specification dialog defines the format of addresses.   The rail address template is a two-part or three part formula, with the parts separated by dashes.  There are no spaces in the formula.  If the formula has two parts, the address format will contain a module number and pin number, no slat.  If the formula has three parts, then addresses include a slat. Each part of the rail address template can be a number or a letter.  If the slat or pin part is a number, it indicates the maximum number of slats-per-module, or pins-per-slat-or-module.  There's no maximum number of modules, so the number for the module part doesn't matter, except that it does set the minimum number of digits of the formatted number (example: 999 or 111 or any 3-digit number = 3 digits, 9 or 1 or any one digit number = 1 digit). If the part is a letter, the letter indicates the maximum number according to what letter in the alphabet is used, e.g., the letter "D" for the slat part means four slats, A, B, C, and D.  If the template part is a number, then it optionally can be preceded by a pound sign (#), which indicates that the counting sequence begins with 1 instead of 0.  Also, if the template part is a number, then it optionally can be preceded by a dollar sign ($), after the pound sign if the pound sign exists, to indicate the number is in hexadecimal, for Pyrodigital-like firing system addresses as in #$FF-$F for modules beginning with 01, going up to FF, each module having pins 0-F. Looking at the example rail address template in Figure 1, the custom module specifications indicate, 3-digit module numbers, starting with module 1 Four slats per module, A, B, C, and D 12 pins per slat, starting with 1. Based on this specification, the "Rail" column in the script window will contain two part addresses identifying both the module and slat, as shown in Figure 2.  The "Pin" column always contains a single number or letter, in this case a number from 1 to 12. Figure 2 – The Rail column in the script has the module number, or the module number AND slat number if the addresses include slats.   The top field in the custom module specifications dialog shown in Figure 1 indicates the firing system for which this custom module is being defined.  If you are creating module specifications for a firing system that is not directly supported by Finale 3D, then please select "CSV" for the firing system.   That will produce scripts as CSV text files that you can open in Excel or a text editor to format with the exact fields and syntax that your firing system requires.  If the firing system is directly supported by Finale 3D, then please select it in this field. When you assign firing system addresses using the menu item, "Addressing > Address show..." or any of the other addressing menu items, you select the firing system and module type in the addressing dialog, as shown in Figure 3.  Please select "Custom Module" for the module type to use the custom module specifications that you defined in the "Addressing > Addressing settings..." dialog.   Figure 3 – Specify the firing system and Custom Module in the addressing dialog.   For some firing systems, the module type specifies a time unit, such as 30 fps versus 25 fps or 29.97 SMPTE DF.  If you have selected this kind of firing system, then the "Time Unit" field of the custom module specifications dialog in Figure 1 provides options for you to select the time unit for your custom specifications; otherwise just use the "Firing system default", which is the default value. Returning to the uses mentioned in the introduction, if your firing system is not directly supported by Finale 3D, then it's obvious why you are creating custom module specifications -- you need to!  But if your firing system is directly supported by Finale 3D, then you are probably considering custom module specifications for a specific purpose.  The most common special purpose is simply creating specifications with fewer pins than actually exist to make modules match up better with racks or label sheets or simply to leave some extra pins for the operator's own purposes.  But one other special purpose deserves attention for its advanced uses -- virtual slats.   Virtual slats Even if a firing system does not include slats in its address format, it is often possible for people to divide the number of pins on the module into different slats.  For example, if a FireOne module has 32 pins, you may have the hardware to divide those 32 pins into four slats of 8 pins each.  Doing so may allow you to pre-wire or pre-attach the slats to rack configurations prior to setting up the show, or may allow you to use a single module to serve multiple launch positions at different locations in an orderly manner, with one slat at each location instead of e-matches stretching between the positions. Finale 3D has phenomenal addressing features to support these uses of slats (please see Slats, virtual slats, and splitter boxes), but in order to take advantage of the the addressing features you need to use address formats that include slats.  So what are you to do if your firing system's address format doesn't include slats? The answer is to create a custom module specification with "Virtual Slats" that partition the module's total number of pins into some number of slats.  In the FireOne example of 32 pins, you can create virtual slats of 8-pins each by specifying the rail address template, #999-D-#8.  If you use this custom module specification instead of the standard module, then your addresses will appear in the script window and on reports and labels including a slat field -- A, B, C, or D -- for each module; and each slat will have 8 pins, 1 through 8.  However, when the FireOne script file is exported in its FIR format, the addresses will automatically be converted back to pins 1-32 per module, without any mention of slats.  In this manner, you can use virtual slats to convert your firing system from a module-pin based address format to a module-slat-pin based address format.  

