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Elation COMPU WARE 2004 User Manual

Elation COMPU WARE 2004 User Manual

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USER MANUAL
COMPU WARE 2004
Getting started manual
Elation Professional 4295 Charter St Los Angeles CA 90058 USA
tel (323) 582-3322 Fax (323) 582-3108 e-mail:
support@elationlighting.com
Revised 3/1/2005
1
www.elationlighting.com
Getting start manual

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  • Page 1 USER MANUAL COMPU WARE 2004 Getting started manual Elation Professional 4295 Charter St Los Angeles CA 90058 USA tel (323) 582-3322 Fax (323) 582-3108 e-mail: support@elationlighting.com Revised 3/1/2005 www.elationlighting.com Getting start manual...
  • Page 2 2004 software Manual © 1989-2005 SUNLITE is a trademark of Bruno Nicolaudie. WINDOWS is a trademark of the MISCROSOFT CORPORATION. All rights reserved. No parts of this work may be reproduced in any form or by any means - graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or information storage and retrieval systems - without the written permission of the publisher.

  • Page 3: Table Of Contents

    Table of Contents Part I Other manuals Part II Preface Part III Contents and installation ........................... 4 1 How to install the USB-DMX 512 ........................... 7 2 How to install 2004 Software Part IV Getting start manual ........................... 10 1 Customizing the user screen ...........................
  • Page 4 The Multimedia files ................................. 67 Easy Show software ................................. 67 Easy Multimedia ................................. 68 ........................... 70 5 Hints and tips Using "INIT" button ................................. 70 Installing several software-disks ................................. 70 Using several USB Interfaces ................................. 70 Part VI Appendix ........................... 71 1 Commands summary ...........................

  • Page 5: Part I Other Manuals

    Other manuals Other manuals are available for softwares listed below: 3D Software ScanLibray Editor Easy Show 2004 software Manual...

  • Page 6: Part Ii Preface

    Preface Welcome. If you belong to those people who are familiar with and keen on, software systems and/or computerized light-controllers, then you must be very similar to us... If you have an eager inquiring mind and if you wish to rapidly create some "effects" then, once again, you are very similar to us, you would probably rather enjoy discovering up-to-date software functions and potentialities than read a thick instructions-manual.

  • Page 7: Part Iii Contents And Installation

    Contents and installation This package contains : · "step-by-step" manual, · CDROM, · USB-DMX512 interface. To be fully operational, this package should be used with a PC having the following features : · Laptop or desktop computer with USB port ·...

  • Page 8: How To Install The Usb-Dmx 512

    How to install the USB-DMX 512 OVERVIEW The USB standard defines a new type of serial-communication as well as a new type of connector. This standard was introduced in 1997 and has been spreading ever since 2001. It offers many advantages in comparison with former standards. For instance, it allows devices to be directly powered via the USB port as well the simultaneous use of several devices at once.
  • Page 9 USB INSTALLATION The USB interface is set and ready to use. When using one for the first time, it is necessary that the USB drivers should be installed. Actually, when first installing them, the files required to use the interface will be installed inside your PC, whether using a laptop or a desktop computer. In order to install USB interface, just connect it to your PC even if it is switched on.
  • Page 10 That's it, you are away ! Your USB-DMX is now operational ! If this window does not appear or if any other problem arises, which is very unlikely to happen, please contact your retailer. software is operational up to 10 simultaneous interfaces, that is 5120 channels as a 2004 Software whole.

  • Page 11: How To Install 2004 Software

    How to install 2004 Software In this chapter, you will find step-by-step guidance to install the software. First step : insert the CDrom. The "CD-Rom setup" dialog-box automatically appears on the screen. You can install software as shown below: 2004 Software Click on 2004-icon to start software installation.
  • Page 12 Once installation has been completed, you can easily start the software by clicking on the Windows"Start" button. On launching the application, you can see the following screen. If the interface has been properly installed, its reference can be found back: "1SL512FC" here, for instance. Otherwise, the software will work in demo-mode.

