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The Controls Window

The Controls window (in the Programming area) is the primary programming surface. It shows the current programmer state — which fixtures are selected and what values you have programmed — and every control you move sends values straight to the selected fixtures.

When no fixture is selected the window shows “Select fixtures to adjust”. The controls still work, but they have nothing to target.

Toolbar

The toolbar above the tabs carries:

  • Recording mode — the Propagate / Isolated / Backtrack selector. The active mode is highlighted. See Recording Modes.
  • Clear Selection — deselects all fixtures. Programmed values are kept.
  • Clear Data — clears programmed values (the selection is kept). See Clearing Data.

Selecting Fixtures

Selection happens on the other surfaces and the Controls window reflects it:

  • Stage Map — click a fixture to select it, shift-click to add or remove one, or drag to select a range. See Stage Map.
  • Live view — clicking fixtures there syncs the same programmer selection.

The LACS Tabs

The window is organized by the four LACS groups (Dimmer, Color, Gobo, Position). See Param Groups for how fixture parameters map to these groups.

Dimmer

  • A vertical intensity bar — drag it to set the level; the bar shows the percentage.
  • FINE toggle — switches drag sensitivity and step size from 10% to 1%.
  • FULL / OUT buttons — set 100% or 0%.
  • ±10 / ±1 step buttons — nudge the level (size follows the FINE toggle).

Color

The full Color Tool is embedded on this tab: CIE, RGB, CMY, and HSI modes, live preview, and the color library. Your color is mapped onto each selected fixture’s real RGB channels from its patch profile; fixtures without RGB channels (for example, a color wheel) are skipped rather than guessed. You can also save the current color to the preset library from here.

Gobo

The Gobo tab shows every shape channel of the selected fixture: gobo, gobo rotation, focus, iris, shutter, strobe, and the like (recognized from the profile’s channel names and LACS category).

  • Gobo channels with named positions — a gDTF file that names its gobo slots (e.g. “Open”, “Dots”, “Leaf”) renders a slot grid: one button per named DMX value, in DMX order. Tap a slot to set it; the slot matching the current value is highlighted. Fixtures whose gobo channel has no named positions fall back to a plain slider.
  • All other shape channels — a slider per channel. The scale is the channel’s gDTF sweep in degrees when the profile carries one, otherwise 0–255.

Profiles imported from gDTF files carry their slot names automatically; legacy (non-gDTF) profiles have no named positions, so their gobo channels show as sliders.

Position

Pan and tilt are free-input sliders: drag to set an absolute angle. The angle is shown relative to center — a 540° pan sweep runs −270° to +270°, with 0° dead center. The sweep range comes from the first selected fixture’s profile when it carries a gDTF range (or the seeded catalog’s); fixtures without range metadata fall back to a generic 540° pan / 270° tilt. The CENTER button zeroes both axes; FLIP mirrors the tilt.

Sending Values (Direct Mode)

Every adjustment applies immediately: values go to the selected fixtures and are visible on the DMX output without a cue. Values are tracked per fixture, per attribute family — setting a color does not wipe the dimmer level you just programmed.

Clearing Data

Clearing works in stages:

  1. Clear Selection clears the fixture selection and keeps all data.
  2. Clear Data moves the active values to an inactive set — they no longer drive the output.
  3. Clear Data again releases the values from the output entirely.

Recording to a Cue

  • New sequence with a first cue — in the Sequences window, “Create New Sequence” asks for a name and offers “Save current programmer state as first cue” (only available when the programmer holds values).
  • Record cue — from a sequence’s cue list, “Record cue from programmer” prompts for a name and captures the programmer’s active values as a new cue in that sequence.

The cue stores the active attribute values and the current recording mode. See Recording Modes for what each mode does.

Storing as Value Sets and Presets

  • Value Sets — store parameter values under the four LACS group tabs (capture/recall limits are noted on that page).
  • Presets — the Preset Pool data view (see Data Views) lists presets, and presets can be created from the preset window and from the Color Tool.

Not yet available: preset capture. Presets created today store only a name and category — no values are captured, so applying one has no effect.

Lock and Override

Cue cards in the Sequences window show each cue’s lock and override status.

Not yet available: lock/override editing — the toggles show “coming soon”.