Visualizer overview

The visualizer is a virtual stage that shows how your light will look, even when no fixtures are connected. It does two jobs at once: it shows the light in real time and helps you lay out the fixtures across the venue (who stands where and points where).

📍 Where: the visualizer occupies the left-hand part of the main window (classic layout). If you can’t see it, turn on the classic view with the layout button in the program header.

Two modes — switched with the 3D / 2D buttons in the top-right corner of the visualizer area:

Mode What it’s for
2D A top-down view, like a stage plan. Here it’s convenient to lay out fixtures: drag, rotate and set the height (see 08.02)
3D A realistic, three-dimensional display: beams, gobos, haze — “like the real thing” (see 08.03)
💡 Tip: use both. In 2D you lay out fixtures over the hall plan quickly and precisely, and in 3D you judge how it looks from the audience’s point of view.

Sized to your screen. The visualizer stretches with the mouse: drag its bottom edge and it grows taller (the bottom panel with the scenes gives way), or drag the corner at the bottom right to change height and width at once. Width alone is dragged by the vertical border between the visualizer and the fixture panel. A double click on the edge or the corner restores the usual height and gives the freed space back to the bottom panel. The size is remembered until the next launch — on a large monitor it makes sense to enlarge the stage.

Quick save to a scene. Next to it is a button that instantly saves the current light as a scene — handy for “catching” a good frame straight from the visualizer without opening the editor.

⚠️ Note: the visualizer is a preview, not an exact copy. Real brightness and color depend on your fixtures and the hall; on the stage the picture is shown approximately, so you can see the logic of the light and the direction of the beams.
💡 Tip: set the venue size to match your hall — then the fixture layout and the stage scale will be realistic.
Fig. 08.01.1 — Visualizer: the 3D/2D toggle
Fig. 08.01.1 — Visualizer: the 3D/2D toggle