Workspace Windows

The main area of the screen contains the workspace windows. These contain buttons for selecting fixtures, groups, palettes, playbacks and so on. Information windows such as Playback View and the integrated Visualiser application can also appear as a workspace window.

Sapphire Touch displays are slightly different:

Sapphire Touch Left touch screen

Sapphire Touch Right touch screen

Opening and positioning workspace windows

You select which workspace windows you want to see using the Open Workspace Window menu command on the root menu. You can also press the

View button (labelled Open or Open Window on some consoles) to access the Open Workspace Window option while in another menu and there are shortcuts to open some windows as listed in the next section. In the rest of this manual we'll refer to this button as View/Opento cover both options.

You can change the positions and sizes of the windows by using the Window Control buttons near the numeric keypad or the Window Options button (cog icon) at the top of each screen, more details are given in the next section. The min/max button swaps the active window between full screen and quarter size. The size/position button moves the active window around the possible positions. You make a window active by clicking/touching its header bar.

You can move the active window to a different monitor by pressing

Avo and the Size/Position button, or View/Open then Window Options then Move Screen.

Shortcuts to open workspace windows

Press View/Open then an Attribute Bank button to open the Palette window for that attribute.

Press View/Open then Patch to open the Patch View window.

Press View/Open then a fixture select button to open the Fixture View window showing patch details for that fixture.

Press View/Open then Connect to open the View Cue window.

Press View/Open then Off to open the Active Playbacks window.

Press View/Open then Macro to open the Macro window.

Window setup buttons

At the top right of each workspace window are three or four buttons which access other functions for the window.

The Context Menu button is only shown on Sapphire Touch and Titan Go, and gives a drop down menu at the top of the window showing the context menu buttons which relate to the current window.

On all other consoles the context menu buttons are automatically shown below the prompt area on the top right of the main screen. These buttons change to match the active window. The picture below gives an example of how the context buttons appear when Patch View window is active.

The Window Appearance Options button (cog icon) lets you select the standard window sizes and positions. Buttons are also shown allowing you to set the button size and the text size of the window, and move the window to an external monitor. The Appearance options may vary depending on which window it is, the setup of the console and if you have any external monitors.

The Resize Window button allows you to set adjustable window sizes. A grid screen will open.

With the softkey Edit All Windows set to Off, you just set the size of the selected window.

Touch and drag the top left or bottom right corners to resize the window. Touch and drag anywhere else to move the window.

Tap on a corner to set a start corner position - the window will highlight in red and ask you to tap to set the opposite corner position.

If the softkey Resize Neighbours is set to On, surrounding windows will resize to make room for the window you are editing. If Off, the other windows will stay the same size and go behind the current window.

If Edit All Windows is set to On, corner arrows will appear in all windows and you can adjust the size of all the windows together. Press

Enter, Exit or OK to finish.

If you accidentally set a window to a single grid size, you can't then get to the Window Layout button to resize it. Select the window and use the Min/Max softkey to set the window to a fixed size.

You can move the active window between screens from the Window Appearance screen, or by pressing View then Window Options then

Move Screen, or hold Avo and the Size & Position button.

You can close the active window using the Close button (not on all consoles). You can close all windows by pressing Avo+Close, or use the Close All softkey.

Controlling button layout / grid

Buttons normally resize automatically to suit the screen size and resolution, however this means that moving shows between different consoles or different screens can make the number of rows and columns change, causing buttons to move around. If you have set a particular layout you want to keep (for example if you've positioned fixtures in the window to match the layout on stage), open the Window Appearance menu using the Cog button and set Button Size to Button Size Set Rows & Columns. You can then set a fixed layout using the Rows and

Columns buttons.

The Rows and Columns settings are remembered even if you change the button size back to one of the automatic sizes, which allows you to swap between auto and fixed button size modes.

Mini Screen (Arena only)

The Display button below the rotary encoders toggles through four fixed layouts for the Mini screen:

• Workspace window(s) with encoder legends on the right

• Workspace window(s) with macro button legends below

• Fixed playbacks window - in this mode the first two rows of touch buttons are the same as the macro buttons below. This window cannot be moved to another screen, and other windows open on the Mini screen will move to the main screen when this layout is set.