Before you launch into complex topics like importing your inventory or defining racks, let's get started by putting together a little show.  We'll layout some launch positions, add a few effects, do some scripting functions like fans and sequences, and make a quick video so you have something to show for it.  This short exercise will prepare you for addressing and exporting a script for your firing system in the next step (see Creating and exporting a script for your firing system).  Our getting acquainted plan boils down to: Layout positions Insert effects Create a fan and a sequence Create a video   Layout positions After launching the product, click the padlock icon in the lower right to unlock the positions, as shown in Figure 1.  Try dragging the positions around on the grass.  The circular blue buttons at the bottom of the simulation view are the navigation buttons: to orbit the scene around to see it from different angles; to translate the scene in the ground plane, and to drag a selection rectangle for selecting positions or effects.   Figure 1 – The padlock unlocks the positions.   The camera icons on the right side of the screen are camera view shortcut buttons to view the scene from different views, like above, front, etc.  If you click the green plus sign, that will create a new shortcut button for the current view.  You can then click on the new button's name to rename it to something you can remember.  It is common to set up a dozen or so of these camera shortcut buttons to view the scene quickly from useful angles when scripting. The flower-like buttons on the left are position group shortcut buttons.  Clicking these buttons selects a group of positions.  When scripting, it is common to insert effects into a group of selected positions all at once, like the "front" positions, or "shells", or "left-side", "every-other", etc., so it is useful to create position group shortcut buttons for the common groups.  Just like the camera view shortcut buttons on the right, you can click on the names of these buttons and give them useful names or delete them. Once you feel comfortable moving positions around, you can try the functions in the Positions menu.  Try inserting 50 positions and arranging them into a circle!  If you feel adventuresome, add a model of a stadium or tower to the scene from the Scenery menu, and then try moving the positions around on the model.  Notice that the positions automatically attach to the surface of the model and slide to whatever you are pointing to.  If you need to move the model, right click on it, and unlock the model from the context menu; then lock it again when you are done moving it. The positions have arrows on the top of them, which should point to your point of reference.  Usually the point of reference is the audience, but it may be the center of the circle for a circle of positions, or other point for other situations.  Right click on a position and select "Rotate (heading)" from the context menu.  Notice as shown in Figure 2 that you can now rotate the position by dragging the red arrow.  If you extend the red arrow to be long, then you can drag in individual degrees; if you make the red arrow short, the rotation snaps to 5 or 22.5 degree intervals.  If you select multiple positions, and then right click one of them to rotate, the full set of selected positions will rotate around the position you clicked on.   Figure 2 – Rotation widget snaps to 1 or 5 or 22.5 degrees.   You'll find there are other useful functions in the Positions menu and the context menu from right clicking on positions or on the ground, such as "Aim positions at this point".   Insert effects Insert effects by clicking on the icons in the Effects window.  If you click and release on the icon, the effect will be inserted into the currently selected positions, at the current timeline time as indicated by the playhead on the timeline (the split white vertical lines on the timeline).  If you click and hold down on the effect icon and drag-and-drop it to the timeline or to a position, that will insert the effect at that indicated point on the timeline or just the indicated position.  After inserting some effects, move the playhead to the left of them on the timeline or press the rewind button in the lower left of the design view, and then press the play button in the lower left of the design view or press the space bar to start the show playing.  Take a look at your effects! The Effects window contains multiple collections of effects which you can switch between using the blue collections selector near the upper right corner of the Effects window. The set of available effect collections includes Generic effects, Per-show effects, My effects, and (optionally) supplier catalogs and Finale Inventory accounts.  Generic effects is the built-in collection of effects so that you have something to get started with.  Per-show effects are the effects that are used in the current show and saved along with the show file.  Whenever you insert an effect into the show from any collection, the effect definition is copied into Per-show effects so the show doesn't have any external references.  This way, you can send your show file to a friend, and you don't have to worry about your friend needing the same effect collections that you have; the show file is stand-alone. My effects is your own private collection of effects that is stored in the cloud.  Supplier catalogs and Finale Inventory accounts are shared collections, which you can learn about here: Account setup.  You can also import and load/save collections of effects as database files (.fdb format) stored locally on your computer. You can create new effects simply by typing in an English description into the dialog from the menu item "Effects > Create effect...".   The software will create a simulation automatically based on your description, which is pretty amazing to see.  It doesn't understand proper names of consumer cakes, but it does understand the full language of pyrotechnics (called "VDL"), so you can type things like: "50mm Red To Blue Chrys w/ Crackle Core w/ Green Mine" or "49 Shot 10s 50mm Red Comet + Blue Tail Z-Shape Cake" and you'll get good simulations!  To learn more about creating simulations, check out the Visual Descriptive Language (VDL) documentation.  When you create a new effect, you can give it a part number to identify it and you can choose what collection to put it in.  By default, it usually goes into My effects. After adding effects to My effects, be sure to save you work by going to "File > Sync with network" Choreographers of pyromusicals often listen to the soundtrack and insert empty cues at important points in the music while the music is playing. You can do that in Finale 3D by pressing space or the play button to start the show playing, and then pressing the "i" key for insert.  If you prefer using the space bar to insert empty cues you can swap the "i" and space bar in the "File > User settings" menu.  Of course, you need a soundtrack to listen to, so go to the Music menu and add an MP3 or WAV to the timeline.   Create a fan and a sequence Once you've inserted some effects in the show, you can drag them on the timeline to move them forward or backward in time.  You can also select them in the script window or in the design view.  In the design view you can click on the trajectories to drag them from position to position, or you can click on the doughnut at the top of the trajectories to angle them.  If multiple effects are selected when you angle them, you will tilt all of them together.  Try inserting 50 positions, then arrange them into a circle, insert a comet into all of them (clicking on an effect icon when all 50 positions are selected), and then drag the doughnut at the top of one of the trajectories while they all are selected, as shown in Figure 3.  Angling the effects when viewing from different points of view will angle them on different axes.   Figure 3 – Grab the doughnut at the top of the trajectory to angle effects.   Having angled all the comets in the circle, try playing it through once by pressing the space bar.   Impressive, but wouldn't this be an ideal point to create a sequence?  Select all 50 comets on the timeline, and do the menu item "Script > Sequences > Make into sequence...".   Choose the duration for the full sequence or the interval, press OK, and look at the chase around the circle!  