Avolites Pearl 2004 Simulator Problems - Shapes

[Miotch]

Hey everyone,

 

I'd be one of the new guys to this forum

Names Mitch, I'm a student working for Blacklight in Galway, Ireland. Just the warehouse (excuse language) at the moment but am just being introduced into using some of the lighting desks they have stocked there.

Unfortunately my introduction is shortly followed by a small problem... The desk I'm working on at the moment is the Pearl 2004, which just so happens to have a simulator and visualizer available online, which I've got up and running. But I've a wee bit of a problem with it so far, and couldn't find much help with it around so I thought I'd ask the pro's :wacko:

 

Simply put my problem is to do with using shapes on the simulator.

I'm aware that the shapes menu won't open when you haven't any intellegent lights patched so I pretty surer thats not it.

Whats happening is I'm patching a bunch of lights, about 4-6 usually, using the personalities. I've tried it with a few different personalities now but same thing keeps happening.

What happens exactly is when I open the Shape Generator, select some fixtures with the swop keys and try to open the Playback Shapes menu, nothing happens. No errors on the display or anything, just stays as is without opening the menu.

I've tried this on the real pearl too without any problems, it just seems to be the simulator thats causing problems.

 

Can anyone help at all with this?

Are the shapes not available with the Simulator and/or Visualizer or anything? Or is there a little detail I may be overlooking?

Bear in mind that I've only been at this now for a week or two so accidentally overlooking something simple could be likely :S

 

Thanks in advance to anyone who tries to help :)

 

Mitch.

[indyld]

Hi Mitch

 

Which version of the 2004 Simulator are you using? Using Sim v1.2 the shape menu opens fine, even with no fixtures patched (although you get the message about "selecting fixtures first"). From the workflow you describe, it should work.

 

On the real Pearl, if there is a problem with the SG.DAT file (the shapes) there is usually an error message. But this error message could be missing from the simulator? I would try a wipeall followed by patching up some fixtures from a different source - personality disk etc. (there is also a copy of SG.DAT on the disks which you can load in via the Service menu if you need to).

 

I am sure that Niclights will pop along to this thread but you could also try the Avo forums to see if is a genuine bug or just something you have missed.

 

Best wishes.

[niclights]

Never seen it myself but that covers all I can think of. IIRC when loading a new shapefile it will insist on using floppy drive.

[Miotch]

Well I just downloaded it from here

http://www.avolitesdownload.com/Downloads/...04Simulator.stm

 

Only one version available there, v1.

Opened the About Pearl... option on the Help menu in the simulator and it does say 1.2 though so I'm guessing I do have it

 

Missing system file was my first assumption alright, searched around for a SG.dat file in the installation folder but no luck finding any.

Do I need a copy of that file for Simulator, or is that only needed for the real Desk.

 

I just reinstalled the Simulator there too, but no luck (even after wading through Avo's horribly organized website).

[niclights]

SG.DAT is used (and can be edited) for simulator, just as with desk.

 

Just download any standard personality disk and uncompress it to a floppy (or uncompress it to a hard drive and then copy sg.dat to a floppy). Then go to system/utilities/load shape file and it should read it from the floppy.

 

FWIW I can only guess this could be an issue with Vista installation if you are using?

[tokm]

Should be a SG.dat file on every avo fixture personality disk. Go to the avo download site.. then the fixture profiles database.. find a fixture you want, download the self executable zip file of the 'disk' that that particular fixture personalities on, use something like alzip (that's what I use, but any unzipping program will do) to unzip the file to a folder.. then in there should be a whole load of .r20 files (the fixture personalities), one or two other random files as well as the SG.dat file.

 

HTH, Tom

 

*edit - damn, beaten too it by Nic*

[Miotch]

Right, bit of a inconvenience that, due to my lack of a Floppy drive on my PC :L

 

On a brighter note though, I was fiddling about with the SG.dat file and eventually realised it had nothing to do with that at all.

I just noticed the problem while playing around in the installation files.

The problem is that I was always using the personalities from the Visualiser Installation folder, just for convenience really. So all personalities on desk would match those in Visualiser and all that. Which worked fine for patching and all that, but when I do this the shapes menu doesn't seem to open up for me, dunno why exactly, maybe someone could explain it?

 

But yes, from fiddling about I realised that I need to load up the personalities from the aps1 and aps2 folders in the Simulator installation directory for it the shape generator to work.

