If you already have a fixture profile in a file (from SvetoMaster or another program) — you can import it without setting up the channels again. And a whole project from QLC+ can be brought over together with its fixtures, scenes and chases.
📍 Where: «Add fixture» → the “Import from file” section (for individual profiles). Importing a whole QLC+ project is launched from the program menu.
Importing an individual profile
| Format | From where / what it brings over |
|---|---|
| .svf | A profile saved in SvetoMaster (the «Export (.svf)» button) |
| .fxt / .pff | A profile from the FreeStyler program |
| .qxf | A profile from QLC+. If the file has several DMX modes — the program will offer to pick the right one |
| .xml | A profile for the GrandMA2 console — fixture manufacturers often publish these themselves. Such a file always holds a single mode, so there is nothing to choose |
| .gdtf | The modern shared standard (MA3, Onyx, Capture and Depence all read it). Thousands of profiles from the manufacturers themselves sit in the open GDTF Share library. A file usually holds several modes — the program will offer to pick the right one |
How to import:
- «Add fixture» → “Import from file” → choose the format.
- Select the file. The fixture is added to the Patch, and the channel editor opens right away.
⚠️ Note: during import the program checks the profile, and if something didn’t come over completely (for example, non-standard channels), it shows a “check the profile in the Patch” hint. This isn’t an error — just a nudge to look into the editor and make sure the channels are in place.
💡 About GrandMA2 profiles: their channels are described not by text but by the console’s own service codes, so channel roles come over more accurately than from other formats — usually there is nothing to check. But there are two things such a file does not carry. Gobo images — in MA2 they are a link into the console’s internal library, which we don’t have, so the picture is matched by the slot name. Wheel colours — they can be filled in inside MA2 itself, but many manufacturers leave that column empty (then the slots look blank on a real console too). If the wheel slots arrived without colours, set them by hand in the channel editor — it is a one-time job, after which the profile is stored ready to use.
💡 About GDTF profiles: this is the most accurate format available, so take the fixture in it whenever you can. Channels are described by service codes (as in GrandMA2), so a role is taken from the code rather than guessed from a name. One caveat: if a channel changes meaning depending on another channel (working differently with the lamp on and off, say), the program takes the behaviour the file itself calls the initial one. On top of that the file carries what nothing else does: the real colours of the wheel slots — not “blue in general”, but the measured colour of that particular piece of glass, so the wheel in the program looks the way the fixture shines — and the real gobo images, which sit right inside the file. The patterns are added to your “My gobos” collection under the name “fixture — slot”, so you can use them as your own pictures afterwards. An empty slot (“Open”) gets no picture — the fixture shines straight through there. The file also brings the spec data: the beam angle, the zoom limits and how far the head really turns (a 220° tilt, say, instead of “roughly like everyone else’s”) — so in the visualizer the head moves like the real one and the zoom opens to exactly the rated degrees (3…36° on a Clay Paky Sharpy Plus, 7…56° on an Ayrton Ghibli). The fixture’s own dimensions come from there too, so in the 3D view it looks like its actual model rather than a generic head: the Sharpy narrow and tall, the Ghibli wider and longer. In GDTF picking a slot and spinning the wheel are different channels, so there is nothing to guess. Profiles can be downloaded from the open GDTF Share library — it asks for a free account.
⚠️ There is a separate warning when no brightness channel was found. In FreeStyler and QLC+ files the channels are described by plain text names invented by the profile’s author, so now and then the purpose of a channel can’t be worked out. A fixture without a brightness channel ignores the brightness fader — open the editor and set the “Dimmer” type on the right channel.
⚠️ One more warning — “brightness and strobe share one channel”. On budget LED fixtures the first channel often does both (in the profile it is called something like “Dimmer/Strobe”). Brightness works through it right away, but the strobe fader does not: one DMX channel cannot be written from two places, and the program cannot guess at which value your fixture’s strobe band begins. To get the strobe, describe the channel functions (ranges) in the editor, following the table in the fixture’s manual. A mode list then appears above the fader and the strobe starts working.
💡 Tip: once the channels are right, press “Save profile” in the editor — it goes to “My profiles (.svf)”, and in your next project the fixture is added from the library already correct. Channel edits are stored in the project and in the
.svf profile, but they are never written back into the original FreeStyler or QLC+ file — so importing that same file again gives you the original version once more.Importing a QLC+ project (.qxw)
This brings over a whole show, not a single fixture: the program reads the QLC+ workspace and transfers the fixtures + scenes + chases.
- Launch the QLC+ project import and select the
.qxwfile. - A report window opens: how many fixtures were matched exactly/approximately, how many scenes and chases will be transferred.
- Confirm — the current project is replaced with the contents from QLC+.
⚠️ Note: importing a project replaces your current project entirely (fixtures, scenes, chases, playlists). If you have unsaved work — save it first. You can get it back via “File → Restore from auto-backup”.
⚠️ Note: importing a QLC+ project is a beta feature. Fixtures, scenes and chases are transferred; complex features (EFX, matrices, the virtual console) are not — the report will tell you so.
To open a “native” SvetoMaster project (.smp) — use the standard Open item in the File menu (see 12. Projects and Files).
