Skip to content

Screens, views and layouts

The problem

grandMA2 can show a lot: fixture sheets, a dozen pools, sequence sheets, the stage, effects, the command line. No screen is big enough for all of it, and what you need changes with the task. Patching needs other windows than programming, and programming needs other windows than running the show.

A fixed screen layout would always be wrong for half your work. The grandMA2 answer is: build the screens yourself, and save them as views you can switch between with one button.

The idea: fixed areas, a free area, and saved arrangements

Each screen has a few fixed areas and a user-defined area:

  • Screen 1 (command screen): the command line, X-key labels, and a user-defined area.
  • Screen 2: also the encoder bar with the preset control bar, the master section (the selected executor), time control and view buttons.
  • Screens 3/4 (on larger consoles) and external screens: mostly user-defined area, plus view buttons and, above the faders, the mini executor bar.

In the user-defined area you create windows: sheets, pools, presets, the stage view, effects, the command line feedback and more. Then you size and arrange them.

A view stores the size and position of the windows on one or more screens. Store it on a view button (or an X-key) and you can call it back any time, even after you've moved or deleted windows. Views are stored in the view pool of your user profile, so another user can have their own set.

On onPC, the same screens exist as separate windows (MultiScreen mode) or as one window you switch between (SingleScreen).

Sheets: the different ways to look at data

Most windows are pools (a grid of objects to tap) or sheets (tables of values). The sheets are where you see what's going on:

Fixture sheet / channel sheet
Every fixture (by fixture ID or channel ID) with its current values. The layers at the bottom switch between values, fade/delay times, effect layers and output information. See The programmer.
Sequence executor sheet
The cue list of the selected executor: cue numbers, names, timing, triggers, cue modes.
Sequence content / tracking sheet
What's stored in a cue, and what the stage looks like in each cue, including tracked values (see Cues, sequences and tracking).
DMX sheet
What goes out on each DMX address, after patch, offsets and masters.

Sheets follow your world and can have a mask (see Seeing only what matters), and each sheet has its own options.

Layouts: your own map of the rig

A layout is a two-dimensional drawing where you place fixtures or channels, plus shapes, text, and buttons for pool objects: groups, presets, macros and so on. It's displayed in a layout view.

Two typical uses:

  • A plan of the rig: fixtures arranged as they hang, so you can select them by touch where they are instead of by number.
  • A custom control surface: groups, colour presets and macros arranged the way you think, on one screen.

How it's typically set up

Practice

A common starting point is a handful of views, each for one task:

  • Patch / setup: fixture sheet, DMX sheet, stage view.
  • Programming: fixture sheet (with the Active Only mask in a second copy, if you have space), group pool, the preset pools you use most, the effect pool, and the command line feedback.
  • Cue editing: sequence executor sheet and sequence tracking sheet for the selected executor, plus the fixture sheet.
  • Playback / show: executor windows (on onPC especially), the sequence sheet of the main cue list, a layout with groups or busking buttons.

Put the views on the view buttons in the same order every time, so switching becomes muscle memory. On onPC with a single monitor, views matter even more, because you switch screens constantly.

When it matters, and when not

  • From the first day: build at least a programming view. Searching for windows every time is the most common reason the console "feels slow".
  • Sheets and their layers: learn early. They show you what the console is doing.
  • Layouts: worth it once the rig is bigger than you can remember by number, or for busking surfaces.

Sources