Try experimenting with the other sequence functions  in the Script menu, such as accelerating sequences or slow-in, slow-out sequences.  In general, all the scripting commands in Finale 3D apply to the currently selected set of effects, analogous to the way the "Positions > Arrange into pattern" commands apply to the selected set of positions. It should not be surprising, then, that the "Make into fan..." command in the "Script > Angles" menu also operates on the selected set of effects.  The circle isn't a great setting for a fan, so try inserting 10 new positions ("Positions > Add> Multiple positions...") and arranging them into a line ("Positions > Arrange into pattern > Into a line...").  To differentiate these positions from the circle positions, right-click on one of the new line positions while all of the line positions are selected, and select "Rename" from the context menu and rename them "Line".  Notice how all the selected positions get renamed, with numbers added automatically.  At this point you may want to click on the padlock in the lower right in order to drag the line of positions to avoid interfering with the circle.  Then click on the padlock again to lock the positions. The line is a good starting point for creating a single fan, and some fancy patterns involving multiple fans.  To begin with, insert a comet into all 10 positions of the line by selecting the positions and clicking a comet effect icon.  At this moment, all 10 comets are at the same time on the timeline, and aim straight up.  Leaving them selected, do the menu item, "Script > Angles > Make into fan...".  Choose 90 degrees or some other angle spread, click OK, and admire your fan in Figure 4.   Figure 4 – "Script > Angles > Make into fan..." operates on all selected effects.   Now let's get fancier and create some patterns involving multiple fans.  Press Ctrl+Z to undo your fan, returning to the 10 straight-up comets.  The undo and redo commands are also available from the Edit menu.  You can undo all the way back to the beginning of your session and redo all the way back.  The undo/redo functionality is important for visual scripting, because it enables you to try things out, see how they look, and repeat with variations until you get the design you want.   So, with the 10 straight-up comets selected, do the menu item, "Script > Duplicate > Duplicate into flights..." and choose 5 shots per flight, separated by 30 degree intervals.  Since this scripting command operates on all 10 selected effects, each of the 10 selected effects gets duplicated into a fanned out flight of 5, for a total of 50 comets, as shown in Figure 5.   Figure 5 – "Duplicate into flights..." duplicates every selected event into a fanned flight!   Leaving all these 50 comets selected, once again do the command, "Script > Sequences > Make into sequence..." but this time select "Center to outside" as the pattern, and select 0.5 seconds interval, and check the "grouping" checkbox.   With the grouping flag on, the sequence will apply to the natural groups of the effects instead of to the effects individually.  In this scenario, each flight on each position is a natural group, so with the grouping flag on, the sequence operation sequences the entire flights relative to each other, leaving the the shots within each flight as a same-time fan.  The result is shown in Figure 6.  To cement your understanding of the "grouping" checkbox, press Ctrl+Z to undo and repeat the operation without checking the checkbox, and notice the difference.   Figure 6 – The Grouping checkbox preserves each flight, sequencing them relative to each other.   This pretty pattern of 50 comets in cascading flights of five may be nice to repeat a few times in the show.  Using Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V to copy/paste selected effects is a quick way to build up a show in sections.  When you press Ctrl+C, whatever is selected is copied into the copy buffer, including positions and effects.  When you press Ctrl+V, what gets pasted depends on what's in the copy buffer and what is currently selected.  If you copy effects across multiple positions, and then paste, the copied effects will be duplicated at the current timeline position indicated by the playhead, on the same positions as the effects were copied from.  If you copy one or more effects from a single position, and then paste, the copied effects will be duplicated on every selected position.  So, for example, if you select the entire 50 comet pattern on the timeline (try this now!), and then move the playhead to a later point on the timeline, and then paste, you get a clone of the entire 50 comet pattern at the later time.  However if you copy just one of the flights of 5 comets from a single position, and then paste with, say, two of the positions selected, then the flight of 5 comets will be duplicated at each of the two selected positions.   Create a video The set of scripting functions described in the last sections -- effect icons that insert at the selected positions, menu items that operate on the selected items, the undo/redo hot keys, and the copy/paste hot keys are the foundation of scripting in Finale 3D.  These user interface paradigms work together to create a visual scripting environment in which you design a show interactively until every detail looks exactly the way you want. The exercises in the previous sections leave you with a little show, of some sort.  To create a video of the show, just go to "File > Create photo or video > Create video..." and modify the start/end times in the dialog to cover the time range you'd like to see, as shown in Figure 7.  If you are using the Hobbyist version of Finale 3D, the resolution limit is 720p.  If you are using the Pro version, maybe start with 1080p, though later you could experiment with 4K resolution or ultra-high frame rate for ultra-high quality.  The video will just take a few minutes to render per minute of show time.  It renders locally on your computer, using your GPU.  It is saved as an MP4.  When the video is done rendering, it will appear in your computer's video player.   Figure 7 – Creating a video just takes a few minutes, using your own computer's GPU.   If you want to explore making videos, try adding some reflective water from the Scenery menu, and read Camera animation for instructions to put the camera on a motion path to make an impressive fly-by!

The Pro and Hobbyist and Trial versions of Finale 3D are all the same download. When you login to the application with your login email, the features that are available to you depend on the licenses that you've bought or that your company has bought and assigned to your login email from the "finale3d.com > My Account > Assign Licenses to Other People" page. You can verify what licenses you have from the "finale3d.com > My Account > Machine Activations" page, which is also the page you go to if you need to transfer your license to another machine.   Download page The "finale3d.com > Download" page includes links to all recent versions of the software. The top download link is the most current, and is the version we recommend downloading. Download the software to your hard drive and install to the default location. Sometimes when you launch the installer, the installer dialog appears behind other windows, leaving you to wonder what is going on. If you launch the installer and nothing seems to happen, hide other windows to see if the installer dialog is hidden underneath. If you are installing an update, make sure to exit the application first, before attempting to reinstall.   Virus protection programs Anti-virus programs sometimes flag downloads as suspicious or dangerous even when they are not. Occasionally, some anti-virus programs flag the Finale 3D download as suspicious and prevent the download or execution. If this problem occurs for you, please check the download with some other virus protection services to determine if the problem is a false positive or is a legitimate issue. The free website, www.virustotal.com will check a file or URL against 30 or so virus services to test if any of them recognizes a threat. To use this service, download the Finale 3D installer onto your hard drive, then go to www.virustotal.com and choose the "File" option and select the Finale 3D installer file. In just a minute or two, you will see a summary of the findings from the anti-virus services. If any of the findings indicate a threat, please contact service@finalefireworks.com to report the issue.

