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Patching Fixtures & the Library

A patch is the list of fixtures in your show and where each one lives on the DMX line. PRISM has two parts: a fixture library (the catalog of fixture profiles you can choose from) and the patch itself (your show’s actual fixtures, each with a name and a starting address).

The Fixture Library

Profiles come from a built-in catalog: one profile per fixture and DMX mode (for example, “Archspot” with its 6-channel mode and its 8-channel mode as separate profiles). The catalog is ready from the first start, and restarting never duplicates profiles.

gDTF Import

The Patch window’s gDTF button (top right) imports a .gdtf file into the fixture catalog. Tap Browse… to pick the file, then Import. Profiles parse from the file’s first DMX mode; existing profiles are not duplicated.

Adding Fixtures

The Patch window (Setup category) lists the fixtures in the patch (name, profile, channel count, starting address); tap a fixture to unpatch it. The Add button opens the add-fixture flow:

  1. Profile — pick from the library, searchable by manufacturer or name.
  2. Quantity — how many fixtures to add; they are patched as a contiguous run (each following the previous by the profile’s channel count) and named with a trailing index.
  3. Address — the starting DMX address (1–512). The screen checks the range live: overlapping addresses and ranges past 512 are rejected before you can save.
  4. Name — a friendly name for the run. Leave it empty and the fixture is named after its patch id.

In the current release every fixture is patched into universe 1; there is no universe field when adding a fixture. Addresses 1–512 are one DMX universe.

Browsing the Patch

  • Fixture Sheet — the full patch as a grid: one row per fixture, live channel values from the engine. Two display modes: Channel (level bar and color swatch per fixture) and Sheet (one column per attribute, in DMX order, with a mask to hide columns you don’t need). Tap a fixture row to select it in the programmer; double-tap a value cell to type a value (0–255) and set it.

Fixture names show wherever the fixture appears; unnamed fixtures fall back to “Fixture 1”, “Fixture 2”, and so on.