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Thread: LSX - How to Determine existing CAT file used and how to create customized CAT

  1. #1
    Join Date
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    Default LSX - How to Determine existing CAT file used and how to create customized CAT

    OK, I give up. Been racking my brain on this.

    After setting up an SFX loop with Animation Event and chosen CAT file, how can one determine which CAT file is current displayed when selecting the "..." button to view contents?

    Also, how does one create a customized CAT file from elements from other CATs?

    any help appreciated
    ________________________________
    Everything depends on everything else

  2. #2
    Join Date
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    You can only have one CAT file per timeline AFAIK. When you choose a different CAT file in the animation event dialog, you are loading a different CAT file for all events in that timeline. The CAT file you load becomes part of the show (RTD) file you are building and does not refer to that originating CAT file again. (e.g. if you updated that original source CAT file with PicEdit or something else, it won't update the CAT file in your show (RTD) file. This is why there is no reference to a source CAT filename. Does this make sense?

    As for your second question, you can copy and paste frames in QuickPicEdit (or PicEdit) and/or load individual PICs into any frame in the CAT file that you'd like and then save that CAT file via the Picture Editor (that thing that you get to with the filmstrip icon). That picture editor also allows you to import and export a set of ILDA frames starting at the frame you've selected. This allows you to combine any combination of ILDA material, CAT frame sequences, assorted PIC files until your heart's content. You can then leave it as part of your RTD file by doing nothing more or save off the entire sequence as a new CAT that you can then import into other shows.

    Oh, and on a related note, you can generally open two or more copies of LSX, load different shows/material into each copy and then copy content between them. I find this to be really handy for drawing material from a 'source-file repository show' to a destination show. (e.g. you could store animation effects, loops, lissajou effects, DMX commands, etc. into source files for future reuse.)

    If you haven't read the PicEdit manual that comes with LSX, I'd suggest doing so as the LSX interface isn't terribly intuitive.

    I hope this helps.

    -David
    "Help, help, I'm being repressed!"

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Sep 2014
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    Quote Originally Posted by dkumpula View Post
    You can only have one CAT file per timeline AFAIK. When you choose a different CAT file in the animation event dialog, you are loading a different CAT file for all events in that timeline. The CAT file you load becomes part of the show (RTD) file you are building and does not refer to that originating CAT file again. (e.g. if you updated that original source CAT file with PicEdit or something else, it won't update the CAT file in your show (RTD) file. This is why there is no reference to a source CAT filename. Does this make sense?

    As for your second question, you can copy and paste frames in QuickPicEdit (or PicEdit) and/or load individual PICs into any frame in the CAT file that you'd like and then save that CAT file via the Picture Editor (that thing that you get to with the filmstrip icon). That picture editor also allows you to import and export a set of ILDA frames starting at the frame you've selected. This allows you to combine any combination of ILDA material, CAT frame sequences, assorted PIC files until your heart's content. You can then leave it as part of your RTD file by doing nothing more or save off the entire sequence as a new CAT that you can then import into other shows.

    Oh, and on a related note, you can generally open two or more copies of LSX, load different shows/material into each copy and then copy content between them. I find this to be really handy for drawing material from a 'source-file repository show' to a destination show. (e.g. you could store animation effects, loops, lissajou effects, DMX commands, etc. into source files for future reuse.)

    If you haven't read the PicEdit manual that comes with LSX, I'd suggest doing so as the LSX interface isn't terribly intuitive.

    I hope this helps.

    -David
    David, very good explanation. Although I had read through the PicEdit manual a few weeks back, it hadn't occurred to me that it was the primary means of building a custom CAT file, although it was clear that pics edited or created in it could be saved to a given CAT. Also, being able to have two copies of LSX open for copying content between them is another great tip.

    I was getting the sense that whatever CAT file was selected for an animation event was for that timeline (which is why I wanted to build a CAT with all the frames I wanted to use in a given timeline).

    Many thanks.
    ________________________________
    Everything depends on everything else

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