To create and export a script for the ActionBase firing system, please follow these steps: Address the show ("Addressing > Address show"). Export the script ("File > Export > Export firing scripts"). Step 2 creates the script file, which is a standard format CSV file with a "CSV" extension.  The file format details are described in this section.   Figure 1 – ActionBase firing system   Table 1 – File format and encoding File format Extension Text encoding Field delimiter End-of-line Text .TXT Code Page 1252 Tab CRLF The script contains rows for the firing events, i.e., unique combinations of module, pin, and ignition-time.  Multiple effects can be combined on a single cue.  The special characteristics of the script are shown in the following table:   Table 2 – Special characteristics Special characteristics Description Sort order of rows Rows sorted ascending by event time, then by module number, then by pin number. What rows represent Each row represents a unique firing event, a module/pin/event-time combination.  For example, a chain of five shells will be one row, not five.  A pair of shells shot together from the same position will be one row, not two, even if the shells are different effects.  A flight of shells shot together from multiple positions with the same module-pin using scab wire is still one row. Header The file does not contain a header. Time resolution The ActionBase system supports hundredth of a second resolution. Special characters The TXT file allows all Code Page 1252 characters except control characters like linefeed and tab, which are filtered out.  There is no escaping or quoting facility. Each row in the script has a number of fields separated by the tab character.  The names of the fields and their descriptions are the following: Table 3 – Specifications of script fields Field name Description Event Time Time of ignition in the format H:MM:SS.DD. Module Number Module number, starting with 1. Pin Number Pin number, starting with 1. Size Size. Description Description.  If the row represents multiple effects, the description begins with the number of effects in parentheses, continues with the first effect name, and ends with elipsis (...) as an indication the row represents more than is being displayed in this single field. An example script containing six (11) shells across nine (9) firing rows is shown in Figure 1 and included for download in Table 4.  In this script, the last two rows each represent two effects ignited from the same pin. 0:00:02.76 1 1 2" Green Chrysanthemum 0:00:02.86 2 1 2" Green Chrysanthemum 0:00:02.96 3 1 2" Green Chrysanthemum 0:00:03.06 4 1 2" Green Chrysanthemum 0:00:03.16 5 1 2" Green Chrysanthemum 0:00:03.26 6 1 2" Green Chrysanthemum 0:00:03.36 7 1 2" Green Chrysanthemum 0:00:03.46 8 1 2" (2) Green Chrysanthemum ... 0:00:03.56 9 1 2" (2) Green Chrysanthemum ... Figure 1 – Example ActionBase script   Table 4 – Example files Download link Explanation test_actionbase.fin Example show file test_actionbase.txt Example exported file (TXT)

In the past, scripting software including our own Finale Business required that you download your script to the Pyrodigital controller using the software application itself.  That was at times inconvenient for people when they needed to download a script from a computer that didn't have the software program installed on it or didn't have a software license.  Finale 3D attempts to solve this problem by splitting the download process into two steps: 1) export the file to be downloaded, and 2) download the file. The two steps can occur at different times, by different people, on different computers.  A show designer can make a last minute change to a script, export the file, and email it to the show operator on site to download from his own PC using the free Pyrodigital downloader (available in Table 5 at the bottom of this page) or a terminal program that doesn't require a software license.  The file to download to the controller is a simple text file, with the file extension PDM. This section provides basic instructions to create a PDM file, and for those who are interested this section also provides the technical specifications of the file format.  To create and export a script to a Pyrodigital controller, please follow these steps: Choose module type. (Show > Set show information...). After you select Pyrodigital as the "Fining System" in Finale 3D, you have the option of selecting the "Module Type". The default module type option is a 16-pin module starting with module number 01. Other options are provided if you prefer to only use 15 pins on each module or if you prefer to use 00 as your first module number. You can select any of the module types for the full show in "Show > Set show information..." or in "Addressing > Address show...", or you can choose different module types per-position by right clicking positions and selecting "Edit position properties". Address show. ("Addressing > Address show...").  Finale 3D provides a variety of addressing methods, including all-at-once, or blueprints, or fill-down.  The easiest method is the function, "Addressing > Address show..." which asks the order of assignment and presents some other options and then addresses the show all at one.  For explanation of the other options, see Addressing basic instructions. Export script. ("File > Export > Export firing system script...").  Having addressed the show, use the export function to create a PDM file to transfer to your Pyrodigital controller.  The export function is separate from the download function in Finale 3D to allow you export and download at different times, or by different people.  For example, a show designer can export the PDM file and give the file to an operator to load onto the controller at a later time. Upon export, you will be provided with a set of export options. The options include your firing system controller version, script type, and time base. There are also options to "Disable FC-3 macro zipper fix feature" and "Disable collapse individual cue macro prefire feature". For more information on these options, see Table 2 below. Download to controller ("File > Download > Download firing system script file to Pyrodigital...").  Having created the PDM file and saved it on your computer, you can download the PDM file to your Pyrodigital controller at any time using Finale 3D. Or, you can download the PDM file using the free Pyrodigital downloader program, shown in Figure 1 below and available for download in Table 5 at the bottom of this page. The PDM file is just a text file, so if you don't have access to Finale 3D or the Pyrodigital downloader, any terminal program that can transfer files with a standard serial protocol will suffice. Figure 1 – Pyrodigital PDM Downloader (developed and supported by Pyrodigital)   Step 3 creates the PDM file.   Although this file is just a text file, the format of the file is not at all easy for a human to read.  To give you the ability to look over the actual file contents before downloading to the controller, if you feel so inclined, Finale 3D provides the function "File > Tools > Open firing system script as generic table..." to view the contents of the PDM file in a table window.  You can select all in the table window (control-A), then copy (control-C), then paste into an Excel file if you prefer viewing it in Excel.  This function doesn't provide editing capabilities, but it does enable you to see exactly what the file contains.  