Some fixtures require a "Reset Fixture" effect to set certain DMX channels to initial values.  If you see an effect called "Reset Fixture" in the effect library for a fixture, please add one of the effects to the fixture at the beginning of the show.  Finale 3D will give you a warning when you export a show script if you are using a fixture that requires initialization and are missing the "Reset Fixture" effect.  The fixtures requiring a "Reset Fixture" effect are listed in Table 1 of Supported light fixtures (and Standard Fixture IDs).   Explanation It is most common for DMX channel values of 0 to correspond to natural default values, but that's just not the case for some fixtures.  For example, the 30W Tomshine moving head fixture’s “no gobo” pattern does not correspond to the DMX gobo channel value of 0; it corresponds to values between 16 and 23!    The flash effects for this fixture do not themselves set the gobo channel, in order to allow "With Gobo" effects to apply the gobo as a modification.  Thus if the gobo channel value of 0 corresponds to a gobo, the user is in for a surprise gobo unless the user adds a "Reset Fixture" effect that sets the gobo channel value to a number that nullifies the gobo pattern.

Step by step instructions for defining your own fixture definitions and effects in Finale 3D manually are in the article, Creating fixture definitions and effects for your own fixtures.  One step in that process involves writing a line of code called a "Fixture Definition" and storing it in the user-defined effects for your fixture.  This article provides the specifications for that line of code. The line of code specifies, The name of the fixture The fixture ID Number of channels Part Number of the default effect Labels of DMX channels in the DMX personality Part Number of "initialize fixture" effect, if required Part Number of safety channel effect, if required A short nickname for the fixture (optional) Boolean flag indicating whether the safety channel's address is independent of the DMX Channel Base (optional) All of this information is easy to find in the user manual of your fixture.   Syntax An example fixture definition for a Tomshine moving head light fixture is: {[name "Tomshine [] Moving Head Gobo 9CH"][fixtureId 100][numChannels 9][defaultEffectPartNumber TS11301][nickname "TSGOBO"][channelLabels {[0 "Pan"][1 "Tilt"][2 "Motor Speed"][3 "Dimmer"][4 "Strobe"][5 "Color"][6 "Gobo"][7 "Set To Zero"][8 "Set To Zero"]}]} The fixture definition is written in a programming language in which curly brackets define set of attributes and their values.  Each attribute/value pair is in square brackets.  Thus in this example, the first attribute is, name and its value is, "Tomshine [] Moving Head Gobo 9CH" (double quotes included).  The square brackets inside the double quotes are just part of the string.  If the string contains any embedded double quotes, they are preceded by backslash, as in "2" Red Peony".  The attributes are case-sensitive, so be careful to type fixtureId, not FixtureId.   Attributes The name attribute should begin with a short, upper case abbreviation or nickname of the fixture brand or manufacturer with no spaces or special characters, followed by square brackets with nothing in them, followed by the fixture description itself. The fixtureId attribute is the fixture ID number.  User-defined fixture IDs are in the range 100-199. The numChannels attribute is the number of channels of your fixture's DMX channel map, which is called its "DMX personality".  Fixtures often have multiple DMX personalities that you can choose from.  When you make a fixture definition and set of effects for that fixture definition in Finale 3D, it is specific to a single DMX personality, and thus has a specific number of channels.  If you notice in the syntax example above, the name of the fixture is "Moving Head Gobo 9CH", which indicates that it represents the 9 channel DMX personality of the fixture.  If you use effects in Finale 3D that are made for one DMX personality of your fixture, and yet you configure your fixture to a different DMX personality, then the exported DMX script will be incorrect. The defaultEffectPartNumber attribute is the part number of the effect that Finale 3D will use when it cannot find an effect for your fixture to match a need of the "Change DMX fixture and convert effects" function.  If you use that function to convert a show from some other fixture to your fixture, and the show contains effects for the other fixture that you have not defined for your fixture, the defaultEffectPartNumber is what will be used as a placeholder.  The part number is a symbol, not a string, so it is not surrounded by double quotes.  If the part number contains spaces or double quotes within it, then it can be written in an alternate syntax: #<"TS11301">.  The alternate syntax allows for spaces and double quotes as part of the part number.  Contained double quotes should be preceded by backslash, as in #<"2" RED PEONY">.  Although Finale 3D supports all characters in part numbers, it is generally a bad idea to have double quotes or spaces in part numbers since they can cause trouble if you export to Excel or use barcodes or other systems. The channelLabels attribute is an object (curly brackets!) that contains as its attribute/value pairs the list of DMX channel offsets beginning with zero, and their meaning as a short description of just a few words.  The description needs to be short because it is included in the exported DMX scripts to make the scripts more readable, and many firing systems have character limits of the description fields.  The DMX channel offsets begin with zero.  Your fixture's user manual may have a DMX channel specification that begins with channel 1 and counts up.  Please renumber them when you add them to the channelLabels field of your fixture definition, so the first channel is 0, the second is 1, and so on. The requiredInitializeFixturePartNumber (only if required!) attribute is a part number symbol, similar to the defaultEffectPartNumber (i.e., not in quotes).  Most fixtures do not require an effect to initialize the fixture, so most fixture definitions do not include this attribute.  Some fixtures have a DMX personality that requires an initial configuration for some of the DMX channels.  For these fixtures, the user needs to add an effect at the beginning of the show to reset/initialize the fixture by setting those channel values.  On the basis of this attribute in the fixture definition, Finale 3D will warn the user if the user has forgotten to add any required reset/initialize fixture effects before attempting to export a DMX script.  An example attribute value for the 30W Tomshine moving head fixture is,  [requiredInitializeFixturePartNumber TS12295]. The requiredSafetyChannelPartNumber (only if required!) attribute is a part number symbol, similar to the defaultEffectPartNumber (i.e., not in quotes).  Most flame projector fixtures require a safety channel effect to enable the fixture.  On the basis of this attribute in the fixture definition, Finale 3D will warn the user if the user has forgotten to add the required safety channel before addressing or export a DMX script.  An example attribute value for the Galaxis G-Flame flame projector is,  [requiredSafetyChannelPartNumber GFX9899]. The safetyChannelConfiguredSeparately (only if safety channel is required!) attribute is a boolean flag with value true or false that is true if the fixture's safety channel number can be set independently of the fixture's DMX Channel Base that is the base address for the channels in the DMX personality.  An example attribute value for the Galaxis G-Flame flame projector is,  [safetyChannelConfiguredSeparately true]. The optional nickname attribute should be a short, upper case string 3-8 characters long, which will be appended to the beginning of effect names for the fixture so the effect names contain within themselves an indication of what fixture they are meant for, as a convenience for the designer when looking through rows in the script window or exported script.    

