The detail editor is necessary when you need to create chained effects, such as timer chains, fanned fronts or finale chains.  Many shows use timer chains in order to lower the cue count and thus save money.  A single e-match fires a chain of effects that have delays tied into the chain to create a timed delay between each shot of the chain.  This kind of setup can be modeled and simulated quite accurately in ShowSim, giving you both a simulation and printed  reports that accurately describe the real show.

The detail editor at the bottom of the cue list.

Bucket List
The bucket list represents all buckets on the selected cue.  There must be at least one bucket assigned to the cue before an effect can be added, although in many cases the first bucket will be automatically created for you.  Every effect that is assigned to a bucket will fire at the same time, but delays can be placed between buckets to create timed chains if desired.  There is no limit on the number of buckets that can be added to this list. All the actions listed below can be performed on one or more buckets, since the bucket list supports selecting multiple buckets.

Delay - this field represents the amount of time delay that is to elapse before the selected bucket is to fire. Usually this value will be the same for all buckets when a timer chain is used, with the exception of the first bucket in the list. Thus to create a three second timer chain, you would select all buckets after the first one and then enter the number three into the delay field. The delay on the first bucket will usually always be zero. Different delays can also be specified for each bucket by setting them one at a time.

NOTE- When making large chains of rapid fire effects that have no delay between them, there is often a small delay that occurs in real life. If you construct a finale chain with zero delay between each bucket of a 200 bucket chain, the simulator will fire all 200 shots at once. What is needed is a fractional amount of random delay on each bucket, but this would be very tedious to enter by hand. Thus the preferred method for creating large finale chains is to use the Finale Wizard, which will automate the random delay process for you.

Add- this button will add a new bucket to the list.  The bucket will be empty.

Delete- this button will delete the buckets selected in the list, along with all effects assigned to each bucket.

Clone- this button will copy all selected buckets and then paste them back into the list as a new set of buckets. The results would be the same as if you clicked the Copy button followed by the Paste button.

Copy- this will copy the selected buckets to the clipboard.  All effects on the bucket will be copied as well.

Paste- this button will paste all buckets on the clipboard into the bucket list, including all the effects stored on each bucket.   If the clipboard is empty then this button will have no effect.

TEST- this button will simulate the first selected bucket, firing all effects for visual inspection.

Effect Front- this button will open the Effect Front Wizard, allowing you to create patterns or timed sequences using the selected effects.

Effect List
The effect list represents all effects on the selected bucket. All effects in this list will be fired at the same time, which will usually be the fire time of the cue itself but can also be offset by delays in the bucket list. There is no limit to how many effects can be added to the list, and different types and sizes can be mixed together into the same list. Note that double-clicking on any effect in the list will make it the active effect in the Effect Browser, making it easy to edit the effect or switch to a similar effect. Multiple effects can also be selected from this list, which will allow you to change the parameters on many effects at once.

Add- this button will add a new effect using the settings specified to the right of the effect list.

Delete- this button will remove the selected effects from the list.

Clone- this button will make a duplicate of the selected effects and add it to the list.  This is the fastest way to make multiple shots of the same effect.

Copy- this button will place a copy of the selected effects onto the clipboard.

Paste- this button will place a copy of the last effects copied onto the clipboard.

TEST- this button will fire the first selected effect in the list using the simulator for a quick visualization of where the shell will fire and what it will look like.

Effect Front- this button will open the Effect Front Wizard, allowing you to create angled configurations using the selected effects. This saves you the trouble of having to calculate individual angle values for each item and then enter them by hand.

Effect Settings
There are four basic parameters for each effect that can be set in the detail panel: position, size, angle and prefire time.  When an effect is placed from inventory, the size and prefire time fields will be locked out to prevent changes.  This is because inventory items already contain this information and it should not be changed once placed in your show.

Firing Position- the firing position setting will control where the effect is fired from on the screen.  Note that each effect can have a different firing position even though they are on the same chain of the same cue.  Normally you would not want different firing positions on the same chain, but there are a few exceptions such as close-proximity indoor shows when it is useful.

NOTE: changing the fire position selection in the cue panel will overwrite all effect firing positions with the new value.  If you do have a cue with different positions for a range of effects, then caution must be used to avoid changing the fire position at the cue level.

Effect Size- the effect size is used to specify the caliber of effect being shot, generally specified as the mortar diameter.  When using generic effects that are not tied to an inventory definition, you can specify any size you want and the effect simulation will be scaled accordingly.  If the size you need is not present in the list, such as some small caliber metric sizes, then choose the closest value and then turn off auto-naming so that you can specify the exact size in your effect description.

NOTE: changing the size selection in the cue panel will overwrite all sizes on each effect of all buckets with the new value.  If you do have a cue where all effects assigned to it are not the same size, then caution must be used to avoid changing the size field at the cue level.

Firing Angle- the firing angle is measured in degrees from the vertical position, with zero being straight up.  Note that mines and cakes can also be fired at angles.  During simulation, the actual firing angle will have a slight random deviation  from the exact angle specified in order to make the simulation more realistic.  Shells tend to spin and drift off course in the real world, so ShowSim accounts for this during simulations.

Prefire Time- the prefire time represents the delay between when a shell or effect is fired and when it actually bursts.  It is usually equal to the time fuse delay of the shell being fired.  Mines, gerbs, strobe pots and comets do not have a prefire time since they fire immediately.

The prefire time value can come from one of three sources.  If you are using an inventory item, then the prefire time will be the one specified in the inventory definition and can not be changed.  If you are using generic effects, then the prefire time will default to the value specified in the Show Settings panel for the size shell being used.  By un-checking the “use default prefire” option, you can override the default setting and manually enter a prefire time yourself.

NOTE: the size and prefire times for cakes, gerbs and strobe pots are not affected by values entered in the detail panel.  These items are replicas of real commercial products that are modeled in one size only, thus they can not be scaled using the size and prefire time setting the way generic shell effects can be.