If you really just want to do a quick check to make sure the file is valid, and don't want to look over its rows, you can do the function, "File > Tools > Verify PDM file...", which verifies the file is in the proper format and shows a quick summary of its contents. Figure 2 – Pyrodigital FC-A controller   Table 1 – PDM file format and encoding File format Extension Text encoding Field delimiter End-of-line Text file .PDM ASCII None Carriage return  + linefeed (0x0D0A) The PDM script is a text file that you can inspect and edit in a text editor, but it is in a format that is difficult to read.  The format consists of a list of rows, followed by a file checksum.  Each row is a list of fields formatted as hexadecimal, with a "start of message" indicator at the beginning of the row and a checksum and end-of-line (CR LF) sequence at the end.  The fields are all fixed width numbers of characters, with no delimiter in between them.  There are 11 fields in the row comprising 28 characters, making the output look like this: N30000000005001E0010000100CB As you can see, these rows are a little difficult to read.  The function "File > Tools > Open firing system script as generic table..." splits out the fields and converts them from hexadecimal to decimal format to make them more readable (except leaving the address field in hexadecimal). Figure 3 – The PDM file shown in a table window.   You will notice even in the table window, there aren't any notes or effect names.  No angles, or any of the other properties of the script as you see it in the scripting software.  That's because those extra properties are not downloaded to the Pyrodigital controller.  The only fields that are ever downloaded to the Pyrodigital controller are the fields in the PDM file, as shown in Figure 3. If you are familiar with the field names at the top of Figure 3, and if you have no need for the technical specifications of this file format, then you can stop reading at this juncture.  If you have a need for an example file, the downloads are at the bottom of the section.   Table 2 – Special characteristics of the PDM file Special characteristics Description Time representation Effect times are represented in a frame based time format (HH, MM, SS, FF).  Event times (the times of the ignitions) are  the effect time minus the prefire time.  The prefire time is represented in tenths of a second.  Frame based time formats include 30fps, 29.97fps SMPTE DF, 29.97fps SMPTE NDF, 25fps, and 24fps.  The PDM file does not contain a specification of its own frame based time format within the file, so it is impossible to interpret the time representation without knowing, a priori, what the time format is. The FC-3 and FC-A are significantly different in their handling of timecode. If driven by SMPTE timecode, the FC-3 controller will play the script at the rate of time progression of the SMPTE.  The rate of time progression is the rate at which the HH, MM, and SS fields progress, in comparison to the rate at which hours, minutes, and seconds progress in the real world, which is called "wall clock" time. SMPTE time progression is identical to "wall clock" time for 24 fps, 25 fps, and 30 fps; and is a very close approximation of wall clock time for 29.97 fps DF (no more than 6 ms slower or 66 ms faster); and is significantly slower than wall clock time for SMPTE 29.97 fps NDF (slower by 1.2 seconds for every 20 minutes).  Thus if your FC-3 controller will be driven by SMPTE 29.97 fps NDF timecode, it is important that the effect times in the script file are in the SMPTE 29.97 fps NDF time base.  The Time Base setting, described below, presents this option for the FC-3.  As an alternative to the Time Base option, Finale 3D also offers options to adjust the times in the exported firing system script, as described here: SMPTE 29.97 NDF (non-drop frame). The FC-A controller treats all scripts as 30 fps.  Thus it is incorrect to play back a 25 fps script on the FC-A controller.  It will play in rough synchronization with wall clock time, but unevenly, since the 25 fps frames in any second of the script will all be triggered in the first 25/30ths fraction of a second, leaving the remaining 5/30ths of every second with no triggered events because there were none with matching frame numbers in the script.  The FC-A has an option to adjust the speed of script playback to compensate for the slower-than-wall-clock time of SMPTE 29.97 fps NDF timecode (see FC-A tutorial).  Finale 3D's option to adjust times in the exported script (SMPTE 29.97 NDF (non-drop frame) is also available for the FC-A. Manual script (macro fire) The manual script mode provides for stepping through a show in short sections or individual cues instead of playing the entire script all at once or synchronized to timecode. Finale 3D will export a standard script or a manual script based on your choice in the Export Options dialog. The two script formats are different -- standard script rows contain effect times and prefires that the controller subtracts from the effect times to determine the ignition times; manual script rows contain effect times that merely identify groups of rows that are part of the same "Macro" (short section or individual cue), and prefires that represent the offsets of those rows' ignition times relative to the time at which the Macro is triggered, beginning with zero and in chronological order. In Finale 3D, please use the "Track" field of the script rows to identify groups of rows that are part of the same Macro. The Track field can be any integer value from 0 to 9999, or it can be blank.  If the Track field is an integer, then all such events with the same integer will be be triggered as part of the same Macro, with ignition time offsets relative to the earliest ignition time in the Macro. Rows that have a blank Track field will automatically be grouped into "Individual Cue Macros".  An Individual Cue Macro consists of all the rows (one or more) having the same effect time, which is displayed as a cue flag on the timeline in Finale 3D.   So informally speaking, an Individual Cue Macro is a "cue" on the timeline.   Although the rows in an Individual Cue Macro all have the same effect time, it is possible that they have different ignition times in the show on account of having different prefires.  However, since designers usually want the events in an Individual Cue Macro to fire immediately when the button is pressed on the controller regardless of any differences in prefires, Finale 3D will automatically collapse all the prefires in an Individual Cue Macro to zero, essentially re-aligning the events in the Individual Cue Macro with the earliest ignition time. If you want to preserve the ignition time offsets within an Individual Cue Macro, you can simply give the events an integer Track number to make them a regular Macro instead of an Individual Cue Macro.  