How to Make Pan/Tilt in Editor, Live, and 3D mode match

[mark1542]

I have been trying to search for this, but couldn't find anything specific for this. I am very new to this, so I will try to explain as best as possible

At our church, if I am in editor mode, if I move our moving head's pan/tilt, it matches well in 3D mode, but the actual lights don't match the location that is showing in 3D mode. What is the best way I can make those match in all 3 environments so I can plan lighting scenes at home and not have to worry about changing it in Live?

Thank you!

[support]

For each fixture, it is possible to:
- move in all 3 axes
- reverse pan and/or tilt
- adjust pan&tilt amplitude

With all these parameters, we are supposed to be able to match 3D view with reality.

[DJ 3pm]

It sounds like either your "Stage setting" is wrong in 3DView (not the correct dimensions or unit of measurement) or the "fixture setting" in Setup isn't correct (60W but should be 30W, or 25? beam instead of 15?, etc.).

I have found that getting the 3D environment setup properly is a pain in the butt since I mostly do mobile gigs, but it is TOTALLY worth the time to set it up properly for a permanent install.

[support]

It looks like you have the knowledge of other 3D light rendering software, so you can compare their easiness with our 3DView.
Can you please tell us what are these 3D light rendering software that you find more easy to use ?

[DJ 3pm]

Lol, I've used Maya and 3Ds Max but both are WAY more complex than ShowXpress. The difficulty I was referring to is the time involved to setup all the fixtures (I've got 30+ DMX fixtures for a wedding this weekend) and the accuracy of the profile (how many watts equivalent are fixtures with hundreds of small LEDs, the scale of the fixture, etc.).

My biggest problem is that very few of my venues are simple rectangles with no stage. It takes time to get the scene setup; time that I don't normally spend for jobs that are only one offs. Representation is accurate enough for some preview purposes for me (demo up light chases, etc.) but I don't rely on it to test how far a scanner gobo will project accurately. I meant that if I had a permanent install, it would completely be worth making it as accurate as possible.

For being "free software" (yeah, I bought my USB dongle) it does a very good job. Like the rest of the ShowXpress family I think there are some user interface difficientcies, but I realize you are a small company porting to two OSs and several languages concurrently. You do an excellent job.

[support]

Thank you for these comments.

3DView can give effectively only an idea of the lightshow. Then, on stage, there will be several adjustements to do.
In the other hand, 3DView is pretty fast to use, compare to the few pro (and expensive) existing 3D software for lights.

[dkumpula]

Hey Dj3pm,

I have had good results in my static environment with 3D, but i have my environment carefully configured within an inch of accuracy for everything. It is amazing how much even a few inches off or slight placement angle errors for the fixtures results in wide errors between 3D and your real environment.

Since you have many venues to deal with, have you considered creating a limited number of standard environments in 3D to choose from and then creating some test scenes that verify key fixture hitpoints? Then as long as you ensure your actual fixture placement follows one of those preset 3d environments precisely, you should be darn close to your key marks. Without creating and following standards, I would assume a lot of work would be required for any gig, regardless of the software used.

Cheers!

David