Release Notes 1.3
Features
The latest release of grandMA3 version 1.3.1.3 rolls out several enhancements that enrich your lighting experience. Read on for a quick introduction and find links for more information.
Encoder Bar
Improved in this release
- A colored indicator stripe was added to guide the user through the available encoder page groups and attributes for the selected fixture(s). The color indicator changes with the selected attribute layer to assist the presentation of the selected layer. Furthermore, the LEDs of the dual encoders change their color, too.
- Added "Select all Steps" button next to the step selection area.
- The MAtricks button and the Align button show now their active status.
New in this release
The Encoder Bar is now available as a dedicated window. It is also possible to show/hide the grandmaster section. The encoder bar window is part of the More tab in the add window dialog.
Backup Menu
Improved in this release
The backup menu is now completely new structured. On the left side a toolbar provides several functions like Load, Save, Delete and Settings.
To execute an action in the sections "Load", "Save" and "Delete", the corresponding button in the down right corner needs to be tapped:
- Load Show: Enter a file name of an existing show in the input field or select a show file in the list. Then tap Load Show in the bottom right corner.
- New Show: Enter a file name in the input field or leave it blank. Then tap New Show in the bottom right corner. When entering the name of an already existing show, a pop-up warns the user if the show shall be overwritten. Leaving it blank creates a new show with an autogenerated show name.
- Save Show: Enter a file name of an existing show in the input field, select a show file in the list, or enter a new show name. Then tap SaveShow in the bottom right corner. When entering a new file name in the Save section, the button changes its function from Save Show to Save Show As.
- Delete Show: Enter a file name of an existing show in the input field or select a show file in the list. Then tap Delete Show in the bottom right corner.
The list of show files is always visible in order to have an overview across all show files.
The demo show folder and the backup folder are excluded in the new and save sections.
New in this release
The settings section in the backup menu offers to set up automatic savings (AutoSave) of the show. Switching AutoSaveTimeout from Off to any of the predefined intervals activates this feature. After counting down the defined time, the show will be saved automatically, and the timer starts again. When AutoSave is active, a timer will display the remaining time until the next automatic save in the title bar of the backup menu.
Filter
New in this release
Filters can now be used to filter windows. These windows are the patch, fixture sheet, sequence sheet in track sheet mode and the layout window.
To do so, create a filter, open one of the supported windows, tap MA in order to open the context menu of the window, tap Mask, tap Filter, and select the desired filter in the list.
In addition, the context menu offers the possibility to display the filter toolbar in the fixture sheet and sequence sheet. Tap Filter Toolbar in the mask tab. The filter toolbar will be displayed at the bottom of the sheet, surrounded by a blue border. Read more about the filter criteria in the paragraph below.
In the patch menu instead, tap Filter in the title bar to select a filter. Furthermore, the known temporary patch filter is still available by tapping the filter symbol in the title bar of the patch.
When a filter is set, the title bar of the window displays a blue filter symbol with the ID and label of the filter: Filter x 'Name'.
In addition to the possibility to filter by attributes, the filter editor is equipped with options to filter by Name, IDType, FixtureType, Layer, and/or Class. To create a filter edit a filter pool object and add a condition to the desired category.
With the - right of the header cell of each category, it is possible to change the filter behavior: When it is disabled, the items filtered by this category with all its criteria are displayed. If it is enabled (yellow minus symbol), the items filtered by this category are hidden.
To delete a criterion press Delete and tap the corresponding criterion in the filter editor.
New shows will add predefined filters for the different places where filtering can be applied. They are called Patch, Fixture Sheet, Sequence Sheet and Layout. These filters are already set to their corresponding windows when calling the predefined views in a new show.
Master Section and Custom Section
New in this release
A new window is available that represents the Master Section and the Custom Section. This window is mainly useful for onPC users who want to have these sections visible on their screens.
This window displays by default the label of the Custom Section Wheels, Custom Section Encoders and the Master Section.
The encoder bar window is part of the other tab in the add window dialog.
By tapping MA in the top left corner of the window the context menu opens and allows to display or hide more elements. These are:
- Custom Section Encoders: Displays or hides both, labels and hardware area of the custom encoder section.
- Encoders Label: Displays or hides the labels of the custom encoder section.
- Encoders Hardware Area: Displays or hides the hardware area of the custom encoder section.
- Custom Section Wheels: Displays or hides both, labels and hardware area of the custom wheel section.
- Wheels Label: Displays or hides the labels of the custom wheel section.
