Martin Audio MLA User Manual page 167

MLA System
USER GUIDE
You now need to enter the vertical offset from which you are taking your measurements, a tripod is strongly recommended to
keep things accurate, the only other way to keep a constant accurate figure is to measure from the floor in which case enter zero
for your vertical offset but sitting around on cold venue floors is an over-rated pastime so invest in a reasonable tripod and the
job becomes far more civilised. Measure from the ground to the tripod height you have set up and enter this figure into the
Vertical Offset box. Now click on whichever point you intend to take your measurements from, you will see the measurement
point selected shown as a yellow diamond. Having checked the Snap to Points box you can select any position on the slice and
drag along it but when you get close to the nodes the measurement diamond will jump directly onto the node, without it you
can select any point along the venue without the snap action close to the nodes.
Now click on one of the positions on the list of points top left that you wish to enter the dimensions, in the following picture, the
stage is 2 metres high and 8 metres deep with the flying points 0.5 metres off stage. All points were entered very quickly and
using the method described above, the first 4 nodes were corrected. Enable Survey was then selected and the array flying point
node 4 was selected. We want to measure to node 8 at the bottom of the front of the balcony so we click on the distance figure
for that node;-
You can now enter the distance figure that the Disto has measure from that point to the bottom of the balcony, hit Tab and enter
the angle. You will see the drawing adjust to your figures and in the Survey box you will see the distance and height coordinates
from your measurement position to what you are measuring calculated from the diagonal distance and angle you have entered.
If desired you can enter figures into these boxes if you do not have the facility to measure angles. This makes it more convenient
than measuring from the back of the stage if that area is crowded with lighting techs or backline crew etc. As before you can
quickly tab between node figures to enter all of the measurements first typing the Distance figure followed by the angle. Once
you have finished entering all figures you can un-check Enable Survey to return to standard mode and you will be able to add
the array. Once your drawing is perfectly accurate, click on the Fit drawing to Extents button to maximise it in your window.
MLA System User Guide V2.1
167