Editing a Fixture and Its Channels

The “Fixture patch” window is the “deep” setup of a single fixture: not just the address, but the most important thing — the channels (which channel does what). You come here when a profile from the library needs tweaking, or when you’re building a fixture by hand.

The window has two parts:

• On the left — the project’s fixture list (with the «Add fixture» button). Click a fixture to set it up.
• On the right — the settings of the selected fixture and the list of its channels.

Fixture parameters

Linked profiles for identical fixtures

When several fixtures use the same profile, the program treats them as instances of one model. Edit the channels, channel types, gobo/color wheels, geometry, or DMX mode on one fixture, and that profile change is automatically applied to every fixture linked to the same profile. The “Fixture profile” block header always shows the number of linked fixtures.

Each instance still keeps its own name, DMX address, universe, stage position, and current brightness/control values. Those values are never copied between linked fixtures.

• Save profile creates or updates a user .svf profile, links the selected fixture to it, and stores the file in DocumentsSvetoMasterProfiles. If you upgraded from an older version, that folder may still carry its original Russian name — the Open folder button always opens the right one.
• Detach keeps the selected fixture’s current channels and settings, but later changes to the shared profile no longer affect it.
• Editing a built-in or community profile creates a user copy, so the original library entry is never overwritten.

⚡ A .smp project remains self-contained: profile definitions are embedded in the project, so it can be moved to another computer without separate .svf files.

Channels

Each channel is a row: the number CH N, a name and a type. The type is picked from a grouped list:

• Add channel — the “+ Add channel” button.
• Rename / change type — right in the channel row.
• Delete — the cross on the right.

Your own gobo images

In the library a real pattern is far from guaranteed for every gobo position — many of them show the generic “Custom image” icon. You can put your own picture into any position.

What to do when there are no gobo positions yet: press “My images…” and choose a file (or several at once) → create a position row with the “+ Add position” button → in its drop-down list pick your picture: it sits in the topmost group, “My gobos”. The same hint is in the app itself — under the ? icon next to the “My images…” button.

The app brings the image into gobo shape by itself: a 256×256 square, black and white, with a round mask along the edge. That is exactly how a real gobo works — it is a stencil: the light parts let light through, the dark parts hold it back. So a colour photo becomes black and white, while the colour of the beam is still set by the fixture’s colour channels.

Uploaded pictures are collected in the DocumentsSvetoMasterGobos folder and are available to every fixture: the same picture placed into ten positions is stored only once. You manage the collection (rename, delete, open the folder) in the “My gobos” window — the icon in the “Gobo” block in Prog mode.

Channel functions (ranges)

In many fixtures one channel does several different things — depending on the value. The classic case is a shutter channel where 0–7 is closed, 8–15 is open and 16–239 is a strobe from slow to fast. The same goes for the prism, gobo rotation, gobo shake and service commands.

Under every channel (except gobo and colour wheels — those have their own position table above) there is a “Channel functions (ranges)” block. Describe here what the fixture does in each section — and in Prog, above the fader of that channel, a list of modes appears, while the fader itself starts travelling inside the selected range, that is, working as a speed encoder.

Changing the fixture type and the shared profile

Type (“Moving head”, “PAR can”, “Strobe”…) is a “label” that tells the program what to expect from the fixture: icon, group, behaviour of effects. It does not touch the channels — their table belongs to the fixture itself (it came from a profile, an import, the constructor or your own markup). You can change the type freely and at any time.

The profile is shared by all the fixtures that use it. If one profile is assigned to several fixtures (the “Fixture profile” block shows “used by N fixtures”), then editing the channels or the profile name applies to ALL of them at once — that is the whole point: mark it up once, and it works on every copy.

Need to split the fixtures into different profiles (for example, leave one as it is and reconfigure the other)? Press “Make a separate profile” — the button appears next to the profile name when the profile is assigned to several fixtures. The selected fixture gets its own copy of the profile with all the channels, and from then on you can edit it independently.

Motion (Pan / Tilt) — reverse and working sector

The block appears on fixtures that can pan or tilt. It is a setting of this particular fixture (it depends on how the fixture is hung) — it never goes into the profile and is not copied to other fixtures.

By default 0–100 % with no inversion — the fixture uses its whole travel, exactly as before.

How percent relates to degrees. The Pan/Tilt 0–100 % scale always spans the whole travel of the fixture: 50 % is the middle (a hanging head points straight down), 0 % and 100 % are the ends, where the beam rises above the horizon. Real hardware works the same way — DMX 128 is the middle of the travel — so the picture on screen matches the actual rig. Leave the “Axis travel” fields empty to use the value from the fixture profile, or the factory default when the profile has none: Pan 540°, Tilt 270° (a profile with “Infinite rotation” ticked gets Pan 360° with no end stops).

Gobo and color wheels (for complex fixtures)

If a channel has the Gobo type (or a color wheel), a mapping appears below it: you specify which DMX value range (for example, 0–10) corresponds to which gobo pattern or color. This is needed so that the program and the visualizer show the selected gobo correctly. The “+ Add position” button adds a range.

A position made of several colours (split filters)

A wheel can have positions made of two halves — for example “Red + Yellow”. Next to the colour square there are “+” and “−” buttons: add a second colour and the square splits into as many parts as there are colours in the position.

Why this is needed: the program used to know only the first colour of such a position, so “red + yellow” counted as plain red and the palette could never reach it. Now, when you pick a colour in Prog, the program compares your colour with each half and honestly chooses the matching position — orange goes exactly to “red + yellow”. On fixtures from the built-in database these positions are already filled in.

The light ring around the lens (“Strips”)

Many affordable moving heads carry a glowing ring around the lens — in the specs it is called Strips, LED ring, Aura or Halo. To make it work, give the channel the type “LED ring (Strips)” (the “Optics” group in the type list).

The program immediately applies the typical layout of affordable heads: 7 colours, automatic change and “running around the circle” modes. The “Ring: 7 colours” button applies it again if you got something mixed up.

Often the fixture’s datasheet describes the ring in a single line — for example “Colour selection 5–109, Automatic change 110–255”. Enter such a line as one position and press the split button (the icon to the right of the name) — the program turns it into 7 honest positions with colours. Detailing the ring is not compulsory: one wide position may stay as it is.

Buttons at the top of the right panel

⚡ Extended profiles (.svf v2) can have several DMX modes (a different number of channels). In that case a “choose the DMX mode” drop-down appears — select the one your fixture runs in.