If you have a fixture that is not yet supported in Finale 3D, you can reach out to Finale support by email for assistance or you can create fixture definitions and effects yourself using the menu item, "DMX > Create DMX effect...". If you create DMX effects for pre-defined fixtures, you'll fill the channel values in the pre-defined channel map, which indicates for example in Figure 1 that channel 1 is "Red", channel 5 is "Strobe", etc.  If you create DMX effects for your own user-defined fixtures, you'll also fill the channel descriptions in channel map, typing in the word "Red" for channel 1 and "Strobe" for channel 5, etc.  The channel map you define will be embedded in the effect itself in its Custom Part Field property when the effect is saved.  The next time you create an effect for the same user-defined fixture, the channel map you already created will pop up, so you do not need to type the channel descriptions again every time. Figure 1 – The "Edit DMX effect..." dialog for a pre-defined fixture has read-only fields for the fixture properties.   Typing the words "Red" or "Strobe" into the channel map doesn't actually have any bearing on the exported scripts, because the words you type are just labels for your own convenience.   The channel values are what matters to the exported script.  As you can see in Figure 1, each channel has an option for the "Begin value" and "End value".  "Begin" and "End" refer to the beginning and end of the effect.  If you stretch an effect on the timeline to be 20 seconds long, then the "Begin" value will be set at the beginning of the effect and the "End" value will be set 20 seconds later.  Thus, even if you need five different duration variations of an effect, you only need to create the effect once, and you can adjust the durations of the events in the script, or you can copy/paste the effect definition in the effects window and change the Duration column values to create the effect variations.   Creating effects for new fixtures versus existing fixtures When you select "New fixture" in the "Fixture type" field of the dialog (about five rows down from the top of the dialog), the fields related to the fixture properties become editable for you to define the fixture itself as shown in Figure 2. Figure 1 – The "Create DMX effect..." dialog for a new fixture has fields to define the fixture in addition to the effect.   The fixture related fields are the Fixture ID and the four rows immediately below the "Fixture type" field, and the channel descriptions at the bottom of the dialog.  To create your own fixture definition, fill in these fields as follows: "Fixture ID" is a number from 100-199 of your choice.  Just start 100 for your first fixture definition and count up for your other fixtures.  This range of numbers does not conflict with any of the pre-defined fixtures. "Fixture name" is what will appear in menus for selecting fixtures, like the menu in the "Configure position as DMX fixture" dialog of Figure 3 or the edit and create dialogs of Figure 1 and Figure 2.  Throughout the application, any functions that involve selecting a fixture type will present a dialog that includes all the application-defined fixture options and all the user-defined fixture options that are present in any of the effects in the script or any of the effects collections. "Fixture manufacturer" is just a label for your own convenience to help identify fixtures.  Together, the fixture manufacturer, Fixture ID and fixture name are combined in the menu items as in, "TOMSHINE [027] Moving Head Gobo". "Nickname for the fixture" is a short, usually uppercase, abbreviation for the fixture like "TSMHG", which is combined with the Fixture ID, Effect ID, and effect name as in "TSMHG [027/1011] Red Flash (lg)" to construct the effect description. The nickname is useful because you may have different fixtures that each have their own "Red Flash" effect, and it is nice to be able to tell at a glance what fixture an effect applies to. "Fixture total number of DMX channels" is the total number of DMX channels in the fixture's DMX channel map.  This is the number of channels that need to be allocated for each fixture in a 512 channel DMX universe.  For example, if the fixture has 20 channels then two fixtures back-to-back in a 512 channel DMX universe may allocate channels 1-20 and 21- 40.   DMX channels to set The bottom section of the dialog defines the channels that will be output in the exported script to implement the effect.  It is important to keep in mind that the DMX channels in the exported script control what happens in the real world.  The VDL, Duration and Height fields at the top of the dialog control what the simulation will look like, but absent the channel values they are decoupled from the real world.  When you create a DMX effect in Finale 3D, you are actually defining two things -- what the simulation looks like and what DMX channels are output.  You would like the two things to match.  After all, if you are designing a show with a red par light, it would be confusing if the red par light simulation corresponded to a different color in the real world! To help keep the simulation and real world matching, the channel rows in this dialog include a "Begin value" and an "End value", which are the channel values for the beginning and end of the effect.   If you change the duration of the effect on the timeline or in the effects window, the duration will apply both to the simulation and also to exported DMX channels, keeping them consistent.  Look at channel 7 in Figure 1.  The "Dimmer" channel is set to 255 at the beginning of the effect (on) and 0 at the end (off), which is what you would expect. The "Channel setting options" field in the dialog above the channel rows has three options.  The "Set for the duration of the effect" option indicates that channels will need a value set at the beginning and end of the effect.  The "Set forever" option indicates that only a beginning value is required, which will hold forever or until a subsequent effect changes the channel to something else. The "Set prior to effect" option applies the "Setup value" in advance of the effect's beginning time in order to give the fixture enough time to prepare for the effect.  Light fixtures with gobos or color wheels, and any fixtures with moving heads or nozzles need preparation time to position the wheel or head at the desired angle prior to the effect, so that when the effect turns on it is already aiming in the right direction and showing the right color or gobo.   