V7 mixed feedback

[chibbert]

I just made a pass through the current beta.

Thank you for your continued work on this software that has become so important to many of us!

Here's a list of various observations and issues:

Nice job on the new interface. I know it's a lot of work to update. I like the new channel icons, in particular.

The main menubar, why are 3D and the other items hidden under a menu titled "Misc" ?

In main menubar, under Misc, why would anyone want to see the "ScreenControl Window"? This should be removed.

DMX levels window. Can this be resizable? It's impossible to tell which tiny bar is #234, for instance.

Throughout, it's confusing that each panel has its own Settings sub-menu. These should all be collected together in a Settings window for each show.

Very confusing that "MIDI In enable" and "MIDI Out enable" are in app Preferences, but MIDI Input is also under "Patch for DMX and MIDI" window?

In the "patch for DMX and MIDI" window, clicking "MIDI Input" often causes the app to lock up. Also, this area of the software is functionally confusing.

In Live, standard keyboard shortcuts are needed. (At the very least, command-O to open a show, command-N for new show, etc.)

In Live settings, why can I not manually enter a fade time? I must use the slider?

Throughout the app, tooltips are slow to appear and often do not appear when they should, especially if a different tooltip is already showing on the screen. (For instance, in Live, hover over the far left icon that leads to Settings until the tooltip appears. Then move the mouse to the right over the Save icon or the Hold icon. No tooltip ever appears.)

In Live, why is Hold on the far left and Freeze on the far right? Also, I don't think most users are clear on the difference between these two functions. Can you explain?

In Live, command-Space doesn't work, perhaps because this is also the default system-wide shortcut for MacOS Spotlight search.

In Live, master faders do not always properly forget fixtures that have been removed from the show. For instance, assign a master fader to any channel from a fixture. Then, delete that fixture from the show. Next, edit the master fader again. The master fader will still show the deleted fixture.

In Live, the new button styles make it impossible to see how many steps are available for Preset buttons. In v6, I could tell if a Preset button had 3 steps, 6 steps, etc. Now, Preset buttons are indistinguishable from Fader buttons. This is a step backward.

In Live, would be great if there was animated indication when a fade is in progress. For instance, if a Live button has a fade applied, that button should *fade* into color over 1 sec, 2 sec, or whatever duration had been set.

In Live, I clicked "Add media file" and added a JPG. Live let me create a button for the JPG, but when the button is clicked, the app crashes. (Also, why does anyone need to add Media to Live buttons? I don't know what this is for.)

In Live, in Button trigger window, would be great if the keyboard shortcut menu indicated if that shortcut was already being used.

In Live, in Button trigger window, would be great if the MIDI In/Out fields indicated if that MIDI command was already being used.

In Live, in Button trigger window, the text for "Channel" is truncated. I see only "Channe".

In Live, would be great if "Button trigger" and "Scene properties" were consolidated into the same window, not two separate windows. Would save time.

In Live, can you create keyboard shortcut to toggle between panels Buttons #1 and Buttons #2? I suggest command-1 and command-2.

In Live, would be great if Macro buttons could trigger other Macro buttons.

In Live, would be great if you could right-click a Macro button and see all buttons triggered by that Macro button. I suggest an interface similar to the Master fader interface, where you can select checkboxes to enable/disable a Macro button's influence.

In Live, changing name of a button loses its connection to Macro buttons. This is a problem.

In Live, would be great if "move button" interface allowed user to drag button, instead of clicking arrows. I want to be able to move buttons to different panel windows.

In Editor, in Fixtures, it is deceptive that you can drag fixtures around, but programming does not update to track the moved fixture. This is a MAJOR problem.

In Editor, tooltips are very slow to appear.

In Editor, I find the blue-on-black text under the channel sliders to be quite difficult to read, especially if monitor brightness is turned down at a gig.

In Editor, it's great that used channels are green and unused are red. Nice touch.

In Editor, we need RGBA, RGBW, RGBWA, and RGBWAV color mixing.

In Editor, in the pan/tilt window, it looks like the buttons for "Lock" for Pan/Tilt are truncated. I see only "Loc" instead of "Lock".