• Workspace window(s) fill the full screen, no button/encoder legends shown.

Saving workspace layout

You can save workspaces, allowing you to reconfigure all the screen displays at the touch of a button.

Workspace layouts are saved to the Workspaces touch buttons to the left of the A-G menu buttons (except on Sapphire Touch and Titan Go where they are down the left side of the screen). Press View/Open then

Record Workspace, then touch one of the Workspaces buttons, or just touch an empty button twice to Quick Record. You can also save workspaces onto any grey handle or macro button.

Workspaces are saved with the show.

As an example of setting up a workspace, suppose while programming you wanted to be able to access fixtures, position palettes, fixture attributes and shapes:

1. Press Exit to get to the root menu then the Open Workspace Window menu softkey.

2. Find the Fixtures window in the list and press it.

3. If the window is not in the top left quarter, press the Size & Position button (above the numeric keys) until the window occupies the top left quarter.

4. Press Open Workspace Window again and select the Positions window. Press the Size & Position button to position it in the desired location.

5. Repeat to activate the Attribute Control and Shapes windows.

6. Press View/Open then Record Workspace, or hold Avo and press View/Open. Type in a name for the workspace. Then touch the Workspace button where you want to store this workspace layout. Or, you can use Quick Record -- just touch an empty workspace button and it will turn red with a +. Type a name for the workspace and touch again to store it.

• Record Visible/All Windows lets you set whether the workspace will contain only the windows which are currently visible, or will also include any windows which are hidden underneath other windows.
• Remove/Leave other windows on recall sets whether all other windows will be closed when this workspace is recalled.

• To delete a workspace button, press View/Open, Delete, then the workspace button to be deleted.

Compatibility windows for Pearl Expert shows

The "Fixtures and Playbacks" and "Groups and Palettes" windows allow you to access the preset fader handles in shows which have been programmed on the Pearl Expert.

When either of these windows is opened, there is a context button option to Move to workspace. This will move the handles from the compatibility window to the appropriate workspace window. You need to do this twice, once with the "Fixtures and playbacks" window selected, and once with the "Palettes and groups" window selected.

Quick record

Some windows - Groups, Workspaces, Playbacks, and all the Palette windows - have a Quick Record function. Set up what you want to record, then touch or click an empty button once. The button will light up red with a + sign. At this point you can enter a legend. Touch or click again to store the item.

The Quick Record function can be disabled using Key Profiles

Legends and picture legends

All touch buttons can have legends set to remind you what they do. In addition, you can draw picture legends on the buttons. To do this, select Set Legend then press Picture. A drawing space will open on the touch screen for you to draw the legend. There is also a library of pictures to choose from including popular gobo designs.

Colour palettes will automatically create a picture legend showing the colour(s) in the palette when you save it. Gobo palettes will show an image of the standard gobo, if the fixture personality has this information in it.

Button Halo

You can set a custom coloured halo for fixture, group or palette buttons. This can be really useful for identifying different types of button at a glance. Select the Halo option on the Set Legends menu.

If you set a halo on fixture buttons, the halo colour is also used in other windows; fixture buttons can also have an automatic halo to help identify different types of fixture.

 Trackball (Sapphire Touch only)

The trackball on the right of the console can be used either to control the mouse pointer on the touch screens and external monitors, or to control fixtures.

To use in mouse mode, hold the Assign button below the trackball and click the \'Left\' mouse button. The trackball will then control the mouse pointer and the ring will scroll windows up and down.

To use in console mode for controlling fixtures, press the Assign button on its own. The trackball will control pan and tilt of selected fixtures, and the ring controls fine tilt.

 Touch Keyboard

At the end of the toolbar is the keyboard popup button which will open the touch keyboard.

The touch keyboard can be switched between large and small size using the Max/Min button and you close it using the large X button in the top right hand corner. You can also move it on the screen by touching and dragging the blank area of the keyboard at the top.

If you want the keyboard to pop up automatically when text input is required, set the Man/Auto button to "Auto". This setting will stay active until you change it back to "Manual".

The small version of the keyboard (pictured) does not have some of the less frequently used buttons.