For this option, please see Programmer documentation: The DMX Patch field and Programmer documentation: Special VDL terms for DMX effects like “Move-To” and “With Strobing” for more instructions. If you are defining a new fixture, you should fill in descriptions for all the channels of the fixture's channel map whether or not the specific effect you are defining applies values to the channels.  If the effect does not apply a value to a channel, uncheck the checkbox for the channel so the effect leaves it alone.  The example in Figure 1 leaves channel 5 unchecked so that strobing can be turned on or off independently using a "With Strobing" modifier effect.  Alternatively, instead of defining "Magenta Flash (lg)" that is independent of the fixture's strobing characteristic you could define a "Strobing Magenta Flash (lg)" that is intrinsically strobing.  You would then check the checkmark of channel 5 and set the strobing channel value to a value corresponding to a strobing frequency at the beginning of the effect, and zero at the end of the effect to turn off the strobing characteristic. The VDL of the effect should match what the effect's DMX channel specifications actually do.  A "With Strobing" effect should have VDL that modifies other effects that the "With Strobing" effect overlaps (e.g., "Nonphysical Modifier DmxStrobing10Hz").  By contrast a "Strobing Red Flash" effect should have VDL that creates the red light in addition to making it strobe (e.g., "Red Par Light Modifier DmxStrobing10Hz").  The special VDL terms are described in Programmer documentation: Special VDL terms for DMX effects like “Move-To” and “With Strobing”.   Special DMX channels values: variables The channel value menus include numbers 0-255 and also include a list of variables like :duration10 or :pan540.  As explained in Programmer documentation: The DMX Patch field, these variables can hold channel values from 0-255 corresponding to aspects of the effect as is used in the show.  The variable :duration10, for example, is the duration of the effect in hundredths of a second.  The variable :pan540 is the pan angle of the effect in the show after converting 0-360 degrees to channel values 0-170, i.e., based on a 540 degree range of the fixture.  In general, for types of fixture effects that cannot be represented as simple numbers from 0-255 at the beginning and end of effects, the variables translate the necessary effect characteristics to channel values or channel offsets. There are some types of effects that are too complicated to represent with simple numbers or variables for the channel values.  The “MagicFX [003] Mode 1 Flamaniac” fixture, for example, has five on/off channels that control the flame output of five nozzles at five pre-defined angles from -45 to 45 degrees.  Thus, depending on the tilt angle of an effect in the show design, a different channel needs to be set on to match the angle.  If the effect in the show is aiming up, channel 3 needs to turn on.  If the user drags the effect's trajectory angle to -45 degrees left, channel 1 needs to turn on.  Since the angle controls which channel turns on, it is not possible to represent effects for this fixture mode directly in the channel rows of the dialog.  The solution requires a variable for the channel offset, as opposed to a channel value.  The offset is based on the angle of the effect.  The "Additional parameters (optional)" field just above the channel rows in the dialog provides a place for all the parameters that don't fit in the channel rows.  For this particular effect, the channel rows are all unchecked and the "Additional parameters (optional)" field contains:  :tilt45ToChannelOffset0To4 255 0. For the majority of effects, simple numbers are sufficient for channel values.  The channel value variables and the additional parameters field accommodate the more complex effects.  If you are trying to define effects for a new fixture that needs some new channel value variables that aren't in the list of Table 2 of Programmer documentation: The DMX Patch field, please contact support@finale3d.com and ask the Finale support team to add additional variables to the software to support your fixture.   Effect specifications Returning now to the effect specifications at the top of the dialog, the nine fields define the effect specifications as follows: "Visual description (VDL)" is the visual description, like "Red Par Light" or "Green Spotlight Move-To"; or for more esoteric effects like "With Strobing" the visual descriptions may look like "Nonphysical Modifier DmxStrobing10Hz", as explained in Programmer documentation: Special VDL terms for DMX effects like “Move-To” and “With Strobing”. "Part Number" and "Collection" define where the effect is stored, same as for non-DMX effects "Name for this effect" is just the name of the effect.  It will be combined with the fixture nickname, Fixture ID, and Effect ID to construct the full effect description field, like "TSMHG [027/1011] Red Flash (lg)" "Standard Effect ID (optional)" is a number that defines the meaning of the effect, to support features like Fixture cloning which converts a fixture in a show to a different type by translating the effects for the old fixture into effects with the same Standard Effect ID for the new fixture type, and to support warning messages for missing safety channels for fixtures that need them.  The Standard Effect ID is optional; just leave the field blank or use the value 0 if you don't care.  If you do care, you can look up the lists of Standard Effect IDs in Standard Effect IDs for flames and sparks and Standard Effect IDs for lights; please email support@finale3d.com if you would like to add some Standard Effect IDs to the list that Finale maintains. "Duration" and "Height" are effect attributes that affect the simulation and that may also affect the DMX channel outputs if linked by way of DMX channel value variables. "Prefire" should be zero for any DMX effects other than Move-To effects.  This attribute has a special meaning for DMX effects: it is the maximum "reach back" of a Move-To effect (see Move-In-Black (MIB) and Move-To) that limits how far back the effect that defines the starting point of the movement can be (usually a Move-In-Black effect).  The prefire does not affect the begin time of effects. "Effect Type" for DMX effects is one of four values that make sense for DMX effects: "sfx", "light", "flame", and "other_effect".  The "sfx" is the default, and can be used for everything.  "light" is the same as "sfx" except that it is just a different word, which can be useful for filtering.  "flame" effects are also the same except they have fixed durations that cannot be changed on the timeline for individual events (so if you see "flame" effects of a particular part number on the timeline, you know for sure they are all the exact same duration; whereas if you see different "sfx" or "light" effects you don't know that for sure because their durations could have been modified); for "other_effect" and further explanation, see Why is ‘Type’ so important? What depends on it?.   What to do after defining your effects Once you've defined your effects, right-click on a position and choose "Configure position as DMX fixture" and you'll have the option of picking any application-defined or user-defined fixture that is present in the loaded effect collections, including your My Effects and Per-Show Effects.   Figure 3 – The "Configure position as DMX fixture" menu item will include your user-defined fixtures as options  