  • Page 13: Part Iv Getting Start Manual

    Getting start manual This step-by-step manual has been written especially for you. It describes the main functions and presents the specific features of our product and will be used as a step-by-step guide when implementing the system for the first time. Our goal was to write out a most concise, efficient and clear guide-book, keeping in mind what would be most useful to the new user.

  • Page 14: Customizing The User Screen

    Customizing the user screen When used for the first time, the software can be visualized as a button grid. Utilizing the icons in the toolbar, the screen can be divided in several areas: Displays window to visualize "Pages " Displays window to visualize "Cycles" Displays window to visualize "Outputs"...
  • Page 15 These windows can be moved into a re-sizeable and/or hidden floating window. Such notions as "pages" and "cycles" will be defined later, but first of all, let's have a look at the main area, that is the button grid. Activation of these buttons will allow you to conduct your lighting- control.

  • Page 16: Creating Our First Show

    Creating our first show 4.2.1 Let us start with 6 SPOT 575 We are about to create our first show with 6 . We just need to know the DMX address of SPOT 575 our first fixture and the software will be automatically inserting our 6 moving heads with their correct address.
  • Page 17 Select the profile of our fixtures from the "ScanLibrary". Click on explore to browse the "ScanLibrary" directory. Browse the "ScanLibrary" to find our SPOT 575 profile. Open the folder of the manufacturer and select the correct library. Once the library has been selected, click on "Next"...
  • Page 18 Here, enter the DMX address of our first fixture. So, specify 1 for our first SPOT 575 Then, specify the number of fixtures (6 for us) and click on "Next" button to carry on. Here we should be able to see the beams of our SPOT and select "Yes"...
  • Page 19 We decide not to change the highest X&Y amplitude for our first page. This means we will use the maximum amplitudes of our SPOT 575 Then, click on "Next" to go to the next step. Here is one the most important step.
  • Page 20 We are now testing the "@Pan Move 2" scene with our moving heads. We can run the scene either independently on each fixture or with all of them by selecting "Same For all". In this example, we will be modifying the moving-area for only one of our SPOT 575 First of all, we would like to...
  • Page 21 Then, we click on "OK" to save the modifications. You can click on "Cancel" to use the default settings. Here, we can select the pre- programmed switches we want to add to our page. For each channel of our SPOT (list on the left side) we can check or uncheck the available presets (list on the...

  • Page 22: Using Ou First Page

    4.2.2 Using ou first page Once created the page appears as follows. All the pre-programmed scenes and switches have been created and our fixtures are now ready to be used. It is now important to give a short description of the page. The page is an independent window that can be moved, resized and/or attached to the software window.
  • Page 23 The page appears as follows with a few buttons selected. If we think that the movement is too fast, we can decrease the speed by moving the SPEED fader on the button (we can also increase if we want). You can see the fader below. There is one fader per scene, so you can specify a different speed for each of them.

  • Page 24: Creating A New Scene

    4.2.3 Creating a new scene Now we want to save this effect in one scene. To do that, we must go to the "Button" menu and select "New scene". The following window appears. We select the option "As you see now" which means that we want to create a new scene including all activated buttons.

  • Page 25: Using The Sortcuts

    4.2.4 Using the sortcuts Our new scene is now available in our page. We can test it to check whether everything has been saved. To release all the buttons, we can double-click on the "INIT" scene. However, this should be easier if we had a key shortcut to do so.

  • Page 26: Using The "Take" Buttons

    4.2.5 Using the "TAKE" buttons We will now see how to use the "Take" buttons and what we can do with them. They are easy to use and very useful for "Live" applications or to create a new scene without movement. They are made with the "LiveControl"...

  • Page 27: Using The Drag&Drop

    4.2.6 Using the Drag&Drop Imagine now that we want to adjust the focus of our fixtures. We click on the "Focus" button and we move the fader until the good position. This means that we keep the same settings for our 6 fixtures, we will see later how to setup a different value for each fixture.