Dunno how this works though, kinda confusing me actually and would like an explanation to it if anyone would care to? :)

Are the Personalities somehow connected to the shapes file?

 

Thanks a mil to everyone who helped as well :(

 

*Edit*

Got it fully working now ^^

Just copied the SG.dat file into the Personalities folder in the Visualiser Installation folder (where I was using the personalities from) and it seems to be working now :(

 

Explanation as to why would still be appreciated though :) Would like to learn from the mistakes at least :L

[tokm]

Right, bit of a inconvenience that, due to my lack of a Floppy drive on my PC :L

Maybe I'm reading this wrong.. but you don't need a floppy disk for what me and Nic said :s... Who has a PC with no floppy drive! Shocking.

 

The problem is that I was always using the personalities from the Visualiser Installation folder, just for convenience really. So all personalities on desk would match those in Visualiser and all that.

Thats why the visualiser fixture prof's on the personalities website says 'for visualiser use only' :(. I don't know how it all works.. that's never something Ive had to deal with, if I want a personality for a fixture, I'll just use the right one.

 

Just copied the SG.dat file into the Personalities folder in the Visualiser Installation folder (where I was using the personalities from) and it seems to be working now

That's fine for playing around/learning the desk, but I'd not recommend doing that for an actual show/job, maybe they work perfectly fine, but you never know, last thing you want is the desk to throw a wobbler mid show due to you using the wrong fixture personalities, as I said above... the website does state their for visualiser use only..

 

Dunno how this works though, kinda confusing me actually and would like an explanation to it if anyone would care to?

The CMP files are basically some custom compression file avo use to bunch groups of fixture personalities together, at least that's how I've always understood it. I think you can download more/new ones off the website if you really want to. Personally, I just use the compressed 'disk' .exe files, if its for use on the sim', ill just decompress them.

 

Glad you've sorted the issue's you were having though.

 

Tom

[Big Jay]

Who has a PC with no floppy drive! Shocking

 

Me, most pc's dont come with floppy drives as standard now, and now most lighting desks dont come with them.

[Miotch]

Just download any standard personality disk and uncompress it to a floppy (or uncompress it to a hard drive and then copy sg.dat to a floppy). Then go to system/utilities/load shape file and it should read it from the floppy.

 

Well maybe I read that wrong then ^^ But to me that sounds like I need a floppy drive ;)

 

And I guess I never saw that warning that the Vis Personalities are for Vis only :L Even though it seems they work, you just need the shapes file (SG.dat) in the same folder is all ;)

But yea, I best get into the habit of using the recommended Personalities, save myself any future problems :blink:

 

Thanks again for everyones help :huh:

[niclights]

You did read it correctly. As far as I can remember the simulator will only load sg.dat from a floppy drive when specifically using the 'load shape file' function. However, you have found a way around this which is essentially the same method as used for the Expert (where the function does not work at all). In this case the new file is loaded whenever you go to patch fixture.

 

As for floppy drives I put one in a PC I built last year. They are incredibly cheap and still can be important for recovery situations.

[Miotch]

To be honest I don't even have a slot for a floppy drive :L

It's taken up by a card reader, which I use much more often :L

 

This whole using Simulator lark is only for learning purposes anyway, not any real productions or anything, at least not yet :)

So I think I'll manage without a floppy drive for now :D

[indyld]

Enjoy playing with the simulator/vis but don't worry if the urge takes you to throw your PC out of the window.

 

Tried using the sim/vis for some "real" work and soon got fed up with the bugs, slowness and missing bits and pieces. Oh well, it is free but sometimes it seems like it would be quicker to hire a venue, rig the kit and program it up on a real Pearl.

 

grumble, mutter....

[tokm]

To be honest, the only time I use the Pearl sim' is to pre patch shows & do groups. Seems to be the only non-learning use that I can think of/have ever used it for. Same with the D4 sim'..

 

After I'm done, I'll just save the show to some folder, then copy the files to my memory stick.. Easy!

 

Hopefully they'll do a new sim' of the D4/Expert Titan software at some point.

 

T

[timmeh]

This whole using Simulator lark is only for learning purposes anyway

 

Hi

 

I use the simulator for prototyping personalities for new fixtures until I get my hands on the real units.

 

All the best

Timmeh