Q Light Controller+

Just wondering, is there any benefit in fixtures selected for scenes to be unselected as the default state? You would think if you added them, you would probably want it selected. I guess the argument can be made for groups, but if you are setting up your groups logically I you would want most of your fixtures selected. Just seems less efficient to select or hit the select all button vs having them selected as the default.

And while we're on the topic.... is there any benefit of having a channel not selected vs. just leaving it at zero? What is the actual benefit of unselected channels vs just not raised?

I know it's little and I'm not complaining, I'm just learning the software and am wondering about the thought process.

Thanks!

Some users are used to "park" fixtures for different venues.
Having "disabled" fixtures in a Scene can be useful for that.

Let's suppose that you have a number of Moving Heads and that you want to use 10 Standard Positions (Center, Left from Center, Far Left, .......) and 14 Standard Colors (White, Red, Yellow, ...) in your show.
If you go for the "all channels selected way", you will have to create 140 scenes.
If you create specific scenes for Positions and specific scenes for Colors, you will only need (10 + 14 =) 24.

If you use RGB lights and you want them to be Red only you have to set the red channel to 255 and Red and Green both to 0.
If you only change the Red Channel (and leave Green and Blue unboxed) you will only Add Red to your existing situation: if the lights were Off they will turn to Red, but if the lights were Blue they will turn to Magenta and if the lights were White nothing will change (because Red was already on).

MichelSliepenbeek wrote: ↑Thu Mar 02, 2023 10:40 am they will turn to Red, but if the lights were Blue they will turn to Magenta and if the lights were White nothing will change

Nitpicking here ... this workflow imposes heavy debugging after experiencing an unwanted look on stage... I personally would never exclude color channels from my selection.

Where the 'disable' feature may come in handy is:
* theatrical setting:
A forest is projected with the use of gobo's in green, yellow, and orange tones. As the night passes by, the view should change into "the forest scene -> stage left, actors move stage right into the night." I would copy the previous scene and alter the new one by disabling 'the stage left forest scene' channels -> do not change! and overrule the stage right lights into a 'nightly' ambiance bringing in some blue's and a glow... If a mover with zoom is present, I even would pick an off-focus star gobo, a prism, and, at 30% CTB, onto the blue. Don't over do it, it has to be very subtle!!

* Busking setting: you need a chorus look (without having to think about "what fixture is doing WHAT now here"?)
Simple: you have a look you like, you need a variant: Dump-DMX TWICE, recall the 2nd scene, delete not needed fixtures / disable non-needed channels, and adapt to the chorus look you want. Done. Recall the 1st scene will 'reset' everything to your original look, calling the chorus scene after, will only alter those channels involved. Flip-Flop from existing look. LTP-mode required!

I'm just learning the software and am wondering about the thought process.

I only wanted to give an easy example to understand the difference.

is there any benefit of having a channel not selected vs. just leaving it at zero?

Yes there is a big difference.
If you only want to change the color, you don't want to end up in a situation where you also turned of all the lights (if you set Level to Zero), where your Moving Heads go to unwanted positions (if you set Pan and Tilt to Zero), where you change your Gobo to Open, where .........

MichelSliepenbeek wrote: ↑Thu Mar 02, 2023 4:22 pm Yes there is a big difference.
If you only want to change the color, you don't want to end up in a situation where you also turned of all the lights (if you set Level to Zero), where your Moving Heads go to unwanted positions (if you set Pan and Tilt to Zero), where you change your Gobo to Open, where .........

Trying to wrap my head around this by this may be the one place where I see a benefit, but if you are copying from a previous scene the moving heads should stay where they are. This would come into play if you move the heads before creating a scene, in which case, why not just position them in the scene?

It seems like a lot of examples involve copying scenes, I'm not saying they should go back to all enabled in that instance, those should be copied as is. But when creating a new scene and adding fixtures, you have to adjust what you want from scratch anyways. it just seems weird to have to select and then adjust instead of just leaving levels at zero that you don't want moved.

But like I said, I'm just learning and I'm sure there may be some design aspect that makes this a better way that I haven't come across yet. I'm sure I'm not the only one that has thought this way before.

Rhinesel wrote: ↑Thu Mar 02, 2023 7:32 pm of just leaving levels at zero that you don't want moved.

Be careful with that statement ... an LTP (Latest Takes Precedence) move will turn the movers into mayhem... You have to let them untouched - hence 'disabled channels'. Zero value will bring them at zero zero...