In Editor, keyboard shortcuts between multiple universes would be very helpful. I suggest command-1, command-2, etc.

In Editor, you can drag a vertical divider to resize between the right-hand fixture map and the left-hand Fixtures/Steps/Generator panels. And you can drag horizontal divider between channel row and Pan/Tilt/RGB/CMY. -- Can you add similar vertical divider in the Steps window to resize between the Pan/Tilt/RGB/CMY and the named steps area? I often name steps descriptively, and this window is too tiny.

In Editor, the "grouped actions" button is counter-intuitive. It took me some experimenting to realize its function. I believe this box should be checked by default. The icon looks like a broken chain, so clicking it should STOP grouped actions.

In 3d view, it would great to be able to hide fixtures without having to return and change in Editor.

In Generator, the default window says [Select fixtures then click on "import"] What does this mean? If I click a fixture in the right-hand fixture map, this text goes away.

In Generator, the box under the main window (with Duration, Points, Lines, etc) should be grayed out when not usable.

In Pixels, I'd like a "Duplicate effect" command. Sometimes, I want to apply a different version of the same effect to other fixtures.

You might consider renaming "Generator" as "Effect Generator". This would better match other lighting consoles.

Thank you!

[support]

Thank you for this accomplished feedback. Here are some answers:

The main menubar, why are 3D and the other items hidden under a menu titled "Misc" ?

This was our best idea . Other suggestions are welcome !

In main menubar, under Misc, why would anyone want to see the "ScreenControl Window"? This should be removed.

How about users who need it ? There is a necessary popup menu.

DMX levels window. Can this be resizable? It's impossible to tell which tiny bar is #234, for instance.

Already in ToDo list (section "not urgent").

Throughout, it's confusing that each panel has its own Settings sub-menu. These should all be collected together in a Settings window for each show.

In our opinion, we think it is more clear like this. Waiting for other forumers comments.

Very confusing that "MIDI In enable" and "MIDI Out enable" are in app Preferences

They are in global preference menu because, they might be used in other tabs (Editor for instance) in the future.

but MIDI Input is also under "Patch for DMX and MIDI" window?

Yes this is for a totally different purpose. This is for patch to dmx outputs.

In the "patch for DMX and MIDI" window, clicking "MIDI Input" often causes the app to lock up. Also, this area of the software is functionally confusing.

It comes from V6, and we missed time to update it. Noted in ToDo list (section "not urgent"). However, if there is a crash, please tell us how to reproduce.

In Live, standard keyboard shortcuts are needed. (At the very least, command-O to open a show, command-N for new show, etc.)

Noted in ToDo list.

In Live settings, why can I not manually enter a fade time? I must use the slider?

Already in ToDo list (section "not urgent").

Throughout the app, tooltips are slow to appear and often do not appear when they should, especially if a different tooltip is already showing on the screen. (For instance, in Live, hover over the far left icon that leads to Settings until the tooltip appears. Then move the mouse to the right over the Save icon or the Hold icon. No tooltip ever appears.)

So far, this is the MacOS tooltips management.

In Live, why is Hold on the far left and Freeze on the far right? Also, I don't think most users are clear on the difference between these two functions. Can you explain?

Freeze: stops all running scenes, in Buttons and TimeLine tabs
Hold: pauses "buttons press" actions, in Buttons tabs only

In Live, command-Space doesn't work, perhaps because this is also the default system-wide shortcut for MacOS Spotlight search.

Certainly. There should be a way to disable the OS function, in the MacOS preferences.

In Live, master faders do not always properly forget fixtures that have been removed from the show. For instance, assign a master fader to any channel from a fixture. Then, delete that fixture from the show. Next, edit the master fader again. The master fader will still show the deleted fixture.

Noted in ToDo list.

In Live, the new button styles make it impossible to see how many steps are available for Preset buttons. In v6, I could tell if a Preset button had 3 steps, 6 steps, etc. Now, Preset buttons are indistinguishable from Fader buttons. This is a step backward.

Noted (first complain about this).

