Its 2018! Lets make our showfiles more efficient.

Here’s what you’ll need:
– One thumb drive
– One grandMA2 console on grandMA2 onPC running software version 3.3.4.3
– grandMA3D v3.3.4.3 (Optional)
– The Consoletrainer 2018 showfile (Includes our updates up through Day Eleven) so you can play along.
You can grab the software for free at http://www.malighting.com/en/support-downloads/software.html

Software Version used in series: 3.3.4.3

It’s a Preset Search Party for Day 12 of 18 in 2018. Ok, its really a report, but that doesn’t sound as fun.  

As always, lets start with backing up our show and renaming it to reflect the day.  You can try this on any show file, but if you’d like to use the show file I’m using in this video-  you can grab it from the link in the YouTube description, or at my website, consoletrainer.com.

Since this year is all about cleaner showfiles, you might be considering cleaning up your preset pools by deleting old, unused presets. Obviously, if you’re still in the process of building your show- then now might not be the best time to start deleting presets. But for the rest of us, cleaning up might not be a bad idea.  If you’ve watched my “Decoding Presets” tutorial, you’ll know that any preset with a cyan colored number in the corner is a preset that’s been used in at least one cue, so we don’t want to delete it. But, sometimes I’ll look at a preset and wonder where the heck I used it. That’s where this report is going to come in handy.

It’s a simple command line using the Search keyword.  I want to see where I’ve stored this “DSR” preset.  So, I’ll type SEARCH PRESET 2.6 PLEASE.   The new window shows me the report telling me that I’ve used this preset in various cues in my timecode song. I can see that it was 2 fixtures in this preset, and if we click “Select Fixtures Search Results,” it will add those units to the Programmer.

I think this is, for me, handy enough to keep in a macro, so lets make one.  Edit an empty macro cell, and enter this as your line: Search Preset (enter preset x.y).  Those parenthesis are going to give us a pop up window when we run this macro that will allow us to enter any preset number to search for.

BTW- if you’re into keyword shortcuts, the one for “Search” is MA + MOVE.