  • Page 28: Modifying The Show

    Modifying the show 4.3.1 What is the difference between a scene and a switch It is very important to understand the difference between scenes and switches to use the software. Let us see what is the difference. Scenes The "scene" buttons belong to an exclusive type (one button at a time). Activating a "scene" button automatically releases the previous button of the same type.
  • Page 29 How to operate LTP switches LTP-priority is the mots commonly-used mode for Switch buttons it is therefore important to have good command of this mode. The basic principle is: "the latest LTP switch which is activated takes priority." Caution: this priority can only apply on the channels required. In the case of moving light, the "Gobo" Switches will only operate on the channels corresponding to the Gobos and will have no effect whatsoever on the overs channels.

  • Page 30: How To Make A Fade Between Two Scenes

    4.3.2 How to make a fade between two scenes It is possible to fade from one scene to another one. For instance, this is really useful to go from one position to another one very slowly, to open/close the dimmer of your lights...A few things need to be checked before to start programming our 2 scenes.
  • Page 31 First we start the "@Center" scene to open the beams and to place the fixtures in centre position. After that, we use the TAKE buttons to move our 6 fixtures to the correct positions. When all fixtures are ready, we can save the scene by calling the "New Scene" window from the "Button" menu and selecting "As you see now"...
  • Page 32 Here, we can leave the default settings which are 5 seconds for the Fade In/Out times and no time before Fade In/Out. We can click on OK when it is finished and our first scene is now ready to be used.

  • Page 33: How To Program A "Scene" Or A "Switch

    4.3.3 How to program a "Scene" or a "Switch" Now that we have defined the role of different buttons, let's turn to important matters. To program a button, just click it (1) then select "Edit" (2) (from the button-menu). An icon from the tool-bar or shortcut keys can also be used.

  • Page 34: The "Editor" Screen

    4.3.3.1 The "Editor" screen In the upper part of "Editor" you will find a number of modules which you can use. The "EasyTime" module is the most important one and is the best tool to control your channels in step time. It is displayed first and should be mastered first for convenience.

  • Page 35: How To Use The "Editor

    4.3.3.2 How to use the "Editor" To use the "Editor", select the mode (1) then assign it to the leds of the channels you wish to program (2). There you are ! (3). Each channel displays a specific icon which clearly shows its programming-type. The following icons may be found: "ON"...
  • Page 36 On/Off mode It is used to program a channel in set "On" mode as long as the scene is activated. "On" mode is activated (set position : 100%) by clicking left-clicking. "Off" mode is activated (set position : 0%) by clicking right-clicking.

  • Page 37: What Is The Difference Between Dimmer And On/Off Modes

    4.3.3.3 What is the difference between dimmer and On/Off modes By default, when programming a "Scene" or a "Switch" for the first time, all the channels are in "off" mode. A channel in "On" mode is very similar to a channel in 100% "Dimmer" mode. Likewise, a channel in "Off"...

  • Page 38: Programming A Scene With Easy Step

    4.3.3.4 Programming a scene with Easy Step The Easy Step rack allows to create simple steps scenes. These steps can fade or not between each of them. To use the rack, you must select the appropriate function (fade or not) and then link it up to the outputs. "EASY STEP"...
  • Page 39 If you are using "Easy Step" on Pan&Tilt channels you can see the following area below the list of steps. Each step can be moved individually with the mouse. A step can be selected by clicking on the corresponding point (shape area) or directly from the list of steps. Each step has its own wait and fade time.

  • Page 40: Easytime

    4.3.3.5 "EasyTime" 4.3.3.5.1 How to use "EasyTime" Easy Time is an advanced tool which must be used to program movements (circle, curve...). If you want to simply create steps, it is easier to use Easy Step. "EasyTime" is a tool which enables you to control channels in time. Each channel is programmed independently.
  • Page 41 Now a little training... Things will go smoothly once the channel has been set in "EasyTime" mode as was done for "On" or "Dimmer" modes. Just click "EasyTime" mode to pilot all the channels required in "EasyTime" mode (click and drag leds).