In Live, would be great if there was animated indication when a fade is in progress. For instance, if a Live button has a fade applied, that button should *fade* into color over 1 sec, 2 sec, or whatever duration had been set.

Noted.

In Live, I clicked "Add media file" and added a JPG. Live let me create a button for the JPG, but when the button is clicked, the app crashes. (Also, why does anyone need to add Media to Live buttons? I don't know what this is for.)

Archi installations like museum, ...
Crash noted in ToDo list.

In Live, in Button trigger window, would be great if the keyboard shortcut menu indicated if that shortcut was already being used.

Already in ToDo list (section "not urgent").

In Live, in Button trigger window, would be great if the MIDI In/Out fields indicated if that MIDI command was already being used.

Already in ToDo list (section "not urgent").

In Live, in Button trigger window, the text for "Channel" is truncated. I see only "Channe".

Noted in ToDo list.

In Live, would be great if "Button trigger" and "Scene properties" were consolidated into the same window, not two separate windows. Would save time.

Noted.

In Live, can you create keyboard shortcut to toggle between panels Buttons #1 and Buttons #2? I suggest command-1 and command-2.

Noted in ToDo list.

In Live, would be great if Macro buttons could trigger other Macro buttons.

Joker.

In Live, would be great if you could right-click a Macro button and see all buttons triggered by that Macro button. I suggest an interface similar to the Master fader interface, where you can select checkboxes to enable/disable a Macro button's influence.

Noted.

In Live, changing name of a button loses its connection to Macro buttons. This is a problem.

We are not able to reproduce this problem.

In Live, would be great if "move button" interface allowed user to drag button, instead of clicking arrows. I want to be able to move buttons to different panel windows.

Noted, but not easy for multi-plateform coding.

In Editor, in Fixtures, it is deceptive that you can drag fixtures around, but programming does not update to track the moved fixture. This is a MAJOR problem.

Presently studying this. FYI: very long coding job.

In Editor, tooltips are very slow to appear.

Welcome to MacOS !

In Editor, I find the blue-on-black text under the channel sliders to be quite difficult to read, especially if monitor brightness is turned down at a gig.

Noted.

In Editor, it's great that used channels are green and unused are red. Nice touch.

Thank you !

In Editor, we need RGBA, RGBW, RGBWA, and RGBWAV color mixing.

We already tried, without success, to find the mathematical function to manage these sliders from the color wheel. If somebody tells us this function, we will do it.

In Editor, in the pan/tilt window, it looks like the buttons for "Lock" for Pan/Tilt are truncated. I see only "Loc" instead of "Lock".

Noted, but missing room for it.

In Editor, keyboard shortcuts between multiple universes would be very helpful. I suggest command-1, command-2, etc.

Noted.

In Editor, you can drag a vertical divider to resize between the right-hand fixture map and the left-hand Fixtures/Steps/Generator panels. And you can drag horizontal divider between channel row and Pan/Tilt/RGB/CMY. -- Can you add similar vertical divider in the Steps window to resize between the Pan/Tilt/RGB/CMY and the named steps area? I often name steps descriptively, and this window is too tiny.

Noted.

In Editor, the "grouped actions" button is counter-intuitive. It took me some experimenting to realize its function. I believe this box should be checked by default. The icon looks like a broken chain, so clicking it should STOP grouped actions.

Noted.

In 3d view, it would great to be able to hide fixtures without having to return and change in Editor.

Noted.

In Generator, the default window says [Select fixtures then click on "import"] What does this mean? If I click a fixture in the right-hand fixture map, this text goes away.

This text come from V6 and it is wrong. It has been replaced by "Select fixtures in 2DView". Then you can work in Generator.

In Generator, the box under the main window (with Duration, Points, Lines, etc) should be grayed out when not usable.

Noted.

In Pixels, I'd like a "Duplicate effect" command. Sometimes, I want to apply a different version of the same effect to other fixtures

.
Noted.

You might consider renaming "Generator" as "Effect Generator". This would better match other lighting consoles.

Noted.

