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Show Designer 3
Software Revision 1.15
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OVERVIEW ................................................................................................................................................................................1 REAR PANEL CONNECTIONS............................................................................................................................................ 1 TOP PANEL ..........................................................................................................................................
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CHASES.................................................................................................................................................................................... 18 RECORDING CHASES .......................................................................................................................................................18 SHAPE CHASE ...............................................................................................................................
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OVERVIEW The Show Designer 3 is a stage lighting controller based on the simple to use Show Designer 1 and Show Designer 2. The Show Designer 3 offers all of the same features and much more. It is designed to simplify the programming process as much as possible while still offering lots of power at a low cost. If you are already familiar with the SD1 and SD2 then you will find the SD3 to be an easy step forward. The SD3 gives you control over 1536 DMX lighting channels using three DMX 512 o
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TOP PANEL The top panel is divided into four sections. The upper left section contains the flex faders with their flash and page select buttons. The upper right section contains the 48 multi-purpose number switches with their function select switches just above. The lower left section contains the playback masters with their flash and page select buttons. The lower right section contains the display with cursor buttons, joystick, data wheels and performance switches. The following is a brief
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MENU AND SETUP FUNCTIONS The menu switch, which is located just above the display, is used to access the menus that allow you to configure the Show Designer 3 for your particular lighting setup. Pressing the menu switch displays the message “Select a menu item then press enter” on the top line of the display. You will be given a choice of menu items on the bottom line of the display. You can cycle through the choices using the + and - switches or data wheel 1. Press “enter” to select the de
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address or output. To turn auto patch on or off, place the cursor under the words “ON” or “OFF” below “Autopatch”, then use the + or - switch or use data wheel 4 to make the change. You must press “enter” for the change to take effect. If you are turning auto patch on, a warning will appear telling you that some DMX starting addresses may change. Press “yes” to proceed or “no” to exit. Auto patch will automatically assign an address to each moving light fixture in ascending order with each
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COPY FIXTURE This menu is used to copy the fixture type from one location to another. This feature saves time by letting you copy a fixture choice rather than searching through the list each time you need to add a fixture. This is also useful when you modify a fixture and need to duplicate it. Use the + and - switches or data wheels 1 and 2 to select a fixture number to copy from and to. You must press “enter” to complete the copy process. If auto patch is enabled you will be given the warn
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SELECT HOME SCENE This menu selects a home scene that will be called automatically whenever you use the “clear all” function. A “clear all” is done by holding down the blackout switch for 2 seconds. This resets all of the channels and empties the scene record buffer. After the clear all is finished, the home scene is then called. This can be used to call up a default lighting configuration for creating new scenes. For example, all beams centered, full intensity at white is useful for buildi
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than 0. You may also want to blackout all channels to a value other than 0 as this is sometimes used as a reset by some fixtures. For some fixtures the value 1 will achieve the same result as 0. Dimmer Channel is the channel used by the fixture for dimming. This will only work for a fixture that has a full range (0 to 255) dimmer channel. The grand master fader will control this channel as well as the playback faders when in HTP mode. If there is no dimmer on the fixture, set this to “none”.
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Magenta Channel is used to create color chase effects. Yellow Channel is used to create color chase effects. MULTI FIXTURE The Show Designer 3 supports fixtures that use up to 32 DMX channels. Since many fixtures use fewer than 32 channels, this feature will allow you to configure a group of smaller fixtures that are of the same type, under a single fixture number. For example if you have selected a 4 channel scanner for fixture number 1, you can set multi to 8. When fixture 1 is selected you
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LOAD MEMORY FILE FROM CF This loads a memory file from a compact flash card. Insert the card with the memory backup file then press “enter” to display the message “Select memory file, then press enter”. The name of the first SD3 memory file found on the card will appear on the bottom line of the display, use the + or - switch or data wheel 1 to select the desired file. Press “enter” to load the file. Warning: the current memory will be overwritten. Read the chapter at the end of this manual
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CONTROLLING LIGHT FIXTURES The SD3 allows you to take direct control of moving light fixture channels at any time. There is no edit mode as with some lighting controllers. You are essentially always in edit mode and can instantly save the current stage settings as a scene. This is one reason the Show Designer is so quick and easy to program. NUMBER SWITCHES 1-48 and FUNCTION SWITCHES The switches in the upper right section numbered 1-48 are multi-purpose. The group of 6 switches just above t
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save it. To erase an existing fixture group, press the erase switch at any time during the record process and then select the fixture group that you want to erase. If the Solo LED is lit when selecting a group, any moving light fixtures in the group will move to center (pan and tilt at 128) with the dimmer and shutter channels set to full value. USING THE DATA WHEELS TO CONTROL FIXTURE CHANNELS The data wheels are used to increment or decrement the values in the display fields directly above
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FINE The fine button affects the way the joystick and the data wheels operate. With fine mode on, they will increment or decrement by the smallest possible amount. With fine mode off, they will increment or decrement by larger amounts. If a fixture profile is installed for a selected fixture, selecting fine mode will switch the channel wheel display to number values instead of name values such as color or gobo names. This can be useful for splitting colors or gobos. SOLO The solo switch can
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CONTROLLING CONVENTIONAL DIMMERS The Show Designer 3 can control up to 128 conventional dimmers. They can be programmed from the flex faders or by entering percentage values using an external keyboard. Dimmers must first be patched using the “Patch Conventional Dimmers” menu as explained in the menu chapter of this manual. To use the flex faders as dimmer controls, you must go to the “Select Flex Fader Mode” menu and select “conventional dimmers”. You can switch the flex fader mode at any t
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WORKING WITH MEMORIES The SD3 provides four types of memories: presets, chases, scenes and shows. Presets and chases are used as building blocks along with static channel levels to create scenes. Shows are simply scene lists. All four memory types can be assigned to playback faders or called up directly by selecting their memory page and number. RECORD To the far right of the six function switches is the record switch. This is used to start the record process for all of the memories as well
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If at any time you wish to exit record mode without recording anything, press the record switch and its LED will stop flashing. RECALLING SCENES To play a scene, press the scene switch and turn on its LED. Select the scene page if necessary and then press the number switch for that scene. When a scene is called, any fixture channels as well as any conventional dimmer channels that are included in the new scene will crossfade to the new scene values using the fade time that was recorded when
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or “no”. If you press “yes” the scene will be erased. You can then select additional scenes to be erased or you can press “record” to exit record mode. PRESETS A preset is a simple collection of channel settings for a single light fixture or group of fixtures. Presets are used as building blocks for scenes and provide fast and easy programming by giving you instant access to colors, beam settings, etc. Presets can save memory because many scenes can reference the same preset. For example, if
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To save the preset, select the page and number where you want to store it. If you select a number that is already lit, a message will appear asking if you want to write over the existing preset. Press “yes” or “no”. You can use the page switches to select pages 1 to 24 allowing you to store up to 1152 presets. You cannot record over or edit the factory presets on pages F1 through F4. After saving a preset, record mode stays active allowing you to continue to record more presets. Any channel
