I want to share these effects that I have made with the community:   – Smoke Mine – Streamer – Confetti   I will leave the link down below.   *** UPDATED ***   https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/kscfwvov5a9zgi93rugci/Finale-3D-Colour-Smoke-Mine-Streamer-Confetti.fin?rlkey=jb83bexg58csxa7ipo5wfvfmg&st=mfhakx73&dl=0https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/kscfwvov5a9zgi93rugci/Finale-3D-Colour-Smoke-Mine-Streamer-Confetti.fin?rlkey=jb83bexg58csxa7ipo5wfvfmg&st=nmb5jqro&dl=0https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/ejlskxojoaiapn12es51s/Finale-3D-Smoke-Mine-Streamer-Confetti-VDL.fin?rlkey=xn0x6pktfzabaz76d9vjfbpao&dl=0   Let me know if you find it useful.

Another thing I was noticing is when you have the word “fan” twice in your VDL, it will also pan the whole effect 90°   Example: 3″ 5.00s 10 Shot Fan Cake (a) Red Peony + (b) White Peony + (c) Blue Peony FNL Fan Cake, 1 Row (abcabcabca)   This will fan your cake AND pan it 90… Is this supposed to happen Drew or is this a bug?

60 Degrees isn’t preserved in VDL because it’s the default. If you enter any angle other than 60, you’ll see it gets saved.   This is analogues 4″ Red Peony 3.2 PFT. The prefire of 3.2s isn’t preserved when the VDL is saved because the default prefire for a 4″ shell is 3.2s.   The VDL logic tries to optimize and shorten descriptions by removing unnecessary terms.

Hi Pyro_22430000, thanks for posting!   The grid size in the racks window is a function your zoom level, the grid spacing isn’t currently customizable. The only setting that affects the grid is File > User settings > Show ruler distances in feet instead of meters.   You mentioned snapping so I think I should note that racks snap to other racks. Racks don’t snap to the grid.   If you’re not seeing colorful rack cluster outlines and rules when dragging and dropping racks, the problem is most likely that you’re not running the latest version of Finale 3D. Make sure you’re running the latest release from http://finale3d.com/download and give it another try. If you’re not sure what build you’re running, you can check in File > View account details.

3″ 10 Shot 60 Degrees Fan (a) Cake Red Peony + (b) White Peony + (c) Blue Peony Fnl Cake, 1 Row (abcabcabca) is what I typed in and saved.   It visually looks correct but if I go back to the VDL it shows — 3″ 10 Shot Fan (a) Cake Red Peony + (b) White Peony + (c) Blue Peony Fnl Cake, 1 Row (abcabcabca) .. interesting .. may just be a bug   <EDIT> went back into the VDL editor, added 30 Degrees, it looked correct in the lower green box, updated and the 30 Degrees disappeared again in the VDL description but the edit took visually        

I was trying to define the degrees of a 3″ 5.00s 10 shot cake to add “60 degrees” but it isn’t recognizing the nomenclature in the VDL.   Here is the VDL: 3″ 5.00s 10 Shot Cake (a) Red Peony + (b) White Peony + (c) Blue Peony Fnl Cake, 1 Row (abcabcabca)   I am trying to put it AFTER the “10 shot” but it doesn’t get recognized. Is this because “degrees” is limited to a size or am I doing something wrong?

That would solve my issue in most circumstantiates   I believe. The only thing I could think of as another situation, is often we shoot product in a “3-inch Pairs”(Example) position because we have limited equipment on or around the 4th, so every cue counts. I could add a note of where it should go in bulk (A Field) , and then just click the product to drop on the timeline.   We are often dealing with seasonal shooters so we try and make it as simple and logical sense as possible.   This is just a broad Example.   Just a thought.

I am looking for the properties for the rack layout window.  If possible I would like to change the settings for grid size, snap to(if it exist), and try to find the setting for selection of rack clusters.  My office mate has something turned on when he selects a rack cluster a nice big colored box shows up that show some information on the racks selected.

Hey Drew!   1&2 I understand (been using Cobra for 10 years now) and I get how this would be difficult on your end, had to ask.   I’ve used the mass update before and it will get the job done.  I have some ideas in my head on how it might be doable programmatically but need to think them thru a bit more and ponder if it’s even worth the work if it only benefits a single firing system.  You may see an email from me.   Thanks Again!  

Hi NEC, I completely understand the usefulness of having your reports and labels indicate where you plan to use each COBRA module type. The reason the bank letters for 36M and 72M aren’t represented in addresses in Finale 3D is twofold:   1) Because the highest pin (i.e., cue) number is 18, not 36 or 72. A 36M or 72M is essential 2 modules or 4 modules packaged together. By contrast, the Mongoose system has an option for 2 slats of 24 pins because the pins on the actual physical module are 1 through 48.   2) Because the COBRA script format doesn’t use three-part addresses that include letters. A three-part address would be something like 01-A-12 which would represent module 1, bank A, pin 12. Instead, all COBRA addresses are two-part (just module and cue). By contrast, the fireTEK script format uses three-part addresses that include module, slat, and pin.   For these reasons, it’s really not possible for Finale 3D to represent the bank letters for the 36M or 72M in addresses. As a future improvement, we might be able to represent the modules another way. In the meantime, using one of the notes columns or another custom column in the script window is your best bet. In terms of the manual work required, I think it might be less than you think. Did you know that you can mass update script rows by selecting them, right clicking, and selecting ‘Edit properties’? This means you can just filter your script to module numbers or positions that will use 36Ms, press Ctrl+A to select all, right click, select Edit properties, and add a note to all the rows simultaneously. Then, just repeat the process for the 72Ms.