The standard report templates like the Wiring Script employ text wrapping for the Description field, as you can see in Figure 1.  In this example, the seventh row has a short description that doesn't wrap around.  Most of the other rows have text that wraps around to two or more lines.  The report formatting is configured to support one extra line of wrapped text, keeping the overall height of the rows constant.   Figure 1 – The 7th and 11th row in this report have short descriptions that fit in a single line; the other rows wrap the text.   The labels in Figure 2. illustrate text wrapping applied to the Description field in a label format.  Whereas the standard report templates all employ text wrapping for the Description field by default, the standard label templates do not employ text wrapping.  So to get a result like the labels in Figure 2 you will need to customize the label template as described in Labels basic instructions.   Figure 2 – The label in the lower right has a short description requiring a single line; the others require two or more.   The report templates can also be customized to employ text wrapping -- or not -- in any of the fields.  The customization parameters for reports are different from labels, so please see Labels basic instructions for instructions to customize labels and continue with this article for instructions to customize reports. Reports and labels alike use the padding space to accommodate the wrapped lines of text.  If a report row has a single line of text that doesn't wrap, the line of text is centered with padding above it and below it.  If a row has multiple lines of text, the additional lines will overwrite the padding space.  To configure reports for text wrapping, you need to adjust two fields in the report customization dialog accessed from the menu item "Edit report template" in the blue gear menu in the upper right of the script or effects window, as in Figure 3.   Figure 3 – Choose the fields for text wrapping, and set the padding to accommodate the number of lines you want.   Calculating the padding for text wrapping in reports You can calculate the amount of padding required based on how many lines of text you want to allow for.   The equation is different for reports and for labels.  For reports, the height of the row is calculated to be the font size plus twice the vertical padding, where the vertical padding is specified as a fraction of the font size.  The larger the vertical padding, the larger the row height.  A padding fraction of 0.5 means the combined padding above and below will add up to the font height, providing room to wrap one extra line of text.  A padding fraction of 1.0 provides room for two extra lines of text.  For reports, the padding calculation is simple.  To calculate the vertical padding for N total lines of text,  the padding should be: (N - 1 ) / 2 For both reports and labels, Finale 3D makes a slight adjustment to text wrapping placement to improve the visual appearance.  It looks better to have a small amount of whitespace (one point) above the text lines even in the cases that they are consuming the entire padding.   So Finale 3D protects a one point sliver of the padding above the text lines from being overwritten, which therefore requires an extra one point of padding below to accommodate the shift.  It is possible to calculate the precise adjustment required, but generally it is easier to fine tune the proportions by eye, starting with the calculated values.        

To create and export a script for the Jingduan 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. Please note: older versions of the Jingduan firing system do not support CSV script files.  Please contact your Jingduan dealer to upgrade to a version that supports CSV files.    Figure 1 – Jingduan firing system   Table 1 – File format and encoding File format Extension Text encoding Field delimiter End-of-line Text .CSV UTF-8 Comma 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 contains a single header row with the column names: Ignition Event Time,Prefire Delay,Host Address,Module Address,Pin Address,Effect Name,Caliber,Category,Angles,Position Name. Addresses The Jingduan system addresses are Host (1-99), Module (1-99), and Pin (1-32). Time resolution Millisecond resolution. Host The Jingduan system supports multiple controllers ("Hosts") represented in the same firing system script.  In Finale 3D, the "Universe" column in the script and in position properties partitions the show into multiple controllers, so the Universe column is the most natural column in Finale 3D to hold the Host number.  For most firing systems, when Finale 3D exports the script files for the show it exports a separate script file for each unique Universe, but for the Jingduan firing system Finale 3D exports a single script file that combines all the Universes; and in that script file the Host column contains the Universe values. To create a show for multiple hosts, 1) Right click on the launch positions and edit "Position properties" from the context menu, 2) In the Position Properties dialog, type the Host number into the Universe column, 3) Re-address the show from Addressing menu, which will assign module and pin addresses and additionally will copy the Universe values from the positions into the script, 4) Export the script from the File menu. Special characters The CSV file follows Excel rules for quoting double quotes and commas within the fields. Except for those two characters, all other printable UTF-8 characters are allowed. Unprintable characters (control characters like linefeed and tab) are filtered out. After the header, each row in the script has a number of fields separated by the comma character.   If any field contains a comma or double quote character, the field will be surrounded in double quotes and any internal double quotes will be doubled-up, following the Excel CSV convention.  