- Wheels Hardware Area: Displays or hides the hardware area of the custom wheel section.
- Master Section: Displays or hides both, labels and hardware area of the master section.
- Master Label: Displays or hides the labels of the master section.
- Master Hardware Area: Displays or hides the hardware area of the master section.
- Default Playback Buttons: Displays or hides the default playback buttons of the master section: Pause [large], Go- [large] and Go+ [large].
- Page Section: Displays or hides the page button section with Page+, Page x and Page- that is located on the right side of the executor bars.
Phaser Editor
Improved in this release
The phaser editor 1D view mode allows now to manipulate the attribute values and handles (acceleration and deceleration).
To change the attribute value, select the steps you want to manipulate, select the Move Points tool, and tap and drag up and down in the corresponding timeline of the desired attribute.
To change the handles, select the Move Handles tool, and tap and drag the desired handles in the timeline. The handles are displayed by a yellow circled dot. It is possible to drag the handles outside of the visible timeline area. To get them back, use the corresponding accel and decel encoders in the phaser encoder bar.
Other Enhancements
The command "At Speed 60" uses the speed readout specified in the user profile.
The MIB mode per cue is set into angle brackets when the cue MIB mode is set to default. The value inside the angle brackets is the MIB mode of the sequence.
Sequence settings offer a new setting called Master Go Mode. In combination with Auto Start, Auto Stop, and Restart Mode there are plenty of possibilities to affect the behavior of the master fader.
IfOutput supports now also to specify a value or range of values, e.g., IfOutput At 50 selects all fixtures that have an output of 50%.
GDTF import and export support fixture images now.
The align mode >< (butterfly) now keeps the center fixtures at their value when turning the encoder.
The update menu settings are now always set back to the saved preferences after updating a cue or preset. It is possible to save the current settings as preference by tapping Save Preferences in the title bar of the update menu. It is also possible to restore the preferences by tapping Load Preferences. The update menu has now the same behavior as the store settings.
Oops settings: The user profile has now two settings to define the oops/undo behavior:
- Undo Programmer: Setting this to No blocks oops to undo the changes of the programmer, e.g., setting attribute values.
- Undo General: Changing this setting to No excludes all other executed commands and actions from the possibility to oops them.
Updated the converted grandMA2 fixture library to Carallon 16.2.
Groups containing only one fixture are now marked as single fixture groups. They are labeled with the name of the fixture and have the appearance of the fixture type.
What's Changed
- onPC Windows
- onPC taskbar labels changed to "Display [number] onPC [version] [show file name].
- The desktop icon names of the onPC main app and terminal app do no longer include the version number.
- Update indicators only appear on objects possible to update if update is entered in the command line. The update hardkey and the button in Command Section remain alternating.
- The button label changed from Create to Active in the step creator.
- When using the follow function in the 3D window or choosing a new color in the color picker for fixtures that are running a phaser at the same time, the programmer will then switch temporarily into Single Step mode. The Single Step mode is only switched on during tapping and holding in the 3D window or the color picker.
- The fallback mechanism for executor configurations changed. When starting with a 1x1 configuration and expanding it, the functions of the new handles are determined by the handles left or below. This is the case as long as the configuration has not stored any dedicated function information for this size and the handle at all.
- The proposed name for new show files is now NewShow_date_timeUTC.
