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The show file

The problem

A new show starts as a new show file, and everything you program goes into it. Programming on onPC, you build presets and a busking page for two hours without saving; then onPC crashes, or a Delete hits the wrong pool, and the last save is from the start of the evening. Or the laptop itself dies a week before the gig, with the only copy of the show on it.

When the gig comes, more problems turn up:

  • the house console runs an older software version than your laptop, and it won't open your show
  • the house console has its network set up for the venue's nodes, and loading your show would replace that setup with your home settings
  • the next gig has a different rig, but you want last month's colour looks and macros without rebuilding them

All of this is about the one file that holds your work: what's in it, where it's saved, and how much of it you take along.

The idea: one file holds the whole show

Everything you build on grandMA2 lives in one show file. The manual says it contains "all the data needed to run the show": the patch and fixture schedule, every pool (groups, presets, sequences, effects, macros, layouts …), the executors and pages, the users and user profiles (and with them the views), the 3D models used in MA 3D, and the console's settings. The same show file runs on a console and on onPC.

Interpretation

Store adds an object to the show that is loaded; Save Show writes that show to a file on a drive. The two are easy to confuse because both mean "keep this", but only a save survives a crash or loading another show.

The Backup menu (the Backup key) is where show files are managed: saved, loaded, created and deleted.

Saving: backups, notes and drives

There are three ways to save:

  • Save Show saves under the current name.
  • Save Show As saves under a new name (SaveShow "name" on the command line).
  • Quick Save: press Backup twice while the Backup menu is closed.

Every save keeps the previous one as a backup, up to ten backups per show name. To go back, switch the load pop-up to Viewing Shows & Backups and load the version you want. The green input line in the Backup menu adds a note to the save, which you see again when loading, so "before re-patch" or "after soundcheck" can tell the ten versions apart.

Auto Save saves the show at a fixed interval (15, 30, 60 or 120 minutes); it's off by default.

The tabs in the Backup menu are the drives you save to and load from:

Internal
The hard drive of the console, or a folder on the onPC computer. A full install that formats the drive deletes all show files on it.
USB stick
Gets its own tab when connected. A Quick Save stores the show on the stick and on the internal drive. The manual's advice for sticks: FAT32, no more than 16 GB, and no spaces in the stick's name; shows and exported objects go into a gma2 folder on it.
File server
An FTP or shared-folder server in the network, available only on the session master, and not with onPC as master.
Templates and Demoshows
Read-only tabs you load from. Templates survive software updates and are meant for a basic show (patch and setup) of a rig you use often; shows get there only via FTP.
Version tabs
Each software version installed on the machine has its own tab, so shows from earlier versions can still be loaded.

Practice

  • Switch on Auto Save (15 or 30 minutes) as soon as a new show exists, and Quick Save whenever you've finished something.
  • Save with a note before every big change (re-patch, deleting objects, a Partial Show Read). Ten backups go fast with Quick Save, so the notes are what make an old version findable.
  • Keep a copy on a USB stick and take it to every gig; a Quick Save with the stick connected writes to both drives at once. A copy of the onPC show folder on another computer works too (SelectDrive without a number shows where the folder is).
  • Prepare the stick: use a small stick (the manual says no more than 16 GB) formatted FAT32, and create a folder gma2 in its root. Without that folder the stick may not show up as a tab at all.

Versions only go forward

A show can only move to newer software. A show saved in an older version loads in a newer one; once it's saved in the newer version, the older software can't open it any more. To keep a copy for the older version, load the show and save it under a new name.

Practice

Ask which software version the house console runs, and program on the same onPC version at home. If you have to update, save the show under a new name first, so the version the console can read still exists.

Loading: all of it, or only parts

The Load Show pop-up lets you choose which parts of a show file to load:

Part What it is
Show Data (on by default) patch, fixture schedule, everything in a pool, the 3D stage
Time Config time, location, NTP
Global Settings session-wide console settings (remote, telnet, RDM …)
Local Settings this console only (language, backlight …)
Network Protocols Art-Net, sACN and the other network DMX settings
Network Config which devices are in the session, DMX port setup
User Profiles all users and user profiles, replacing the current ones

Show data alone is the default, and it brings user profiles along anyway: profiles from the show replace those with the same name, others are added, but users are not.

New Show works the same way the other way round: you choose what to clear, and by default only the show data goes. A new show on your laptop therefore keeps your network protocols, so the Art-Net setup for your nodes stays.

Practice

  • On a house console, load only the show data, so the venue's network setup stays as it is. Then check that your universes go out on the venue's nodes (see Systems and networking).
  • On your own laptop, moving the show to a new machine, tick Network Protocols and Network Config too.

To verify in onPC: check 37

Taking parts of another show

Two tools copy objects between shows without loading a whole show.

Partial Show Read (PSR) imports macros, presets, filters, groups, effects, sequences, timers, executors and executor pages, and layouts from another show into the loaded one. What an object needs comes along: a sequence brings its presets. It works in two steps: first you match the fixtures of the two shows (and choose the 3D stage), then you pick what to import. The manual's limits: the source show must be saved in the same software version, PSR respects your world, special masters aren't imported, and it can't run on a station in a session. How to use it for a new rig is on Building and changing a show.

Export and import write single objects to XML files and read them back into any show. The Setup menu (Import Export) has a dialog for macros, effects, masks, MAtricks, gobo bitmaps, user profiles and DMX nodes; the Export keyword handles any object, for example Export Group 1 Thru 4 "Front_groups". MA's predefined macros and effects are imported the same way.

Practice

Export what you reuse from show to show (your macros, a few effects, your user profile with its views) to a USB stick. A new show then starts from your own building blocks instead of from nothing.

When you need it, and when not

  • Every show: Auto Save on, Quick Save as a habit, notes before big changes, a copy on a USB stick.
  • Before a gig on someone else's console: the software version, and loading only the show data.
  • A new rig or a new show from an old one: Partial Show Read, or export and import of single objects.
  • Skip at first: file servers, the Templates tab, time config and the other settings parts of a load.

Sources