The names of the fields and their descriptions are the following: Table 3 – Specifications of script fields Field name Description Ignition Event Time The launch time of the event; floating point number with up to millisecond resolution. Prefire Delay The prefire time of the effect; floating point number with up to millisecond resolution. Host Address Host number, starting with 1.  The host identifies the controller.  This number comes from the Universe field in Finale 3D. Module Address Module number, starting with 1. Pin Address Pin number, starting with 1. Track Identifier Track number or blank. Effect Name 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. Caliber Size. Category The Type of the effect in Finale 3D, or blank. Angles Angle graphic in ASCII art, showing the angles of the represented effects in backslash, vertical line, and slash characters. Position Name Position name. An example script containing nine shells across nine firing rows is shown in Figure 1 and included for download in Table 4. Ignition Event Time,Prefire Delay,Host Address,Module Address,Pin Address,Track Identifier,Effect Name,Caliber,Category,Angles,Position Name 2.76,2.24,1,1,1,,Red Chrysanthemum,"2""",shell,|,Pos-01 3.344,2.24,1,2,1,,Red Chrysanthemum,"2""",shell,|,Pos-02 3.928,2.24,1,3,1,,Red Chrysanthemum,"2""",shell,|,Pos-03 4.512,2.24,1,4,1,,Red Chrysanthemum,"2""",shell,|,Pos-04 5.096,2.24,1,5,1,,Red Chrysanthemum,"2""",shell,|,Pos-05 5.68,2.24,2,1,1,,Red Chrysanthemum,"2""",shell,|,Pos-06 6.264,2.24,2,2,1,,Red Chrysanthemum,"2""",shell,|,Pos-07 6.848,2.24,2,3,1,,Red Chrysanthemum,"2""",shell,|,Pos-08 7.432,2.24,2,4,1,,Red Chrysanthemum,"2""",shell,|,Pos-09 Figure 1 – Example Jingduan script with two universes -- Host 1 and 2   Table 4 – Example files Download link Explanation test-jingduan.fin Example show file test-jingduan.csv Example exported file (CSV) Data sheet

There are few features in Finale 3D that are more immediately delightful than "Make into fan...", which arranges the selected effects in a fan as in Figure 1.  Like the Make into sequence function, the fan function is a simple concept but has more subtlety in its options than meets the eye.   Figure 1 – Select the effects and do "Make into fan..." to spread them out in a fan.   Many of the fan variations in choreography come from combining "Make into fan..." with "Make into sequence...".  You can do the two operations in either order, starting with a fan and then putting its effects into a sequence; or starting with a sequence and then putting its effects into a fan.  Think of the fan function as spreading out a list of effects A1, A2, A3, ... An into a fan with angles going left to right.  The first effect, A1, will aim to the left and the last effect, An, will aim to the right.  If the effects launch from the same position at the same time, as in Figure 1, then it probably doesn't matter much which effect is A1, but if you arrange the effects on the timeline before putting them into a fan, then it matters quite a lot which effect is A1.   Figure 2 – The "Make into fan..." function can be used in concert with the "Make into sequence..." function.   The "Sort effects by" selector of Figure 2 has the options shown in Figure 3.  If you are arranging your effects on the timeline before putting them into a fan, then the three time based options are the natural choices for sorting the effects.  The "Effect time" option makes the first effect on the timeline be A1, producing a fan that sequences left to right.  The "Effect time, center to outside" option makes the first effect or pair of effects on the timeline the center of the fan, half way in between A1 and An in the fan.  The third option obviously starts with the first pair of effects on the timeline as the outside shots of the fan, A1 and An themselves.   Figure 3 – The "Sort effects by" selector has three options to use if you've already sequenced the effects on the timeline.   Figure 4 – The "Fan type" selector has a few options that you can use in combination with other features.   When fanning effects across multiple positions, the "Fan type" choice of Figure 2 provides an option for an inward pointing fan, as in Figure 4.  The normal fan and the inward fan are common choreography arrangements in their own right, but you can also use them in combination with the "Script > Reorder > Reverse order" function and the drag-and-drop user interface to make more esoteric designs.   Figure 5 – The inward fan can be just a starting point for more esoteric designs.   Consider the inward fan of Figure 5 as just a starting point.  If you select the effects and then drag the angle donut at the top of the left effect's trajectory dots to make it straight up, you'll get the fan of Figure 6.  Experiment with this idea using the reverse function and trying different sequence rates to produce patterns that seem to crawl their way across a line of positions or produce Spirograph-like cusps in the air.   Figure 6 – Drag the left effect's trajectory donut to make it straight up, and the fan will take on an entirely different character!   The "Circle fan" option of Figure 4 divides the total angle, which is generally 360 degrees for circles, into even intervals between the effects arranged in a circle.  What's the difference between that and a normal fan of 360 degrees?  Normal fans have angle intervals in the gaps between each pair of effects, so if there are eight effects, for example, then there are only seven gaps.  The total angle 360 divided by 7 is 51.4 degrees between each pair of effects.  If you are arranging eight effects in a circle, you obviously want 45 degrees between them, not 51.4 degrees!  The "Circle fan" option takes into consideration the gap that completes the circle from the last effect back to the first, producing angle intervals that are 1 / N the total angle rather than 1 / (N - 1), as shown in Figure 7.   Figure 7 – The "Circle fan" option takes into consideration the gap after the last effect that completes the circle.   The two options in the "Groups of effects" selector turn grouping on or off for effects that launch from the same position or at the same time.  Grouping is not as common a need for fans as it is for sequences (see Make into sequence) but if you have pairs of effects that you want to fire together as the same spoke of the fan, for example, then you can turn on grouping ("Stick together in the fan") to keep them together.   Figure 8 – The two "Groups of effects" options amount to just the decision of whether you want grouping or not.   The grouping function will group by common positions if you are sorting by positions (see Figure 3) and will group by common times if you are sorting by times.  Unlike Make into sequence the fan function does not group chain shells together as spokes of the fan because the angles are not unchangeable in the way that the fuses between the shells are.