[chibbert]

The main menubar, why are 3D and the other items hidden under a menu titled "Misc" ?

This was our best idea . Other suggestions are welcome !

How about "Other Windows" ?

In main menubar, under Misc, why would anyone want to see the "ScreenControl Window"? This should be removed.

How about users who need it ? There is a necessary popup menu.

I guarantee that no Mac users need to see this empty black popup window. Can't speak for Windows users.
Also, once I use the menu to make this useless ScreenControl window appear, I can't seem to make it disappear. The close button doesn't work.

Throughout, it's confusing that each panel has its own Settings sub-menu. These should all be collected together in a Settings window for each show.

In our opinion, we think it is more clear like this. Waiting for other forumers comments.

All settings in one window guarantees that users can find all options, and nothing gets lost.

In the "patch for DMX and MIDI" window, clicking "MIDI Input" often causes the app to lock up. Also, this area of the software is functionally confusing.

It comes from V6, and we missed time to update it. Noted in ToDo list (section "not urgent"). However, if there is a crash, please tell us how to reproduce.

The crash is fairly consistent for me. Not 100% of the time, but maybe 75% of the time that I click on that tab, it freezes the app. If I can identify the cause, I will share.

In Live, why is Hold on the far left and Freeze on the far right? Also, I don't think most users are clear on the difference between these two functions. Can you explain?

Freeze: stops all running scenes, in Buttons and TimeLine tabs
Hold: pauses "buttons press" actions, in Buttons tabs only

Great. So why is one on left and one on right?

In Live, command-Space doesn't work, perhaps because this is also the default system-wide shortcut for MacOS Spotlight search.

Certainly. There should be a way to disable the OS function, in the MacOS preferences.

I already have disabled the Spotlight shortcut (because command-space is also used by all the Adobe products). Nonetheless, it still doesn't work for me in ShowXpress. Doesn't work in v6 either.

In Live, would be great if Macro buttons could trigger other Macro buttons.

Joker.

I wasn't kidding.

In Live, changing name of a button loses its connection to Macro buttons. This is a problem.

We are not able to reproduce this problem.

Here's how to reproduce: In Live, make a macro button that controls two scene buttons. Then rename one of the scene button. Try your macro button again. Macro button has lost the connection to the renamed scene button.

In Editor, in the pan/tilt window, it looks like the buttons for "Lock" for Pan/Tilt are truncated. I see only "Loc" instead of "Lock".

Noted, but missing room for it.

You can't make the label's font size smaller?

Question: When do all the "not urgent" items get implemented?

[gilsontech]

Chibbert, the extra window "ScreenControl Window" Is very Necessary! It is used when you place an image or video in the timeline, this is where it is shown. So On a dance floor you can have a video screen, projector, etc. as a secondary output display of your computer and make the ScreenControl Window only show on a specific display. We use this daily.

Also I agree with almost everything you suggested. I myself would love to see a RGBAWUV Color Wheel.

-Josh

[Lighter007]

@gilsontech
You're absolutely right! ScreenControl Window should defenetly be keeped!
I also like the way with the Misc-dropdown Menu. Its better than starting all applications from Control Board.

[chibbert]

Thank you for clarifying about ScreenControl. I never use the Timeline, so I've never had occasion to interact with this window!

I thought it was just some kind of hold-over that glued the separate apps together.

[Lighter007]

Do you mean ControlBoard? Yes this was a little bit annoying in older versions (but good solved in v7).

[Ilia sound-light]

I would like to see LED-PARs in 3D View for easier programming. Thank you!

[imryanrey]

Any update on Quad or RGBA color wheel?


BTW, i love the software. I just want to be able to use it with my new Chauvet lights.

[FraBob]

In Editor, in Fixtures, it is deceptive that you can drag fixtures around, but programming does not update to track the moved fixture. This is a MAJOR problem.

Presently studying this. FYI: very long coding job.

having to constantly adjust the show to theaters with different lighting systems (for quantity, allocation CH and fixed positions) I find it extremely urgent and important
(with this function I think I can convince other people to change and use SweetLight)




i'm italian... sorry for my english