  • Page 42: 4.3.3.5.2 How To Use "Easytime" For Movement

    4.3.3.5.2 How to use "EasyTime" for movement If you use moving lights, this software contains extremely quick basic functions to create sophisticated vectorial motion-effects. The first interesting figure you may wish to create is a circle. To do so, right-click anywhere in X/Y area then select "Generate a Circle"...
  • Page 43 To add or delete a point, several methods can be used : · Select the cells corresponding to the referential point (2,or 4 cells if the fixture has micro-steps) then use "Cut,Copy or Insert" from toolbar. · Click right on the point and select "Cut","Copy" or "Insert " from menu. There are 3 different types of vectorial movements : ·...

  • Page 44: 4.3.3.5.3 Tools And Options

    4.3.3.5.3 Tools and options EasyTime : "Fade" function The "Fade" function makes it possible to create a fade-effect in between 2 cells by computing intermediate values. It can only be used with cells in "Not vectorial" mode (red cells). To use the "Fade" function, first select a block of vertical cells, then click on "Fade" function. You will then have an alternative : "linear"...

  • Page 45: Racks

    4.3.3.6 "Racks" The 2004 software advanced features for "Scene" and "Switches" editing - called "racks" - enable the creation of a wide range of effects in no time : · CHASER : enables you to work out an adjustable speed chaser with a maximum of 16 channels. ·...

  • Page 46: Copy/Paste

    4.3.3.7 Copy/Paste This feature is available with "EasyTime" and "EasyStep" racks, let us see now how to use it. With this new tool, you can quickly copy and paste a sequence to one or several fixtures. When your sequence is ready to be pasted to the other fixtures you must click on the "Copy" button (below the "EasyTime"...
  • Page 47 How to create a "wave" or a rainbow effect In this part we will learn how to make a wave with your fixtures. We must create a tilt movement with our first fixture. So, we click with the right button in the shape area and we select "Automatic Lines" with 2 points.

  • Page 48: Color Manager

    4.3.3.8 Color Manager The "Color Manager" tool is basically a colour editor for RGB or CMY fixtures. It allows to create either static or dynamic colour sequences very easily. Imagine you want to load a bitmap or simply write a text on your matrix of LEDs, "Color Manager" will help you to make it in a few seconds. To open "Color Manager", click with the right button of your mouse on a color mixing channel in the editor screen.
  • Page 49 Text wizard The text wizard allows to write easily a text on your matrix. You can make either static or scrolling text, choose the font, the background color...You must click on the "T" button ("Wizard" area) to open the following window. Here we must enter our text and then choose a font and a colour.

  • Page 50: Changing The Speed, Size Or The Dimmer Of My Scene

    4.3.4 Changing the SPEED, SIZE or the DIMMER of my scene As we saw in the previous chapter, it is possible to have a "FADER" on a button : scene or switch. These faders can have 3 different functions, SPEED, DIMMER and SIZE. Each button can have its own faders.
  • Page 51 The Dimmer function This function allows to modify easily the DMX level of some channels in a button in real-time. If the library of your fixture has been made correctly you should have a DIMMER fader on Dimmer, Zoom, Iris, Focus...channels. This helps you to modify the channels intensity without editing the buttons. It can also be very useful to use this function for conventional lighting (PAR...), this make a button allowing to modify the beam intensity in real-time.
  • Page 52 Close the editor screen (do not forget to save the modifications). The switch is now ready to be used and we will add a DIMMER fader on it. To do so, open the "Button settings..." window and go to the "Dimmer/Speed"...

  • Page 53: How To Use Our Fixtures Independently

    4.3.5 How to use our fixtures independently Thanks to this tool, it is possible to create groups of fixtures in a single page. Programming time will be significantly reduced as well as access time to the various functions of each fixture for a LIVE use.

