Patched fixtures turn gray.

[Theo74]

Hi there,

To start honestly, I'm a newbee in Daslight software. So before I even launched Daslight 4, I looked at quite some YouTube tutorials, to get used to the software first. After this I made my first stept in to Daslight, and I found one unknown issue:

When I patch 2 moving heads in to Daslight, all goes well. 2 square blocks appear, etc.
Then, when I add 4 RGB PARs, the 2 moving heads gray out, and can not be moved, etc.
I begun all over, with the PARs first, etc. but everytime the same result, previous fixtures gray out, and are blocked.

I checked the online manual, but unfortunately this is not more than a generic quick start, so I realy don't know how to proceed. Most probably it's a very simple setting/action, but I just can't find the right button or action to do so...
When working in Daslight 4, I don't have my DVC4 Gold conncted, becasue I think that shouldn't be nessesary. Is it..?

[TomHat]

Hello,

When you add a new type of fixture into your show, the software automatically creates a new section in the bottom part of the window that will contain all specific controls needed to command your fixtures.

You can see the different sections in the very bottom of the window. Click them to switch from one type of fixture to another. Or click "General" to see them all at once.

See attached file for a screenshot.

Sans titre.png (224.37 KiB) Viewed 12228 times

Regards,

[Theo74]

Hi TomHat,

Thank you for the quick reply and the explanation. To be honest I feel a bit stupid, not noticing an extra tab was added.
I understand now, that every added fixture is set in to a different section, in which you can seperately manipulate the settings.

One question in addition to this primairly patching part:

When I add the "Showtec Phantom 75 LED Spot" moving heads, and I create a rainbow effect, the 3D visualiser only shows the moving heads giving a weak pulsing white light.
After investigating the patch settings better, I found that most of the fader checkboxes of the DMX channels for this moving head are not standard checked, even with the Mode1 = 14ch activated. Including the colorwheel. Checking them all solved this.
What is the reason why some mandatory checkboxes are not standard checked in the fixture libary?

[TomHat]

Hello,

No problem you not noticing this feature actually made us realize that we didn't make it clear enough when designing the software. Sorry for that !

About your question:
"What is the reason why some mandatory checkboxes are not standard checked in the fixture libary?"
The reason is quite simple : the person who edited this profile in the first place might have omitted to check these boxes.

All (or most) fixture profiles available on our website and/or delivered with your install of Daslight have been edited by our technicians over the years, based on our customers' requests and the documentation they provide. It could be that some profiles contain small mistakes for different reasons.

You can edit the fixture profile using the software called "ScanLibrary Editor" if you feel confortable enough with it.

Hope this helps.

Regards,

[Theo74]

Hi TomHat,

On your advise I opened up ScanLibary Editor to investigate what settings I can adjust, etc.
Because I changed 3 gobo's in the real moving heads, I could also change them in the ScanLibary Editor now, perfect!
After I changed the gobo's in the Editor, I saved the changes as a new ssl2 file with a new name, in the ScanLibary map.

When I opened Daslight 4 and selected the new moving head ssl2 file, they appear in the Universe and 3D visualiser.
But when I select the gobo's to check, I only see the old gobo's, and not the 3 new gobo's I just exchanged and saved.

What did I do wrong?
(I wanted to upload the old and new ssl2 files, but .ssl2 files are not accepted in this message as attachements.)

[TomHat]

Hello,

You can just add your SSL2 files into a .zip archive file and send it in your next message. Please note that your ssl files will only contain the path to your gobo files, so maybe make sure your images are saved in the correct folder :

Something like "Daslight4\ScanLibrary\icon\" should be perfect.

Regards,

[Theo74]

Hi TomHat,

The updated ssl2 files I made, are saved in the same map of Showtec fixtures. When I search in this Showtec map with Daslight library I see it, and patch it in to the Universe.
Attached you'll find the .zip file with both the original Spot file, and the updated Theo file. The updated file only contains 3 new gobo's. 2 gobo's, Triangulair and Dots Ring, came from the Scan Libary Editor default gobo library, and 1, the Fanning gobo, I imported my self by adding a square shaped gobo image file.

