That all makes sense, thanks!   It would be cool to have the ‘by position’ option later, glad it’s at least a reasonable idea 🙂   J

Cool, thanks!  Easy enough to understand the data field

Hey NEC, the “Hazard” column values have to be set in the script window. You can also populate the “Hazard Default” column in the effects window. If an effect contains a default hazard value before it’s added to the show, the hazard value will automatically be added to the script. The “Hazard Default” column in the effects window isn’t linked to the “Hazard” column in the script to give you line-by-line control over each script row. For example, this allows you to have 3″ salutes on position A with a different Hazard value than 3″ salutes of the same part number on position B. If the hazard columns were linked, all 3″ salutes of the same part number would have the same hazard value. If you’re not taking advantage of default Hazard values for your effects, you may want to check that out.   There’s not currently a way to set a hazard default on a per- rack or per-position basis. It’s a neat idea tough and might be an enhancement we can make in the future.

Hey NEC, no problem, “Physical Specifications” is a column that you can unhide in the effects window from the blue gear ⚙️ icon. To learn the syntax for the column, try setting the physical specifications for an item using the dialog, then compare the values you entered to the text that’s generated and added to the Physical Specifications column.

Hey Curtis B, if your cake can be represented by one of the standard Firing patterns for cake and slice rows, then yes, it can absolutely be converted. You mentioned create a cake from cakes, this caught my eye. Creating a cake by combining other cakes can give you bad results. I don’t recommend it and I can’t think of a reason it should be necessary.   It should always be possible arrange the individual shots for a cake on the timeline and then do ‘Combine as cake…’. If the cake combiner can’t match the firing pattern on the timeline to one of the standard firing patterns, it will fall back to the exact syntax. In most cases, the cake combiner should give you ideal VDL. In rare cases, you might be able to do better by handwriting the VDL.   To try and convert your cake to use a standard firing pattern, I would break it apart into single shots, then try recombining it. If the cake combiner can figure out how to represent the cake without the exact syntax, then the only option is to hand write the VDL.

Hey DrewFinale I’m not able to recreate the bug anymore… not sure how I created it in the first place but it isn’t wanting to happen again. It may have been a previous version and once I updated the bug disappeared. Thanks!

I think I caused some initial confusion as I posted by ‘inverted’ VDL before I saw you post (that’s what I get for posting before refreshing the page). You answer was clear.  The part I was missing was that you could build this type of mine using the ‘above’ VDL keyword instead of adding new nodes in the effect editor. Short of some tweaking, I don’t see a big reason to use the effect editor here (or in general).  Rarely so I need to change the details at that level.   I build most of my cakes by making individual effects and combining them into a cake. I don’t especially care the resulting syntax because I just break it apart when I want to change something.   The Glossary of VDL terms is great to have this year – thanks for finishing that up. I got excited when you showed me the work in progress at PGI.  Huge help!   -Brett

DrewFinale is there a way to turn the VDL I created into a “normal” VDL or due to the nature of the effect and having to create a cake effect from multiple cake effects makes it impossible to NOT use exact syntax?

Is there a way to see the physical properties for all racks in an effects file?  I have a lot of editing to do and it would be nice if I could see all of them in a table format to edit   J

Hey Mum Pyrotechnics, you can work around the one custom module per show limitation by locking all your addresses expect a portion that requires a specific type of custom module. Then, address that portion of the display, lock the addresses, adjust the custom module specification, unlock and address another portion of the show, etc. This approach will allow you to use an unlimited number of custom module types in the same show.