Dragging a sequence to start from another position is sometimes necessary just to start a sequence in the right place around a stadium.  The user interface can also be used to generate interesting choreography by repeating a sequence multiple times starting at different positions progressing along a line or around a circle of positions.  All of the use cases require that the sequence wraps around the line or circle of positions. The sequence in Figure 1 goes around all the positions in the circle, beginning at Pos-01 at the front.  This sequence is easy to construct using the "clockwise" or "position names" options of the "Make into sequence..." dialog.  You can easily imagine a sequence like this going around a sports stadium, starting in the end zone of home team. But what if you wanted the sequence to begin in the end zone of the visiting team?  Referring back to the position names of Figure 1, you might want the sequence to begin at Pos-25 and wrap around from Pos-50 to Pos-01 and back to Pos-24.  To create the sequence in this phase requires two steps.  First, create the sequence normally.  Second, with all the items in the sequence selected, drag the effect at Pos-01 to Pos-25 in the 3D view.  Doing so shifts the entire sequence to start at Pos-25 and wrap around. The wrap around from Pos-50 to Pos-01 is based on their names.  Wrapping relies on the premise that the relevant positions are sorted by their names and that the names have a common stem ("Pos-" in this example) followed by a number.  Dragging the sequence from position N to position N + M moves all the effects + M in the sequence.  If any of those positions don't exist, the effects wrap around through the lowest numbered position with the same stem.   Figure 1 – If you want the sequence to start at the other side of the circle, it would need to start at Pos-25.   If the show contained a Pos-51 somewhere outside the circle and unrelated to the sequence, it would be important that dragging the sequence didn't drag it through Pos-51.  To avoid Pos-51, you would need to rename it with a different stem from the positions involved in the sequence.  A position named Front-51, for example, wouldn't interfere with the sequence on Pos-01 through Pos-50 as it is dragged around the circle.

The "Make into sequence..." function in Finale 3D arranges the selected effects in a sequence, as shown in Figure 1.  The function can arrange the effects in a variety of patterns like center-to-outside or in-pairs.  The function can sort the effects according to their position coordinates left-to-right on the screen or around a circle, or according to their angles.  The function can create multiple cycles of the sequence.  It can "bounce" the cycles back and forth, and optionally remove the doubled up turnarounds on the ends.  The function can handle chains and G-key groups to make sequences of subsequences.  The function can keep pairs together.  In combination with some drag-and-drop user interface, the function can create sequences at different phases.  In short, while the "Make into sequence..." function is a simple concept, you can use it in a variety of ways in your choreography.   Figure 1 – Select the effects and do "Make into sequence..." to spread them out evenly in time.   Aside from the duration and interval, which have obvious meaning, the "Make into sequence..." dialog offers selectors for sorting the effects and for handling groups of effects.  With the default choices of Figure 2, the sequence will sort the effects by position first, breaking ties by time.  It will treat each effect as a separate time point, with the one exception of chains which it treats atomically as single time points without affecting the internal timing of their shells. The default settings from Figure 2 make sense if the sequence runs across a line of positions, but if the sequence is applied to a fan of effects at a single position, then sorting effects by position name doesn't have any effect.  If you are putting a fan into a sequence, you should sort effects by angle, choosing any of the bottom four options in Figure 3.   Figure 2 – The "Sort effects by" selector has patterns options.   The angle options at the bottom of Figure 3 offer four patterns for the sequence.  The position options also include the same four patterns, for three different manners of sorting the positions -- by their name, by their coordinates left-to-right on the screen, and clockwise around a circle.   Figure 3 – Four different patterns are possible for angles or positions (and three sorting options for the positions).   The default setting for the "Groups of effects" selector -- "Spread out in the sequence normally" -- treats every effect as a separate time point (with the exception of chains).  If you change the selector to "Stick together as subsequences" then groups of effects at the same position, angle, time, or G-key group will be treated atomically as subsequences.  This option enables you to put subsequences into sequences without interfering with the internal timing of the subsequences. If the "Sort effects by" selector is any of the position based sorts, then the "Stick together as subsequences" option will recognize all the effects at each position as a subsequence, and will keep them together; if all the effects are at the same position, then the option will recognize effects at the same effect time as subsequences, like pairs or flights on the timeline which are a kind of subsequence. If the "Sort effects by" selector is any of the angle based sorts, then the "Stick together as subsequences" option will recognize effects at the same angle as a subsequence; if all the effects are at the same angle, then the option will recognize effects at the same effect time as subsequences. If any of the selected items are in G-key groups (from the "Script > Groups > Combine as group" menu item), then the groups are treated atomically if the "Stick together as subsequences" option is chosen, and all effects not in the groups will be treated as independent time points in the sequence.   Figure 4 – The "Groups of effects" selector enables sequencing subsequences or making multiple sequences.   The final two options in the "Groups of effects" selector produce multiple cycles of the sequence.  These options use only the existing selected effects for the cycles; they do not clone or add effects.  Thus if you want N cycles of a sequence, you need to begin with N copies every effect in the sequence.  Consider the sequence of Figure 1, which has just nine effects, one at each position.  If you selected those nine effects and duplicated them (Control-D) a couple times into four times as many effects in total, then you'd have the right number of effects to make four cycles of the sequence.  This simple example is a fine way of producing multiple cycles of a sequence: Select all nine positions. Click one of the effects in the effects window to add one effect to all nine positions. Click again, N times in total if you want N cycles of the sequence. Select all 9 * N effects, and do "Make into sequence..." Choose either of the multiple cycles options in the "Groups of effects" selector. That's it!   Figure 5 – Bouncing sequences across positions usually look better if the turnarounds are not doubled up.   The term "bouncing" means a sequence whose cycles go back and forth, like the zig-zagging shown in Figure 6.  Bouncing sequences across positions generally look better if the turnarounds are not doubled up, but that means fewer effects are needed at the end points.  When you select the bouncing option, Finale 3D recognizes if the end points would be doubled up and offers to remove the duplicates, as shown in Figure 5.  If the selected effects already have the proper number of effects at the turnarounds then you won't get the dialog.  The dialog just makes it easier to create bouncing sequences, since it is easy to add the same number of effects to every position. Figure 6 shows a bouncing sequence across a line of positions.  Bouncing also applies to fan sequences.  Unlike sequences across positions, bouncing sequences in cakes such as X-shape or Z-shape cakes usually do have doubled up effects on the turnarounds due to the way they are constructed in slices.  So if you are using the "Make into sequence..." function to create a cake simulation you will probably select "No" to the dialog of Figure 5.   Figure 6 – Zig-zags are just one of the bouncing patterns that are fun to watch.   Referring back to the beginning of this article, the first paragraph mentions a drag-and-drop user interface for creating sequences at different phases.  The word phase just means starting the sequence from a different position.  If you want to start a sequence going around a stadium at a particular spot, you'll need to drag-and-drop the sequence to start at a different position after creating it.  The technique is described in Dragging a sequence to start from another position.