  • Page 54: How To Program Groups

    4.3.5.1 How to program groups Group programming is run from the below window. To have access to it, you should first go in the page parameters and then click on group tab. Just remember that the page parameters are accessed through the "Page" menu from the 2004 software version. To create, suppress or change a group, you should click on the right mouse button in the white area above so that the following menu appears on the screen: You will then be able to create a new group, rename it or destroy it and also allocate it a keyboard...

  • Page 55: How To Use Groups With Both Main And Editor Screens

    4.3.5.2 How to use groups with both main and editor screens The choice is yours to display or not the "Group" toolbar on the main screen. If you choose to do so, all you have to do is select "Groups" in the "Window" menu of the 2004 software version or click on the following button in the standard toolbar: You can also choose to display or not the "Groups"...
  • Page 56 Editor Mode Here, only the two previous modes are present. Before using the group function, you should first select one of the two options. Once you have pressed the selected button, you only have to run the programming on one of the fixtures. The same programming will be allocated to the whole set of fixtures belonging to the same group.

  • Page 57: How To Create A Cue

    4.3.6 How to create a Cue Considering you have managed to read this manual so far, you have now acquired some skill in programming your own light-effects. You know that this software works with buttons, under each of which there is a time-sheet that can be programmed individually. The "Scene"...
  • Page 58 Playing back a cycle Unbelievably enough, to play back a "Cycle", all you have to do is click on the corresponding button. A "Cycle" can record any button-triggering such as "Scene", "Switch" but also another "Cycle". Programming a "Cycle"-sequence is therefore made possible. These software-potentialities are virtually unlimited unlike, of course, your PC's hardware and memory are limited.

  • Page 59: Part V Advanced Software Features

    Advanced software features Using the "patch" It is very important to know the difference between channels and outputs. The outputs are the DMX channels. The patch can be straight or not. This means that the channel 1 of a page can be linked to the DMX channel 1 or not.
  • Page 60 Modifying the offset Open the "Page Settings..." window and go to the "General" tab to modify the offset. Imagine you want to send the DMX information on the second universe, you will have to specify an offset to shift the outputs to the second DMX interface. To do so, enter 512 in the "Patch to DMX outputs" area as shown below.

  • Page 61: Playing With The Outputs Window

    Playing with the outputs window The outputs window makes it possible to visualize in real time the channels level of one page or of all DMX outputs. Moreover, you will be able to directly change channels settings in most of the available modes thanks to this same menu.

  • Page 62: Setting Channel Level Manually

    5.2.2 Setting channel level manually Channels can be set by means of five different modes. Within the default mode each particular channel is represented by a red icon bearing AUTO. With this activated mode, scene or switches have priority. If you wish to set channel manually, click right. The following menu appears on screen: Five channel control modes are at your disposal : ·...

  • Page 63: External Triggering

    External triggering 5.3.1 MIDI features Available only in First Class version Using MIDI functions does not require any specific option. The sound cards currently include MIDI interface and connection is made on Joystick port (SUB-D15). You can also use a MIDI to USB converter if there is no MIDI port on your computer (e.g laptop).

  • Page 64: Midi Notes (On-Off Trigerring)

    5.3.1.3 MIDI Notes (ON-OFF trigerring) Use of MIDI Notes in ON/OFF mode is convenient to trigger buttons. Up to 1600 different buttons can be triggered (16 MIDI channels, 100 notes/channel) For such use, make sure : · that your computer is equipped with a MIDI card (usually included in sound card) ·...

  • Page 65: Advanced Triggering

    5.3.1.5 Advanced triggering It is possible to trigger several functions with a MIDI controller. For instance, you can control the DIMMER, SPEED and SIZE faders, freeze the outputs...It is also possible to select the buttons (scenes, switches, cycles) or select the pages with a MIDI command. To setup the MIDI options, open the "Page Settings..."...

