[EDIT: I’m re-writing this post for clarity and providing the solution I figured out so others may learn from my mistakes. Scroll through THREAD for answers…] ——————————————————————   Hello. I’m stumped and can’t get this figured out.   Objective: force a specific effect (a cake) into a specific rack number, inside a specific rack cluster, in a specific place, inside of a position. My “positions” are barges on water. My cake racks are generic place holders just called “Cake_rack,” except for my cakes that I tilt, they are slice-holder racks that I mount and brace to specific angles (usually +/-30deg) for additional effect.   In the below pic, (hard to see), I’m trying to force the yellow highlighted cake in the script window (PCA055) that’s currently addressed to Rail01Pin04 into rack number 17, located on the bottom left corner of the craigco slice holder, currently addressed to Rail03Pin01.   There’s got to be a custom script, or custom rack or some sort of qualifier I can use that leaves my current sort and addressing intact, but re-orders my cakes so I can place them exactly into the rack clusters I need them to be in? You can’t see the rack clusters highlighted in these pics, but I grouped my racks and intentionally to match my module pin counts (Cobra uses 18pins per module). Then, lastly, I use my cakes to “backfill” open pins on modules to maximize pin usage and prevent “wasting” a module for a single or small number of cakes.   Thanks! -Russ   RACKS VIEW:     ADDRESS WINDOW: of note, this current (and probably, grossly inefficient and non-sensical) order of sorting qualifiers is what I used, with some creative “Rack Type” forcing functions to get the correct effects, into the correct racks, using the least amount of racks and modules in the process. This is the result. But it induced the above problem, and every time I moved the cakes around from one rack cluster to the next, then re-addressed, I did NOT get the result I wanted and cakes were addressing everywhere seemingly random. It most definitely has to do with my current sort order and the waterfall effects of the sorting logic. But i HAD TO leave the first six criteria exactly as they are.

Hi Alex, I received your show file and replied to you by email but wanted to follow up here as well for the benefit of other users.   The reason that some of your chains weren’t being addresses as expected is because your show didn’t contain enough racks. The addressing and rack loading algorithms can provide an optimal result when there are no racks whatsoever or when there are enough racks for all effects, but not in all cases when the show contains only a portion of the racks needed. This is just the nature of how the algorithms work.   If you delete all the racks in your show or add the additional racks required, you should find that the addressing issue is resolved.

Hi Alex, unfortunately, your addressing configuration doesn’t seem to provide a clue. Please send you show (.FIN) file to support@finale3d.com and I will investigate further.

Hey Drew, thank you in advance for your assistance! Attached the screenshot from the adressing configuration (i tried default as well as sorted by event-time – nothing changed, the issue stays the same). Best, Alex  

Hi VincenzFireworks, happy to help you figure out why some events at the same time on the same position aren’t getting the same address while others are. To help us troubleshoot, please send a screenshot of the Address Show dialog so we can see your addressing configuration.

Hey Pyros When I address my show, I do not receive any error messages and the show gets addressed successfully. However, after reviewing the script and the assigned addresses, I noticed that some effects — coming from the same position, triggered by the same module, and fired at the same time (only with different angles) — are assigned different cues. I have circled 5 events in the attached image. The first and third events were addressed correctly, but the others were not. Does anyone know what I might be doing wrong and can help me solve this issue? Thank’s !

Hey Bozie8823,   Angling positions to simulate angled single shot racks is super clever, I’m impressed! Unfortunately, there’s no built-in tool for preserving effect trajectories when moving effects between positions that have different angles. In Finale 3D Hobbyist, I would accomplish this the same way I suspect you are: copy the tilt angles from the script window to Excel, use a function to update them, paste back into the script window.   I sincerely don’t want this to come off as a sales pitch, but I do want to mention for informational purposes that Finale 3D Pro handles angling tilt-adjustable single shot racks (e.g., CraigCo racks) fairly gracefully. The workflow in Pro is to angle the rack, not the position, just like you would in real life. No angle adjustment needed for the effects. For show set up, you can create labels with “Rack Relative Angles”. This allows you to set tube holder angles and load the rack flat on a table, and achieve the final/desired trajectories by angling the entire rack.

I’m in the hobbyist license tier.  I typically design on a flat launch position field and create sub-positions for addressing & racking ease of use once “creative” is complete.  This workflow finds all my singles often being loaded into one launch position (that typically has a default FLAT field orientation).  I create sub-positions (often positions that represent a CraigCo rack with a native roll value, it’s propped up…say 30 degrees) to load extreme angles allow for more angled shots in the rack. I’d like to know if there’s a simple way to lock the perceived angle value as it exists in the flat position so that when it’s sub-positioned (moved) to the new launch position that has the native ROLL, it’s angling value changes according to the ROLL value of the new position,  but REMAINS (perceivably) at the angle it was created. For example, in a flat position…a 0 degree angle is perceivably straight up.  However when that shot is moved to a position that has a ROLL value of say 30 degrees, the shot remains at 0 degrees yet perceivably sits like a 30 degree shot.  I’d like to know if there’s a workflow shortcut for making this position to position migration happen that keeps the shots perceivable look in line with the creative design, however takes on the new angling values of the ROLL’d rack.  I’m manually doing the math after the fact to take all shots moved from one position to another to achieve this and would love to know if there’s a quicker way that’s less likely to introduce human error.

That’s a great question. Cobra modules are certainly capable of firing multiple e-matches per cue. The exact number depends on a few factures including the type of e-match, wire length, etc. For the best guidance on this, the Cobra support team is your best resource.

That make sense. So with sharing cues, how do the Cobra 18m’s 9v batteries hold up? I see information saying in regards to how many fireworks can be wired up in series and how that changes if you are to use the Lipo batteries in stead of 9v batteries. If I’m just using 9v, and it’s a warm weather shoot, how many fireworks can I shoot safely from one cue?