Fixed Bugs
Command Line and Macro
| Description |
|---|
| Storing cues using a number beginning with a dot (e.g. .5) did not work properly. This bug is fixed. Storing cue numbers beginning with a dot is working as expected. |
| Names that were entered with a leading Z were split up into the Zero command and the rest of the name. E.g.: Fixture "Zorro" was executed as Fixture Zero "orro". This bug is fixed. Names are now executed in the correct way. |
| New data pools were missing some default pool objects like an executor configuration and a sequence. This bug is fixed. New data pools have now the same default pool objects as data pool 1 has. |
| Backup file names had only one digit days, months, hours, minutes and seconds in the file name, which did not allow a proper sorting. This bug is fixed. Backup file names now contain always 2 digit dates. Backup files are using now this scheme of naming: Filename.backup_date_timeUTC.show |
| Loading show files from v1.1 discarded individual wait times in macros and did reset them all to follow. This bug is fixed. Macros in show files from v1.1 load their wait times as they were set before. |
| SetGlobalVer interpreted decimal numbers as integers. This bug is fixed. Setting a decimal number as a global variable interprets it now as type double. |
| When switching from a keyword that was entered via a shortcut with a modifier to a keyword of the same hard key but without a modifier, did the new keyword was not entered into the command line, e.g. MA + Preset and then switching to Preset. This bug is fixed. Keywords of the same key are now always entered correctly into the command line. |
| Faders could start to jitter after a long operation time of the grandMA3 software. This bug is fixed. Faders should not jitter anymore. |
| xPort nodes and Processing Units did not allow to change the IP address using the UI on the device itself. This bug is fixed. IP addresses of xPort nodes and Processing Units can be changed via UI on the device or remotely within the network using a console or onPC. |
Connections
| Description |
|---|
| Art-Net poll replies could carry wrong universe information. This bug is fixed. Art-Net poll replies contain correct universe information. |
| When several wings (console and extension) used the same WingID not all faders on the wings were moved, when one fader was moved. This bug is fixed. When moving a fader, all faders that represent the same executor on other wings will move, too. |
| When a new station joins into a session, the new station downloaded first the show file and then stored it with the old show file name. This bug is fixed. When taking a station into a session, the old show file will be saved first before downloading the new show data. |
Patch
| Description |
|---|
| Leaving the patch could add attributes to presets when multi-instance fixtures are part of the show. This bug is fixed. Leaving the patch does not add new attributes to existing presets. |
| Adding new fixtures to the patch could change the stored values of presets for fixtures that use the same attribute on several channel functions. This bug is fixed. Adding new fixtures to the show does not change preset values anymore to the first channel function. |
Playback
| Description |
|---|
| Outfade and outdelay times were ignored when playing back a cue. This bug is fixed. Outfade and outdelay in cues work again. |
| Clearing a programmer with values while another programmer had the same fixtures with its attributes at default values in the programmer created a dimmer output of 100% for these fixtures. This bug is fixed. Clearing a programmer in a multi-user environment does not keep cleared values in the output. |
Windows
| Description |
|---|
| When recording over an existing timecode show, the prerecorded events were not triggered. This bug is fixed. Prerecorded events are triggered when recording over an existing timecode show. |
| Fixture type custom resources were removed from the show file when storing the show file again, while the resource files were not present on the local hard drive. This bug is fixed. Storing a show file that contains custom resources does not make the custom resource file to be discarded. |
| Long press on a number in the calculator did cause multiple entries. This bug is fixed. Long press on the calculator does not cause multiple entries. |
| The console crashed when scrolling down in the sequence sheet when it was switched into the transposed mode. This bug is fixed. The console does not crash anymore when scrolling in a transposed sequence sheet. |
| MAtrick pool objects that had only their default values set, were displayed as empty, and macros that had no macro lines were displayed as not empty. This bug is fixed. All pool objects display now their state of empty/not empty correctly. |
| The encoder bar sometimes missed some button labels after a show download. This bug is fixed. The encoder bar now displays the labels of their buttons. |
| The on screen keyboard missed the secondary functions on the numeric keys. This bug is fixed. The on screen keyboard has again the secondary functions on the numeric keys when tapping Shift or CapsLock. |
| Scrolling with the cursor, time or duration encoder in the timecode encoder bar changed the times in steps regarding to the scale ratio of the timeline in the editor. This bug is fixed. The cursor, time and duration encoder in the timecode encoder bar now use the defined frame readout of the timecode editor when turning. One click is one frame in the chosen unit, except seconds will always scroll with a resolution of 60 frames (One click is 1/60s). |
| The time of the incoming timecode signal was displayed in 1/100s time format on the timecode slot pool objects. This bug is fixed. The timecode slot pool objects display the incoming timecode signal in the format of the signal. |
| The command controls overlay displayed the XKeys permanently in the way as would be MA or Shift permanently pressed when Shift was pressed during switching off the shortcuts. This bug is fixed. The command controls display always the correct state of the Keys. |
| The console crashed when setting the grid to 0 in the layout window options. This bug is fixed. The allowed range for the grid size in layouts is now limited from 10 to 1000. |
| The console could crash when loading a show file with a corrupted layout window. This bug is fixed. The console should not crash anymore when loading a show file with a corrupted layout window. |
Appendix
- It is recommended to use a dedicated and a separate physical network for each grandMA3 session.
- When using DMX protocols it is recommended to use a dedicated physical network for each protocol.
- The recommended workflow for executor configurations that are different compared with the default executor configuration is to create a new executor configuration, do the changes in the new configuration and save the changes.