  • Page 66: Dmx In Features

    5.3.2 DMX IN features 5.3.2.1 User screen The DMX input features require a DMX input interface. Several functions can be triggered by DMX input channels on the user screen. You can start a button (scene, switch or cycle), control the SPEED and DIMMER faders... Buttons triggering Open the "Button Settings..."...

  • Page 67: Editor Screen

    Faders control The SPEED and DIMMER faders can be controlled by DMX input channels. Imagine that you want to control the DIMMER fader with the DMX channel 1. Open the "Page Settings..." window and go to the "Trigger" tab. Select "Page dimmer" and the DMX channel from the list as shown below. Now, you can modify the dimmer of your page in real time with your external DMX controller.

  • Page 68: How To Trigger My Show With Pc Clock And Calendar

    5.3.3 How to trigger my show with PC clock and calendar Available only in First Class version can be triggered by Time (PC clock and calendar). This feature is available only in 2004 Software First Class version and is very useful for architectural lighting. You must open the following window to setup time triggering ("Button"...

  • Page 69: How To Use External Contacts To Trigger My Show

    5.3.4 How to use external contacts to trigger my show Available only in First Class version. A 10-pin connector is available on the USB-DMX interface and makes possible to send 8 different contacts to the software. The reference of the connector is HE 10 (male). You don't need to send any power to the connector.
  • Page 70 Cycles triggering It is possible to trigger the playback function of the cycles in a page. To do that we must open the "Page Settings..." window and go to the "Trigger" tab. Several options are available : play and stop the current cycle, jump to previous and next steps...

  • Page 71: Multimedia Features

    Multimedia features 5.4.1 The Multimedia files A button can trigger multimedia functions. You just have to place files with the following extensions into "Multimedia_data" folder : · WAV Sound files · AVI Video files · MID MIDI files · MPE MPEG Video files ·...

  • Page 72: Easy Multimedia

    5.4.3 Easy Multimedia The Easy Multimedia program allows to read and analyze a sound data through a sound card or straight through computer files (CD, WAV files...). Tempo and BPM can thus be picked out. Moreover, within the First Class software version, bass, medium and treble filters are made available in the SOUND TO LIGHT tab.
  • Page 73 The BPM tab allows to follow the tempo of a tune. The record level is automatically computed, still it may be better-adjusted by clicking "AUTO" in the right-hand lower part of the window. The minimum trigger level can there be adjusted. Sound to Light The SOUND TO LIGHT tab allows BASS, medium and treble filters parameters to be set according to the type of sound as well as to what sound effect is expected.

  • Page 74: Hints And Tips

    Hints and tips 5.5.1 Using "INIT" button On each page, there is a special scene called "INIT" in the top-left corner. It is important to become familiar with what this scene is used for: · Whenever the software is started, each page will automatically play its own "INIT" scene. ·...

  • Page 75: Part Vi Appendix

    Appendix Commands summary User's screen FEATURES EQUIVALENT MENUS SHORTCUTS Creating a new page "Page" "New page" Alt+N Open archive "Page" "Open archive..." Alt+O Save archive "Page" "Save archive..." Alt+S Freeze channel "Page" "'Live' Page toolbar" "Freeze" Short channel level setting "Page"...
  • Page 76 Editor screen FEATURES EQUIVALENT MENUS SHORTCUTS Close and save Alt+S Close without saving Alt+Q Channel-level display in DMX value Ctrl+D Channel-level display in % Ctrl+P No channel-level display Ctrl+N Visualize right hand part of the RIGHT (pointer) channel-list Visualize left hand part of the LEFT (pointer) channels list Display preset-list...

  • Page 77: Troubleshooting

    Troubleshooting SYMPTOMS CAUSES REMEDIES Software cannot read USB USB cable is not connected properly Check cable connection or interface or USB port is faulty use another USB port Interface leds are switched off "Intelligent USB DMX Interface" is See section "How to install not mentioned in list of devices : USB-DMX 512 interface"...

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