If you want to preserve the ignition time offsets in Individual Cue Macros pervasively in the show, please check the "Disable collapse individual macro prefires" checkbox in the export options dialog. The exported PDM script does not actually contain the track numbers. Pyrodigital controllers use the effect time field to identify the rows that are part of the same Macro. The kind of Macros that originate in Finale 3D from having the same track numbers, and the kind of Macros that originate in Finale 3D from having a blank track field and being at the same effect time are both represented the same way in the exported PDM script -- as rows that have the same effect time. Since the Track field is essentially optional, you can create manual scripts conveniently in Finale 3D by leaving the Track field blank for those Macros that are just Individual Cue Macros, and filling in the Track field for sequences of effects not all shot at the same time. The Track field numbers themselves are immaterial and do not need to be in order; they are simply identifiers to group the effects. Caliber group firing The caliber group firing mode provides the ability to compartmentalize portions of a manually fired show. By specifying caliber groups within a script, you can isolate each group by selecting the corresponding caliber group button on the Pyrodigital controller. Doing so allows you to fire items from the selected caliber group and prevents all other items in the show from being fired inadvertently. This feature provides added flexibility, safety, and is common practice for live entertainment such as concerts and sporting events. In Finale 3D, please use the "Hazard" field of the script rows to identify rows that are part of the same caliber group. Zipper fire "fix" for macros Older Pyrodigital controllers including the FC-3 have a hardware limitation that Macros cannot begin with multiple rows having prefire = 0 if the Macros contains any rows with prefire  > 0.  In other words, either all the rows in the Macro must have prefire = 0 (so called "zipper" fire in Pyrodigital terminology) or only one one row in the Macro can have prefire = 0.  Finale 3D works around this limitation by inserting a "Dummy Cue" at the beginning of any Macro that would otherwise not work. The dummy cue has a module and pin address of 000 and a prefire of zero. The remaining rows in the Macro will have their prefires increased by 0.1 seconds. Thus a Macro previously beginning with two or more shots at the same time will now begin with a single dummy cue shot, followed by the original two or more shots a tenth of a second later. The downside of dummy cues is that they assume the module and pin address 000 does nothing; and they introduce a 1/10th second delay in the Macro response to being triggered. Optionally, you can disable this "fix" in Finale 3D from the "Export Options" dialog when exporting (check the "Disable the FC-3 macro zipper fix" checkbox).  Please see the "Zipper fire 'fix' for macros" section below. Sort order of rows Rows sorted ascending by effect time. What rows represent Each firing row represents the electrification of a pin at the row's event time, calculated from the effect time and prefire time. Checksum function The file contains checksums for each row and at the end of the file. The checksum function is defined by this procedure: Start with variable SUM = 0. Loop over the ASCII characters of the data being checksummed, in pairs. Read each pair of characters as a hexadecimal number ("00" - "FF"), producing an integer in the range 0-255. Add the integer to SUM. Return 255 - ( SUM & 255 ). End-of-file checksum (six characters) The file concludes with a file checksum in the format: "N9" + the first two characters of the LINE field as it would have been calculated for this line (see LINE definition below) + two character checksum of the first two characters of this line. Download protocol If you are using a terminal program to download the PDM program to the controller, or if you are writing a program to do it, use these settings: COM port = whatever port connects to the controller. Data rate = 9600 baud. Hardware control flow = CTS control flow. Parity = none. Bits per byte = 8. Stop bits = 1. When you export a firing script for Pyrodigital, Finale 3D presents an "Export Options" dialog with the choices shown in Table 3.   Table 3 – Export options Option name Description Version Choose version matching your controller, FC-A or FC-3. Script Type Choose Standard Script or Manual Script. Time Base This option only applies to the FC-3.  It does not apply to the FC-A and not enabled for FC-A scripts.  For the FC-3, choose 24 fps, 25 fps, 29.97 fps DF, 29.97 fps NDF, or 30 fps.  This option defines the correct rate of time progression of the HHMMSSFF data in the script rows. and the correct frame counting mechanics (DF versus NDF).  Finale 3D converts the effect times measured in wall clock time to HHMMSSFF fields in the exported PDM file based on the chosen Time Base.  The FC-3 can skip ignitions if the Time Base is different from the SMPTE timecode format, so it is of particularly high importance for FC-3 scripts that the Time Base matches the timecode exactly. Finale 3D provides tools to inspect the exact values of the HHMMSSFF fields in the exported PDM file and verify they match your expectations for your show: 1) Set the "Show > Show settings > Effect time format" to your desired frame rate; 2) Choose the matching Time Base when you export your PDM file; 3) Use the function "File > Tools > Open firing system script as generic table" to open the PDM file into a table; 4) examine the HHMMSSFF columns in the table to confirm the effect times match what you see on the timeline and in the Effect Time column of the script table. Disable FC-3 macro zipper fix Optionally, you can disable the macro zipper fix for FC-3 controllers with this checkbox. Disable collapse individual cue macro prefires Optionally disable the collapse macro prefires feature, as described in the "Manual script" section of Table 2.   The script rows consist of the 11 fields described in Table 4.  All fields except the SOM field at the beginning are formatted as hexadecimal numbers with two or four digits.  The total number of ASCII characters per row is 28.   Table 4 – Specifications of script fields Field name Description SOM (two characters) A "Start of message" delimiter consisting of the two characters "N3". LINE (hexadecimal int,  formatted with four digits) A counting number that begins with "0000" and increments sequentially with each row.  The maximum value is "270F" (9999 decimal). HH (hexadecimal int, formatted with two digits) The hours component of the effect time.  For standard scripts, the effect time minus the prefire time determines the ignition time.  For manual fire scripts, the effect time merely identifies rows that are part of the same macro. MM (hexadecimal int, formatted with two digits) The minutes component of the effect time. SS (hexadecimal int, formatted with two digits) The seconds component of the effect time. FF (hexadecimal int, formatted with two digits) The frames component of the effect time, starting with zero.  The maximum value is "17" or "18" or "1D" (decimal 23, 24, or 29) depending on the time format of the file (see Time representation, in Table 1). PREFIRE (hexadecimal int, formatted with two digits) For standard scripts, this field is the prefire time in tenths of a second.  For manual fire scripts, this field is the offset of the row's ignition time from time at which the macro is triggered, in tenths of a second.  Sequences of rows that are part of the same macro in manual fire scripts must have non-decreasing prefire times. ADDR (hexadecimal int,  formatted with four digits) The module number * 16 plus the pin number.  The module number is limited to 127; the pin number is limited to 15.  Thus the first digit of the ADDR field is always zero, and the maximum value is "07FF". SHOT (hexadecimal int,  formatted with four digits) A counting number that begins with "0001" and increments sequentially with each new effect time.  The maximum value is "270F" (9999 decimal). CGHZ (hexadecimal int, formatted with two digits) The lockout / hazard class.  