Q Light Controller+

One thing that I've noticed which may be an issue for some (it is for me) occurs when building custom fixture definitions. For example, in one of my projects, I have a fixture definition for my VJ software. It's a custom mapping, so obviously, it's not something that's ever going to be included with the default set of fixture definitions for QLC+. However, the problem comes when I make changes to my project on a non-production machine and forget that I don't have the custom fixture definition on that machine. For example, last night (NYE, of course), I couldn't figure out why something had suddenly stopped working. Turns out that when I had opened the QLC+ project on my laptop, I didn't have the custom fixture for my VJ software so when I saved the project and re-opened it on the production computer, QLC+ made those fixtures generic fixtures with just intensity channels (when, in fact, I needed those to be LTP).

In other words, I would suggest that one of the following fixes:

-QLC+ stores the fixture definition reference in such a way that it will be able to find the definition in the future in the event that the project is saved when the fixture definition is not available (this would be very similar to something like Adobe InDesign where graphics are often stored as links to a file and throw a warning if the graphic can't be found)

-QLC+ at least warns me that I'm opening a project that contains a fixture definition that isn't available to it when the project is opened and that things might come unglued, so to speak, if I save the project without installing that definition

-QLC+ somehow gives me the option to store custom fixture definitions in the project itself so that projects are portable across environments. I can understand how there are probably a lot of things to deal with in this scenario, but I would generally say that this would be my preference, since it's kind of a pain to have to remember that I need to also move my custom definitions should I deploy my project on a different machine.

In any case, this isn't a huge issue, but it has caused me some consternation on a few different occasions so I thought that I would mention it.

Hi,
I also noticed with 4.6.0 that when you create a new fixture with Fixture Definition Editor it does not appear in QLC Fixture list like it was the case in 4.5.1. I started to search around and found out that it is because its not added to FixturesMap.xml file and once I added my new fixture into that file it was showing up in the list. Loks like a bug with Fixture Editor 4.6.0.

Fixtures are loaded differently in 4.6.0 (in a better way). You should not save user fixtures in the system fixtures folder. There is a user folder for them. Use it.

Please do not cry for a new bug every time something doesn't work for you. Maybe it's you using QLC+ in the wrong way...

Please read the latest Q&A that I've added in the documentation.

I didn't cry about it... I did find a way to load my fixture and thought it might be a bug since it was different in 4.5.1 which was the first version I ever used...
I also did read the doc, but did not catch that part in the FAQ as I was looking at Fixture Definition Editor part and it was not indicated that custom fixtures should be saved in the user directory in 4.6.0.
I am still discovering QLC+ and do search by myself before posting a question believe me...

I'm having odd behaviour with new fixtures too (4.7.0rc1, Ubuntu 13.10), and am trying to get to the bottom of it. Yesterday I created a new fixture with the editor and saved it in the default place. First, I think I had to restart QLC+ to get it to see it, but the main problem was that when I clicked on it in the list, although the Name and Mode fields updated, the Channels (both number and list) did not, showing those of the previous Fixture Model. I had to use a 7-channel dimmer instead. But today I've just tried adding this fixture again and it works. So I tried creating a couple more fixture types - just with RGB intensity channels - and they misbehave in the same way, despite re-starting QLC+. They look OK in the Fixture Editor (restarting and reloading to make sure).

Just bumping my post above in case it's got lost - I'm not expecting an instant solution