[TomHat]

Hello,

Does it work better is you save your gobo file into "Daslight4\ScanLibrary\icon\GSchermafbeelding 2019-11-03 om 15.45.28" ?

Regards,

[Theo74]

Hi TomHat,

I can understand that the filepath of a gobo is wrong, and therefore is not imported in to the fixture sll2 file.
But 2 of the 3 new gobo's I changed, are from the ScanLibary Editor - Gobo Preset it self... (see picture)
Do I need to make seperate file paths for those 2 gobos from the ScanLibary Editor also then..?

[TomHat]

Hello,

Just for test purpose, would this work better ?

Phantom 75 LED Theo - FIXED.zip

(56.49 KiB) Downloaded 545 times

Regards,

[Theo74]

Unfortunately both my Theo and your's Theo FIXED updated ssl2 file gave the same result as an orignal Phantom 75 LED spot ssl2 file. The gobo's remain the factory default versions, and the 3 new added are not visible.

Instead of pathing a fixture from the Daslight 4 libary, I placed your FIXED file on the dekstop. Then I opened this ssl2 file by clicking at the fixture libary top on "Import fixture", and selected the FIXED ssl2 file from the desktop. This also gave no result, I only see the factory default gobos.

[Theo74]

Any news about the gobo's/ssl2 file TomHat?

[TomHat]

Hello,

Yes, I finally found the time to look into it properly. It seems actually that everytime you import a new gobo image via ScanLibrary Editor it saves it automatically as a .evg and .ico files into its "ScanLibrary/icon/" folder.

This means :
- If you take your SSL file to another computer, you will need to copy these two files into this computer's "ScanLibrary/icon/" folder.
- If you re-install Daslight4, you will need to make sure these files are saved again in the "ScanLibrary/icon/" folder.

So here is my question : Could it be that you actually edited your ssl file using a different computer/Daslight4-install than the one you're using to create your showfile ? If that's the case, you should find the file named
"ScanLibrary/icon/GSchermafbeelding 2019-11-03 om 15.45.28"
and copy it into your usual Daslight4 install, in folder "Daslight4/ScanLibrary/icon/*" .

Once this is done, both Daslight4 and EasyView2 should find the image and display it properly.

Please let me know if this helped.

Best regards,

[Theo74]

Hi TomHat,

Thank you for taking so much time to solve my Daslight issues. I truely appreciate this.

To come back on the gobo issue, I found the gobo files in the c:\\daslight4\scanlibary\icon directoy. (see pic)
I've changed the gobo's in the same editor software, on the same Window 10 PC, no changes in this part.
I only imported 1 external gobo image (Fan), the other 2 (Triangle and Dot ring) are from the scanlibary it self.
That 1 gobo could have a wrong filepath ok, but the other 2 are existing, from the editor's scanlibary...

When adding the 3 gobo's, I've changed the name's in to Gobo5/Gobo6/Gobo7 and S-Gobo7/S-Gobo6/S-Gobo5.
(These are the original gobo names ín scanlibary editor, of the original Showtec Phantom 75 LED maving head.)
Next to this I corrected the gobo's addresses 40-54 / 55-56 / 57-70 etc. like the original gobo addresses were.
Could it be that the gobo name or gobo address changes are the cause of this no-show in EasyView issue?
When I add a new gobo (image) in scanlibary editor, the old gobo's remain in the list, and the gobo addresses count up.
After this I delete the old gobo's and correct the gobo address numbers on the right, to the original address numbers.


Next to this I often experience that the Daslight4 software crashes every now and then, out of the blue...
When I'm busy programming, all the sudden Daslight4 software stops and dissapears from the screen.
Only EasyView remains visible, and I need to restart Daslight4 in orde to continue. Hoping that all is saved.
If you want I can send some reports when this happends again. Just tell me what report where to obtain.
And this concerns Windows10 usage on a PC again.