The minimum (and default value) is "00"; the maximum value is "10" (16 decimal). CHECKSUM (hexadecimal int, formatted with two digits) A checksum value for the characters in the row beginning with LINE and ending with CGHZ (24 characters in total).  See the definition of the checksum function in Table 2. An example script is shown below as Figure 4.  This is the same script as shown in the table of Figure 3, and included in the downloads in Table 5. N30000000005001E0010000100CB N30001000005001E0020000100BA N30002000005001E0030000100A9 N30003000005001E004000010098 N30004000005001E005000010087 N30005000005001E006000010076 N30006000005001E007000010362 N3000700000C071E0011000204B0 N300080000110B1E0012000304A4 N300090000110B1E0013000304A2 N3000A00001D1A16001400040090 N3000B00002C1A1600150005007E N900FF Figure 4 – Example PDM file   Zipper fire "fix" for macros As described above, Finale 3D works around the macro limitation in early Pyrodigital controllers including the FC-3 by introducing a dummy cue at the beginning of any macro that begins with two or more shots at the same time and also contains other shots at a later time.  The circumstances requiring this workaround are not hard to construct.  Imagine a center-to-outside chase of simultaneous mine/shell combinations across nine positions, with the center position (call it position 5) triggering first, followed by the pair of positions immediately before and after (position 4 and 6) together, followed by positions 3 and 7 together, then 2 and 8 together, and finally 1 and 9 together.  Except for the center position shots, all the other shots of this sequence are in pairs of positions.  If you want to shoot this sequence with a manual fire script, advancing the cues step-by-step, you will run into the circumstance requiring the zipper fire fix. Figure 5 shows the PDM file generated from this example.  There are nine positions, each with a pair of shots (one mine and one shell) at the same effect time, 18 shots total.  The center position yields a macro with one shot at prefire = 0 and a second shot at prefire = the lift time of the shell.  The other positions, firing in pairs, yield four more macros, each beginning with two shots at prefire = 0, and two shots at prefire = the lift time of the shells. Without the zipper fire fix these macros will not fire correctly on FC-3 controllers.  The zipper fire fix adds four dummy cues to correct the problem, which you can see circled in Figure 5.    Notice that the dummy cues have prefire = 0, and they are each followed by the pair of shots that would otherwise have begun the macro with zipper fire.  The fixed script file contains 22 rows total, comprising the original 18 shots and 4 dummy cues. Figure 5 – "Dummy cues" fixing macros that would otherwise begin with zipper fire   To avoid any confusion about dummy cues, Finale 3D displays a warning during the export operation whenever it detects a macro requiring the dummy cue fix.  If you see the warning shown in Figure 6, that means dummy cues were added to make the script fire correctly. Figure 6 – Finale 3D displays a warning whenever "dummy cues" are required.   Table 5 – Example files & tools Download link Explanation test_pyrodigital.fin Example show file addressed for Pyrodigital test_pyrodigital.pdm Example exported PDM file Pyrodigital-Downloader.exe Pyrodigital downloader application  

The addressing dialog and the addressing blueprints enable you to specify the sort order in which addresses are assigned.   The most common sort criterion is sorting alphabetically by Position Name.   Although people think of sort criteria as applying globally across the whole show, the addressing functions divide the positions into addressing groups of positions that can share modules (see Addressing groups), and the sort criteria apply within each addressing group. If the addressing dialog or blueprints include the constraint restricting modules to a single position, then each position is its own addressing group, and the addressing functions will sort them exactly as you specify.  But if the positions don't include the module constraint, then addressing groups contain all the positions that have the same addressing blueprint, section, and a few other properties (see Addressing groups).  The blueprints and sections then affect the way the positions are sorted for addresses.   Example Consider a set of six positions, A, B, C, D, E, F, addressed without the constraint restricting modules to a single position.  Positions A, C, and D are sharing modules in one addressing group (say they have Section = "field"); the other three positions are sharing modules in a different addressing group (say they have Section = "path", causing them to be a different group).  Because the sections are different, there is no sharing of modules between A, C, D and B, E, F. If you address the whole show sorting by Position Name, you may be surprised to see the addresses assigned to positions in the order A, C, D, B, E, F.  The reason is, the addressing function assigns addresses for the first group containing positions A, C, D in order; and then it assigns addresses for the second group containing positions B, E, F in order. If the sort criteria apply within each addressing group, what sort criteria apply between addressing groups?  In the example above the addressing function assigns addresses for the A, C, D group as the first group, but how did it decide that was the first group? Addressing groups are sorted relative to each other based on the "sort factor" of each group.  Depending on the sort criteria from the addressing dialog or applicable blueprint, each group's sort factor is either the alphabetically first Position Name in the group, or the alphabetically first Custom Position Field in the group, with the Position Name as the tie breaker.  In the example above, the sort factor for group A, C, D is "A"; the sort factor for group B, E, F is "B"; so group A, C, D is first. If the sort criteria from the addressing dialog or blueprint do not explicitly begin with Position Name or Custom Position Field, the sort factor is Position Name by default.  If different addressing groups have different sort factors based on different sort criteria (Position Name versus Custom Position Field), then the comparison between the groups is undefined but deterministic.  If multiple addressing groups have the same non-blank Start Module, then as a special case the addressing algorithm adjusts the sort order to make those specific addressing groups consecutive.   What to do Having different blueprints or sections does not affect the sort order of positions unless the constraint restricting modules to a single position is absent.  If you have removed that constraint to permit module sharing, then you may encounter sorting scenarios like the example above in which positions are sorted as specified locally in each addressing group but not globally across all addressing groups. If that result is unsatisfactory, one approach to getting the desired sort order is to subdivide the addressing groups with more specific section names to the degree necessary for the combination of local sorts within addressing groups to be the same as the global sort.  In the example above, if you split "field" into "field1" for A, and "field2" for C and D; and if you split "path" into "path1" for B, and "path2" for E and F, then the addressing groups and their positions will sort globally in the specified order.  Splitting up addressing groups also splits up the sharing possibilities, which you may not want.  It is not always possible to have a desired set of sharing groups and global position sorting simultaneously.

