# Patch Sheet



## lieperjp (Feb 5, 2009)

Does anyone have an example of a Patch Sheet? I'm going to be doing a soft patch for the first time for our next show, and looking to make some efficient documentation for others who may have to use the Light Board, not to mention giving myself good notes for programming.


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## xander (Feb 5, 2009)

What do you mean by a "patch sheet"? a hook-up? Please specify...

-Tim


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## lieperjp (Feb 5, 2009)

xander said:


> What do you mean by a "patch sheet"? a hook-up? Please specify...
> 
> -Tim



Yes. A hook up.


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## soundman (Feb 5, 2009)

Heres one I did for a class. Makes patching an express/ion easy because its dimmer @ channel so the numbers are in order.


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## Esoteric (Feb 5, 2009)

That looks exactly like mine.

Mike


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## isquint (Feb 5, 2009)

soundman said:


> Heres one I did for a class. Makes patching an express/ion easy because its dimmer @ channel so the numbers are in order.



What I like about the Ion is the format button in patching. Switches from channel @ address to address @ channel. Then of course the ability to patch in EDMX or Universe is also nice.

Oh, and BTW lieperjp, if you are a student or educator, think about LightWright. Once you get started, you will never look back!


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## SteveB (Feb 5, 2009)

Esoteric said:


> That looks exactly like mine.
> 
> Mike



And mine, on the very rare occasion I use it when I then do a separate hookup in Lightwright to only have Dimmer and Channel columns. Why confuse them.

And for those using Lightwright, there are easy tricks using Express/ion Off-Line and LW to get the Channel to Dimmer patch out of LW and into Express. There are also tricks to merging the LW patch directly into a file that keeps your favorite console macro's, as well as layering Patch from LW onto a visiting companies Express/ion disk cue file, onto a favorite house console macro file. Final disk has your macro's, the patch out of LW and the cues from the company.

I can post instructions if anyone's interested.

Steve B.


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## Wolf (Feb 5, 2009)

SteveB said:


> And mine, on the very rare occasion I use it when I then do a separate hookup in Lightwright to only have Dimmer and Channel columns. Why confuse them.
> 
> And for those using Lightwright, there are easy tricks using Express/ion Off-Line and LW to get the Channel to Dimmer patch out of LW and into Express. There are also tricks to merging the LW patch directly into a file that keeps your favorite console macro's, as well as layering Patch from LW onto a visiting companies Express/ion disk cue file, onto a favorite house console macro file. Final disk has your macro's, the patch out of LW and the cues from the company.
> 
> ...



Yeah, if you could, that would be great. Thanks


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## SteveB (Feb 5, 2009)

Wolf said:


> Yeah, if you could, that would be great. Thanks



Assuming Windows XP or some such, with LightWright 3 or 4 and Expression Off-Line (EOL) as well as some form of 3.5" floppy drive. Note that you can also get an ASCII Ch to Dim patch out of Vectorworks 11 and up. 

Also assuming you have saved to the PC HD a file with your favorite console Macros (using EOL to do so).

1) Load visiting console disk to drive, Open EOL, go to File - Import Show, read the .shw file on the console disk into EOL.

2) In EOL, Convert this file to ASCII, saving it where you can remember it.

3) In LW (slightly different process in VW), open the file you need to export patch. Go to File - Export - ASCII Show Patch, give the file a location and name, adding .asc to the file name, click where appropriate.

4) Back to EOL. Open the .shw file on the HD you've saved as a Macro file. 

5) In EOL, Convert - Read ACSII, navigating to the ASCII Cue File you saved. Click on it and a pop-up screen should come up that reads with a bunch of numbers, then "Data stream successfully processed". Press OK.

6) Save the current EOL file that has the macros PLUS cues, as a new file. EOL automatically creates the .shw extension. 

7) In EOL, go back to Convert - Read ASCII, and navigate to the LW/VW patch file, click on it. Make sure the Same pop-up screen with (we hope) "Data stream successfully processed". 

8) In EOL - File - Save. 

9) Check the EOL file, you should have the macros, plus cues (Blind-S2 key shows you the cue list), then check to see if the patch matches what LW is saying. 

Effectively, what you are doing is "layering" an LW ASCII Patch file, on top of an ASCII Cue file that's been layered to a .shw file with macro's. 

10) Place new disk into disk drive, in EOL - File - Export. You can now load the disk to any Expression series or Express console.

Some traps:

- If you are loading to an Express with a low channel count - 48/96 with only 192 channels, you cannot import levels for 250 channels. Usually the levels for channels above 192 are stripped off the import.

- Ditto the LW file, it cannot have more channels then the console.

- Ditto system size. Neither LW nor the finished .shw file off EOL can have more then 1024 DMX addresses, which is the Express limit. 

- Show files written on Expression III or Insight III can have more parts in a cue then an Express can handle )I believe Expression/Insight III allows 8 parts, where as Express allows 4 - correct me if this is incorrect) and you can get into trouble. If you have an option, always take an Express disk if going to an Express.

- It helps to set up Expression Off-Line as an Expression console with maximum channel count. Assuming that the console is anything with less capacity, it generally works fine as a saved .shw file for any of the Express series (assuming you've caught the channel count limit trap).

- Expression Off-Line will add the .asc extension to a file it writes. Lightwright does not and you should type in the extension. Otherwise, when you go looking for the ASCII patch file in EOL, you get tripped up by the "Files of Type" toggle at the bottom of the pop-up screen, and you then can't see the file, then you need to change it to All Files to see the patch file.

- If you find yourself needing to do this a lot, it helps to have the PC doing the conversion somewhere convenient to the console. 

Steve B.


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## soundman (Feb 5, 2009)

Thanks Steve B, I have forwarded that to my lighting professors so they can crank out patches. 

I have made a few custom layouts for lightwright. Most of the time it is when I am trying to shoe horn the program into doing something it dosn't want to do. Last time was when I needed to sort fixtures by purpose. I ended up copying the purpose field to a text1 and then sorting by that but setting up the columns like I needed them.


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## SteveB (Feb 6, 2009)

soundman said:


> Thanks Steve B, I have forwarded that to my lighting professors so they can crank out patches.
> 
> I have made a few custom layouts for lightwright. Most of the time it is when I am trying to shoe horn the program into doing something it dosn't want to do. Last time was when I needed to sort fixtures by purpose. I ended up copying the purpose field to a text1 and then sorting by that but setting up the columns like I needed them.



In LW, have you tried "View - Instrument Type (dialog box lets you pick which ones, or all), then "Sort by Purpose" ?.

SB


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## soundman (Feb 6, 2009)

I have never been a big fan of printing by worksheet. I have always used layouts, I guess I am just a control freak.


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## SteveB (Feb 6, 2009)

soundman said:


> I have never been a big fan of printing by worksheet. I have always used layouts, I guess I am just a control freak.



I assume you're talking LW here. 

Lightwright uses the worksheet for the on screen views. It's completely tailorable under Worksheet - Columns, as to what you are viewing on the screen, and can be completely different from what the Layouts section provides. In Layouts, you can either use the defaults for Channel, Dimmer, Instrument Schedule, etc... or you can be picky and tailor it to your needs and save the layout under Save Layout, with assorted versions available. I use a different layout for our 500 seat theater that has a patch panel, thus have circuits set as a printable column, something I don't use in my road house. 

SB


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