Did you know? #38 - Faster (Re-) Patching

What is a project, where not even new devices are added, and existing devices must receive a different DMX address for this. Or you change your setup, and the existing patch does not fit for it. Then it goes of course directly to the changing of the DMX addresses.

The change of DMX addresses for a device is possible in DMXControl 3 at several places. For single devices the way over the properties of the appropriate device is usually suitable, which you can call both directly over the context menu in the stage view (picture 1) or in the project explorer in the branch "devices" (picture 2). If you are not sure when changing the DMX addresses, then the dialog can help you, which you can call via the entry "Device patch and CSV export" from the context menu of any selected device in the Project Explorer (picture 3).

This window always starts with the matrix view. That means, you see there the 512 DMX channels of the DMX universe selected in the menu bar. But it is always the case that the DMX address of the device from which you have called this dialog is searched and displayed. The same applies also if you change directly from the tab "Matrix" into the tab "Table".

And here the function is hidden, which we would like to introduce in this Did you know? edition: a tabular overview of all devices, which you have inserted in your project. In this overview you can change comparatively fast primarily the DMX addresses, but also the name or the device number of devices in your project. This is especially helpful if several devices are to move into another DMX universe.

Today's state of development of the patching table offers for those among you, who either assign DMX addresses according to a certain scheme or generally leave the calculator in the drawer even for larger numbers. in the drawer a simple possibility of the adjustment. Here are changes are done quickly - especially in comparison to calling up the the properties for each device. What is currently still missing are intelligent functions, with whose help the DMX addresses can be changed for any can be changed for any selection. The corresponding wishes are already formulated in our bug tracker.

Who would like to move particularly fast several consecutive devices into another DMX universe - no matter whether sorted by name, device number or DMX address - should remember the following command sequence:

1. enter the new DMX address
2. press the Enter key, which automatically selects the underlying cell
3. press the F2 key
4. remove the number of the "old" DMX universe by pressing the Del key
5. enter new DMX universe (make sure that the dot in front of the address is still present in the DMX universe)
6. press the Enter key and continue from step 3 for the next devices

We hope, we could help you with this tip, that the changing of the patch is faster from now on. Because we recently had to realize that even some of our team members overlooked the "Table" tab and struggled through the way with the device properties until now. You can imagine that their eyes got big when the tabular overview appeared. That's why this tab is graphically highlighted in the screenshot.

So, we would be interested to know for which of you this tip will noticeably reduce the workload in this area? Please let us know via a short comment or a reaction to this "Did you know?" edition. Depending on your reaction, we might try to place it more prominently in a future revision of the feature.

Your DMXControl Team