The Hansol Sunshine 5 Head Flame System unit is a 5-head flame projector that can be controlled by any of the DMX-capable firing systems, such as Piroshow, Pyromac, PyroSure, fireTEK, Cobra, Pyrodigy and Mongoose.   Figure 1 – Hansol Sunshine 5 Head Flame System   The Hansol Sunshine 5 Head Flame System has a 5-channel DMX personality with independent control of the five heads, and a 1-channel pilot flame that can be configured to an independent DMX channel address.  The pilot flame address can be shared by multiple fixtures.  Some versions of the Hansol Sunshine also have a safety channel at a fixed DMX channel address, channel 1, which must be shared. Finale 3D combines the concept of safety channel and pilot flame and controls them both with a single "Safety Channel AND Pilot Flame" effect.  If your version of the Hansol Sunshine requires a safety channel at DMX channel 1, that forces you to configure the pilot flame as DMX channel 2 so the two channels can be turned on together by the "Safety Channel AND Pilot Flame" effect.   If your version of the Hansol Sunshine does not require a safety channel, then you can configure the pilot flame to any free DMX channel. Instructions for the two options, safety channel or not, are shown in Table 1.   Each row in the table lists the Fixture Type for the positions representing the flame systems, the number of channels each such position will use to control its flames (5), the Fixture Type of the position representing the safety channel or pilot flame , and the number of channels that position uses (1 or 2).   Table 1 – Safety channel options Option Flame system's Fixture Type in Finale 3D Flame system fixture number of channels Safety channel or pilot flame Fixture Type in Finale 3D Safety channel or pilot flame fixture number of channels Flame system fixtures share the same safety channel or pilot flame channels Option 1 "Hansol [055] Sunshine Fixture: 5 Head w/ Safety And Pilot" 5 "HANSOL [056/0000] Safety Channel AND Pilot Flame" 2 Yes, required Option 2 "Hansol [057] Sunshine Fixture: 5 Head w/ Pilot Only".  The "Safety And Pilot" 5 "HANSOL [058/0000] Pilot Flame" 1 Optional   The DMX channels used by the safety channel or pilot flame fixture types for Option 1 and Option 2 are shown in Table 2 and Table 3.   Table 2 – DMX channels of the "HANSOL [056/0000] Safety Channel AND Pilot Flame" (Option 1) DMX Channel Meaning Effect in Finale 3D that controls channel Channel 1 (DMX Channel Base + 0) Safety channel ON/OFF (0-101 = OFF; 102-140 = ON; 141-255 = OFF) Part number HS11021 Channel 2 (DMX Channel Base + 1) Pilot flame ON/OFF (0-153 = OFF; 154-203 = ON; 204-255 = OFF) Part number HS11021   Table 3 – DMX channels of the "HANSOL [058/0000] Pilot Flame"  (Option 2) DMX Channel Meaning Effect in Finale 3D that controls channel Channel 1 (DMX Channel Base + 0) Pilot flame ON/OFF (0-153 = OFF; 154-203 = ON; 204-255 = OFF) Part number HS12021   For Option 1, the pilot flame is the second channel of the "Safety Channel AND Pilot Flame" Fixture Type and the safety channel is the first.  The safety channel must be at the fixed channel address 1, so set the "Pilot & Ignition Address" on your physical unit to be 2. For Option 2, the pilot flame is the first and only channel of the "Pilot Flame" Fixture Type, so set the "Pilot & Ignition Address" on your physical unit to be the same as the DMX Channel Base of the position configured as the "Pilot Flame" fixture in Finale 3D.   Table 4 – DMX channels for the flame system fixtures themselves DMX Channel Meaning Effect in Finale 3D that controls channel Channel 1 (DMX Channel Base + 0) Head 1 ON/OFF (0-153 = OFF; 154-203 = ON; 204-255 = OFF) Various part numbers in the range HS11000- HS12021 Channel 2 (DMX Channel Base + 1) Head 2 ON/OFF (0-153 = OFF; 154-203 = ON; 204-255 = OFF) Various part numbers in the range HS11000- HS12021 Channel 3 (DMX Channel Base + 2) Head 3 ON/OFF (0-153 = OFF; 154-203 = ON; 204-255 = OFF) Various part numbers in the range HS11000- HS12021 Channel 4 (DMX Channel Base + 3) Head 4 ON/OFF (0-153 = OFF; 154-203 = ON; 204-255 = OFF) Various part numbers in the range HS11000- HS12021 Channel 5 (DMX Channel Base + 4) Head 5 ON/OFF (0-153 = OFF; 154-203 = ON; 204-255 = OFF) Various part numbers in the range HS11000- HS12021   Instructions To design a show for Hansol Sunshine 5 Head Flame System units, please follow these steps:  Set up.  (A) Follow the flame set up instructions in the Flame systems basic instructions and Exporting a firing system script for flame systems to configure positions in Finale 3D as your flame system fixtures and additionally to configure a position as a "safety channel or pilot" fixture, which can be shared by the flame system fixtures. (B) In the real world configure each physical unit's "Machine Address / Start Address" to be the start of the 5-channel range you allocate for it.  (C) In Finale 3D configure the "DMX Channel Base" of the positions representing flame system fixtures to match the Start Addresses exactly.  (D) In the real world configure each physical unit's "Pilot & Ignition Address" to be the number "2" if your flame system requires a safety channel (Option 1 in Table 1); or to be any free DMX channel address otherwise (Option 2 in Table 1). (E) In Finale 3D configure the "DMX Channel Base" of the safety channel or pilot fixture to be the number 1 if your flame system requires a safety channel (Option 1 in Table 1); or to be whatever channel address you chose for the pilot otherwise (Option 2 in Table 1); alternatively, Option 2 flame system fixtures can have their own safety channel or pilot fixtures instead of sharing one in common. Add the Assorted DMX supplier catalog to your Finale 3D account.  Login to the finale3d.com website.  At the top of the page, go to “My Account > Supplier Catalog Settings” (www.finale3d.com/supplier-catalogs-settings/).  Find the Assorted DMX supplier catalog in the table, and turn the switch to ON.  Then launch the Finale 3D application and synch to network.  