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Converting Strand Files


Edlight

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Any one able to help me with a small problem, I will shortly be requiring to use a show plotted on a strand 530i on other desks such as ETC and zero 88 desks, any one know of pc based software to easily convert show files?????
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Cheerts for thoose tips will look into them, I had heard from a friend there was a programme on the internet that would convert show files but as of yet my searches have resulted in nothing, perhaps it does not exist
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I think the program in question is Strand Showport, which will only do between different strand versions or to ASCII. There's a link to it on the last post of the first thread I linked to.

 

PS: If you do find a way to convert from Strand/ETC to Frog, let us know how you did it! Now, if anyone can convert from Strand to Jands Event, I'd go for that...perhaps not?

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  • 6 months later...

I've never managed to get the cue information out of the Strand offline using Showport, but I have no idea why that is. It seems to convert everything except cues.

 

I have managed to get an ETC show into Strand format, but it takes a lot of effort! But having just spent a couple of hours trying to convert a show, I thought I'd post the method while it's still fresh in the memory. This wasn't as successful as previous attempts using older Strand offline software, but it still worked for the cue information.

 

#Export the show from the ETC offline editor. Save it as ASCII format and set the ASCII options to Standard, Percent, Mixed Case.

 

#Open the file in notepad and delete everything apart from the cue information and the 'enddata' line. I think you may be able to get submasters as well but I'm not entirely convinced on that.... Don't even try for patch information! ;)

 

#Do a search-and-replace to change all the '@' to '='.

 

#Now save the file with a .txt suffix (instead of .asc).

 

#Run it through Showport. There may be an error message but it should finish OK.

 

#When you try and open the file in the Strand offline software (I'm running 2.6.15), it says 'File Bad' in the directory, but it should get the cue information OK. Also, it may not show the name of the show correctly in the preview or live screens, but just re-save it with the correct name.

 

#note- the cues will be plotted as move fades (MF), which you may want to change to XF if that's how you normally work, as the tracking information doesn't transfer properly.

 

I've just run a show with a disk converted using this method, and apart from the MF/XF glitch ("I'm sure that red backlight should have gone out by now?"), it seemed to be fine.

 

~Grahame

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I've had a lot of trouble with Showport, especially it not converting cues but converting everything else!

 

The answer seems to be to use a specific version of showport for each version of Strand software. I currently have Showport for dos and versions 2.1, 2.2 & 2.3 for windows (95 only). Works every time now.

 

Had a lot of problems getting Showport to work on XP (it doesn't), but it still works on my Win98 and Win95 machines. Try downloading the version of Showport that's specific to the software version on your desk.

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The answer seems to be to use a specific version of showport for each version of Strand software. I currently have Showport for dos and versions 2.1, 2.2 & 2.3 for windows (95 only). Works every time now.

 

Had a lot of problems getting Showport to work on XP (it doesn't), but it still works on my Win98 and Win95 machines. Try downloading the version of Showport that's specific to the software version on your desk.

Interesting...the version I'm using is v2.3e for Win 95 & NT; seems to run fine on my XP Pro machine.

I also have a Win98 machine that I run Strand offline on sinc it's not so XP friendly. I'll see if I can get an older Showport version to work better on that machine.

 

~Grahame

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Some very useful information there Grahame. If only I had it 2 weeks ago and I could have saved £60. :D Still, useful for future reference.

 

Tried out an ETC - Strand conversion, following Grahame's instructions and it worked fine with no errors. Got the Sub info across and the Cues loaded up as XF too.

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