"Addressing" is the process of assigning firing system module and pin numbers to the events in the show.  Addressing is one of the three basic steps involved in designing a show and creating a firing system script: Design the show Address the show Export script You can't really export a firing system script without doing Step 2, because the script wouldn't contain any module and pin number instructions for the firing system to fire.  You can see why in the script table window.  The "Rail" and "Pin" columns contain the module number and pin number assigned to each row in the script.  Prior to addressing the show, the Rail and Pin columns are blank.  When you address the show, you fill in the values for these columns.  In Step 3, when you export the firing system script, it is the values in the script table that make up the firing system script. For most firing systems, the term Rail in Finale 3D means exactly the same things as "Module".  The only difference between the two terms is for firing systems that have slat numbers or letters in the addresses.  In those cases, Rail includes both the module and the slat parts of the address, together (example: 50-A, not just 50); whereas Module is just the module number part of the address (example: 50).   Figure 1 – Before addressing the show, the Rail and Pin columns are empty.   The rows in the script are called "Events."  They correspond to the horizontal bars on the timeline, and to the effects in the show.  From the blue gear menu in the upper right of the script window, you can collapse rows into a single row for the entire chain, or one row for each shell.   The script table contains about 40 columns of information, most of which are hidden by default so the table is easier to read.  A few of the hidden columns, though, are also set by addressing process, in addition to the Rail and Pin.   Figure 2 – After addressing the show, the Rail and Pin columns specify the module, slat, and pin addresses.   You can unhide columns in the script from the blue gear menu in the upper right.  The additional columns that the addressing process sets are: Module Or Slat Type, Rack, and Tube.  It is not necessary to know much about these fields for the basic addressing instructions, but it is good to know they exist.  You might wonder, "When I export the script, how does the software know what addressing system the script is for?" (answer: the Module Or Slat Type field in the script determines the firing system); or "How do I fill in the little rack tube numbers in the rack layout window?" (answer: the addressing functions fill in the rack assignments in the Rack and Tube fields if you have added racks before addressing the show.  See Rack layout).   Addressing methods Finale 3D supports a variety of methods of assigning firing system addresses.  The three main methods are: Address the entire show at once ("Addressing > Address show...") Address the show using blueprints ("Addressing > Address show using blueprints assigned to positions") Address the show manually by typing in numbers and filling down ("Addressing > Fill down addresses in script window...") Addressing the entire show at once is the easiest and most common addressing method.  Simply do the menu item, "Addressing > Address show...".  An addressing dialog appears with selectors for you to specify the firing system, the maximum number of e-matches that can be connected to a single pin (E-match limit), the sort order in which the addresses are assigned (usually people sort first by position, then either by size or angle or event time or part number; see Sorts), and the constraints that prevent e-matches from stretching between positions or between racks that are too far apart (see Constraints).  Additionally, the method of addressing the entire show takes into account any of the position properties that you may have specified by right-clicking on the positions and selecting "Edit position properties" from the context menu.  The position properties enable you to specify the module numbers at each position (Specifying module numbers) and to divide the show up into sections of positions that can share modules or slats (Sharing modules and Sections), and even to divide the show up into universes of positions that use different firing systems altogether! (Multiple firing systems)   Figure 3 – The "Addressing > Address show..." dialog   Addressing the show using blueprints is for circumstances in which different sections of the show require different rule sets.  For example, a show may have a front line of positions that share slats and for which modules can serve any of the effect sizes at the positions (because the effects are all small and they are in single-shot racks that are not limited to single sizes, for example); yet the show may also have shell positions farther back in the field that do not share slats from the same module and for which it is most efficient to limit modules to serving only a single size shell per module, even if the position houses multiple shell sizes.  Circumstances like this require a different configuration of addressing settings per section of the show.  Imagine if you could have a separate addressing dialog of Figure 3 for each section the show.  That is essentially what "Addressing Blueprints" are.  You create an addressing blueprints from "Addressing > Create addressing blueprint..." and you allocate different blueprints to different positions by right clicking on the positions and setting the Addressing Blueprint field of every position.  After assigning every position's addressing blueprint, you do "Addressing > Address show using blueprints assigned to positions..." to address the show using the blueprints you have set up.   Figure 4 – The "Addressing > Create addressing blueprint" dialog   Addressing the show manually by typing in numbers and filling down is a manual approach to addressing that gives you the ultimate control over the addresses, because you can set them to anything you want.  The basic idea behind this approach is that you (a) sort the script table window by clicking on the column headers (shift-click to add multiple sort criteria, e.g., sorting by Position first, then by Size), then (b) select a range of rows that could be anything from a single row to the entire show, then (c) do "Addressing > Fill down addresses in the script window..." to assign an incrementing sequence of addresses to the selected range of rows.   The sequence of addresses can automatically skip to the next module or slat based on conditions you declare in the dialog that pops up.  You also have control over whether the sequence is allowed to re-use pins assigned earlier for effects that could be combined on the same pin.  Please check the "Backfilling allowed" box in the lower left of the dialog shown in Figure 5 to enable re-using pins.  This method of addressing is used mainly for tricky situations in which your criteria for addressing choices are difficult to spell out.  It is also used by designers who grew up addressing shows by the fill down method and who prefer the table-based user interface.  The drawback to this method is that if you make any changes to the show, you need to repeat your manual addressing procedure.  There is also the possibility of making addressing errors since it is a manual process, although the Finale 3D software does include troubleshooting functions in the "Addressing > Troubleshooting" menu to verify your show doesn't have any conflicts, which can provide some extra confidence.   Figure 5 – The "Addressing > Fill down addresses in script window" dialog    

It is more common in large shows not to specify what modules are at each position, because the addressing functions like "Addressing > Address show..." assign module numbers to positions as required.  Why would you want to set the module number at a position manually? Some people just want module numbers to match the names of their positions.  If your positions are numbered Pos1 - Pos10, and your modules are numbered 1 - 10, then surely it is a good idea to make the numbers align to reduce the possibility of confusion when setting up the show.  If positions have multiple modules, sometimes people like their position names to match module number ranges, like having Pos1 use module numbers in the range 10 - 19 and Pos2 use module numbers in the range 20 - 29. If you need or want to specify the module numbers at positions, please right click on each position individually and select "Edit position properties" from the context menu to set its "Start Module" property to the beginning of the module number range you would like that position to use when addresses are assigned.  If each position requires only one module, then the Start Module would just be the module number you are choosing for that position.  If positions need multiple modules, please make sure that the Start Modules define beginnings of ranges that will not overlap when addresses are assigned.   Figure 1 – Set the "Start Module" property of positions to the first module number in the range.     The Start Module field takes a module number in the format of your firing system.  If your firing system has firing system addresses that include module and slat numbers or letters, please fill the Start Module field with the module part of the address only, leaving the slat off (Example: "50", not "50-A").  It is not possible to specify a starting slat address on a per-position basis. The positions window, which you can show from the "Windows" menu, is a table with all the position properties of all the positions.  You can edit the Start Module numbers directly in this table instead of right clicking positions and editing the position properties from the context menus.  The table editing user interface is faster if you are setting a lot of numbers.