The Assorted DMX catalog will appear as one of the available collections in the effects window, which you can choose from the selector at the top of the window.  This catalog contains effects for all types of Assorted fixtures currently supported in Finale 3D, together. Add flame effects to the show.  (A) Right-click on the 5 Head Flame System positions to add compatible effects from the context menu or to filter the effects window to compatible effects.   Choosing the DMX channel ranges for fixtures Each 5 Head Flame System fixture requires multiple channels, so if you are putting multiple fixtures in the same DMX Universe, you need to set the Start Address on the fixture in the real world and the corresponding DMX Channel Base on the fixture in Finale 3D to a range of channels that doesn't overlap with others.  A DMX universe has channels 1-512.  If you want to pack as many fixtures into the 512 channels of a DMX universe as you can, back-to-back ranges are the most efficient.  Table 5 shows an example for 5 Head Flame System fixtures.  Some DMX firing systems only support 50 or 100 channels, so you may not have all 512 channels to work with. The example of Table 5 shows fixtures that all share the same safety channel at DMX channel 1.  The pilot flame is thus at channel 2, and the first fixture's DMX Channel Base is channel 3.  By contrast, the example of Table 6 shows fixtures that do not have safety channels.  The pilot flame channel or channels in Table 6 could be anywhere in the 1-512 range; the fixtures could share the same pilot flame channel or they could each have their own channel.  The example illustrates a shared pilot flame channel at DMX Channel Base 1.   Table 5 – Example channel ranges for flame systems with safety channels AND pilot flames Fixture DMX Channel Base Channels Used "Safety Channel AND Pilot Flame" 1 1-2 1 (first flame system fixture) 3 3-7 2 8 8-12 3 13 13-17 4 18 18-22 5 23 23-27 6 28 28-32 7 33 33-37 8 38 38-42 9 43 43-47 ... 52 508 508-512   Table 6 – Example channel ranges for flame systems with pilot flames ONLY Fixture DMX Channel Base Channels Used "Pilot Flame ONLY" 1 1 1 (first flame system fixture) 2 2-6 2 7 7-11 3 12 12-16 4 17 17-21 5 22 22-26 6 27 27-31 7 32 32-36 8 37 37-41 9 42 42-46 ... 52 507 507-511     Table 7 – Example files and downloads Download link Explanation Sunshine user manual.pdf Hansol Sunshine 5 Head Flame System user manual test-hansol-5-sunshine-head-flame-system01.fin Example show file test-hansol-5-sunshine-head-flame-system01.csv Example exported script

The online Finale 3D community features a forum, private messaging, your own personal homepage, a global user map, a monthly photo contest, and more. As you explore community areas, you will likely encounter references to "Pyro Points". This article is all about pyro points - what they are, how you get them, why you want them, and how you can use them.   What are pyro points? Pyro points are the virtual currency of the Finale 3D community. As a Finale 3D user and member of the online community, you can earn pyro points, spend points points, and even tip pyro points to other users. Pyro points exist only within the Finale 3D community, they can't be acquired or spent anywhere else.   Why do I want pyro points? There are multiple reasons you want pyro points. For starters, because the amount of pyro points your earn directly corresponds to your pyro status. Your pyro status conveys your level of engagement and standing in the community. Your status can be viewed by others on your public homepage and along side each of your forum posts.   Figure 1 – Pyro status as it appears on your personal homepage and along side a forum post.   How can I earn pyro points? If you're just starting out, the quickest way to earn pyro points is by completing the pyro points rewards activities on your My Profile page. By completing the pyro points rewards activities, you can earn up to 100 pyro points. The rewards activities are also a great introduction to the community and the Finale 3D software. In addition to rewards, you will also earn 1 pyro point each time another user likes one of your forum posts or directly gives you a pyro point. Last but not least, you can win pyro points by entering the monthly photo contest and other Finale 3D design competitions.   Figure 2 – Pyro points rewards on My Profile page.   Where can I see how many pyro points I have? You can check your pyro points balance any time by visiting your My Profile page. To view a complete list of all your pyro points transactions, use the View History link displayed under your pyro points balance.   Figure 3 – Pyro points balance and link to view points transaction history on My Profile page.   How does the number of pyro points I have correspond to my pyro status? Your pyro status is derived from the maximum number of pyro points you have earned in any calendar year. The more points you earn, the higher your status. Once you achieve a specific status level, you will never lose it. This means you will keep your current status until you earn a higher status; using your pyro points or entering a new calendar year will not affect your status.   Figure 4 – Pyro statuses and the amount of pyro points you need to earn within a calendar year to achieve each status.   Can others see my pyro points? Your pyro points balance, the number of points you have earned in the current calendar year, and your pyro points transaction history are private and visible only to you. Your pyro status, which is based on the highest number of pyro points you have earned in a any calendar year, is visible to all users.   What can I do with my pyro points? When you like a forum post, you give the author of the post a pyro point. You can also give any user a pyro point for any reason directly from your My Profile page. When you give a pyro point, you can enter a description which will appear in the user's pyro points transaction history.   Figure 5 – Liking a forum post and giving another user a pyro point from within My Profile.