Menu

Show Settings
Page: 1
The Show Settings panel is automatically opened when creating a new show, and can also be accessed at any time from the settings menu shown in Figure 2. This panel is where all the basic settings for the currently opened show are set. The settings are divided into three main areas: information about the show, settings for the scripting environment and default prefire times.

Show Settings
The set of form fields in the Show Settings group are mostly self explanatory. The Show Name field is required and will be displayed in the title bar of the main window when the show is loaded. This is also the name that will appear in the report headers and also the Show Manager listing.

The Shoot Site, Designed By, Fired By and Notes fields are all optional. This information is displayed on printed reports and also on the show summary area of the Show Manager when browsing shows.

The three date fields are also optional and displayed on reports and the show summary of the Show Manager. The Show Date is the date the show will actually be fired, while the Check-out date represents the date all material will be removed from inventory. The check-in date represents the date that mortars and racks will be returned to inventory. The check-in and check-out dates are used by the Inventory Alert panel when checking for product and rack shortages. Incorrect dates in these two fields can cause false alarms when checking for inventory alerts, but can otherwise be left in their default state if you do not use the inventory alert feature.

The notes area can be used to enter special notes for the show, which will also appear in the show summary data when viewing shows in the Show Manager.

Hardware Presets
This list contains the names of popular firing systems and is used to automatically set default values for the other fields that match the hardware configuration. Selecting one of the systems in the list will preset the module and cue count to equal the limits of the system, and also set the cue numbering convention to match what is used by the manufacturers own software. Note that these values can still be altered after selecting a preset, as in setting the module count to the number of modules you actually have available for example.

Module Count
By setting the module count to the actual number of modules available in the show, you can prevent the show from growing beyond its module capacity limitation. Otherwise you can set this value to the maximum number of modules supported by you hardware system.

Cues per Module The number of cues supported by your modules can be entered here to insure that the cue numbering will not exceed your hardware capacity. The cues per module setting will also control the number of switches shown on the manual firing panel. This field is not optional and can not be set to zero.

Cue Numbering This setting effects the cue naming convention used throughout ShowSim. Each cue in the script will be labeled according to one of the following conventions:

Alpha-Numeric - this convention uses a letter followed by a number for the module and a number for the cue on that module, such as A1-1 for the first cue on module A. In cases where more than 26 modules are used, the number that follows the letter will be increased, such as A2-1. Z1 would represent the 26th module, A2 the 27th, B2 the 28th etc.

Numeric-Numeric - this format uses a number for both the module and the cues, with the numbers starting at 1 for the first module and cue.

PyroDigital Hex - this cue numbering system is exclusive to PyroDigital firing systems and is supported here for those who are used to working with it. The module is represented by a two digit hex number and can range from 00 to FF, while the cue number is a single digit hex number that can range from 0 to F. Note that module count and cues per module are auto-set and locked to 256 and 16 respectively when this mode is selected.

Continuous - in this format, the module is always set to 1 and the cues are given sequentially increasing numbers from 1 to X, where X is the total number of cues in the script.

Zero Based Numeric - This format is the same as Numeric-Numeric, except the module and cue numbers begin with zero instead of one.

PyroSure Format – This format is used by the PyroSure firing system and uses three components: A module number that begins from 1, a slat letter that ranges from A to F and a cue number starting from 1.

Cobra Format – This format is used by the Cobra firing systems and uses a number for the module which starts from zero and a number for the cue which starts from one.

Fire Pioneer – This format is used by the Fire Pioneer firing systems and uses a number for the module which starts from one and a number for the cue which starts from zero.

Time Format
The time format selection box is used to specify one of five common time formats used when displaying times. The format specified here will be used for all cue times in the cue editor, printed reports, time clock display and when dragging cues on the time line. The time format can be changed at any time without affecting the accuracy of recorded cue times, since all internal time formats are stored in the highest resolution format to eliminate rounding errors.

.01 accuracy This is the highest resolution time setting, which is also the internal resolution that ShowSim uses for all times regardless of the output time format. Time values are accurate to within one hundredth of a second.

.1 accuracy This common time format, also called "Standard" in some systems, is accurate to within one tenth of a second.

SMPTE 24 The fractional seconds of this time format are represented by frame numbers ranging from 0 to 23. Thus the accuracy of this format is 1/24th of second ( .0417 seconds ). The first frame begins with zero, while the 24th frame appears as 23. For example, a time of exactly 5.96 seconds would be represented as 00:00:05.23.

SMPTE 25 The fractional seconds of this time format are represented by frame numbers ranging from 0 to 24. Thus the accuracy of this format is 1/25th of second ( .04 seconds ). The first frame begins with zero, while the 25th frame appears as 24. For example, a time of exactly 5.96 seconds would be represented as 00:00:05.24.

SMPTE 30 The fractional seconds of this time format are represented by frame numbers ranging from 0 to 29. Thus the accuracy of this format is 1/30th of second ( .033 seconds ). The first frame begins with zero, while the 30th frame appears as 29. For example, a time of exactly 5.96 seconds would be represented as 00:00:05.29.

Default Units
This field is used to control weather English units (inches and pounds) or metric units (millimeters and grams) are used on the various screens within ShowSim. In many cases both English and Metric units are shown together, but where space does not permit this then the default unit specified here will be used. Some screens have their own unit specification which can override this setting.

Duration
The duration of your show must be specified here, which will in turn determine the range of time displayed in the Time Line window. If you are using a soundtrack file and want the duration to equal the duration of the soundtrack, you can check the "Use Music Duration" box and the time will be determined from the file you enter in the Soundtrack field.

Soundtrack
The soundtrack field is where you specify the file name of the music your show will be fired to. The file used here can be a mono or stereo “wave” file having the .wav file extension. Other file formats must be converted to a .wav file using a converter utility prior to use with ShowSim. The format of the wave file must be 44100 Hz (44.1 KHz), 16 bit stereo with no compression in order to work properly when creating videos. If the music is out of synch in your videos, it is usually because the sample rate was something other than 44.1KHz or because the program used to create the .wav file implemented some form of compression.

Typically you will create one large sound file by editing together music from several separate song files before even starting to create your show. This can be done with one of several sound editors on the market.

If you store your music files in the Soundtrack directory under your ShowSim install directory, then you need only type the file name in this field to specify it. Otherwise you can use the Find button to locate the music file if it is stored somewhere else.

Default Prefire Times
This array of number fields represents the default prefire times that will be used when creating a show without using inventory stock. You can enter custom values manually into these fields, or you can select from one of several manufacturers in the Preset list to auto-set all the prefire times to those given by the manufacturer.

When adding effects on each cue of your show, these prefire times will be auto-set for each effect except in the case where you are using effects from your inventory database. Each effect item in an inventory database is assigned a specific prefire time, typically one that the show designer measures directly from firing the real product. When building shows from inventory, the custom prefire time will be used rather than the default prefire times given here. It is also possible to override the default prefire time on any given effect once it is in your show. Thus fine tuning special items can be done regardless of the prefire settings given here or in the inventory items.

These default prefire times are mainly used as a time-saving convenience when scripting non-musical shows where exact timing is not necessary.

Page 1


Figure 1: The Show Settings panel.
Figure 1: The Show Settings panel.



Figure 2: Accessing the Show Settings from the settings menu on the main toolbar.
Figure 2: Accessing the Show Settings from the settings menu on the main toolbar.


 


Home  |  Purchase  |  Forum  |  Documentation  |  Videos  |  Information  |  Contact Us