Working With Fixture Groups

Learn how to work with Fixture Groups in MADRIX in this tutorial. We want to create 3 different Fixture Groups and learn how we can change the values of these groups.

Start MADRIX and open the Patch Editor (press the F3 key on your keyboard).
After creating or loading the Patch from the tutorial »Creating A Patch With Space Between Fixtures, the Patch Editor should look this:

Now, we want to create the first fixture group of this tutorial.
First, select all fixtures of the left column. To do so, press and hold the Ctrl key down and click with the left mouse button on the fixtures in the Patch Editor grid. The selected fixtures are illuminated in lime green. When you have selected these 4 fixtures, click the Create From Selection button in the upper toolbar.

The New Fixture Group window opens. In this window, you can change the Display Name, Display Color, and ID for the fixture group you just have created.

•	The Display Name defines the description of how the fixture group will be displayed in MADRIX. In this example, we change it to Left

•	The Display Color is responsible for the background color used for this group in the MADRIX Group Control. In this example, we change it to Red Note: The Display Color does not define the default color for the light output of the fixtures.

•	The ID is responsible for the order of groups in the MADRIX Group Control. Normally, you do not need to change this value.

After you have changed the settings, please click OK
Now, you can see that a new group with the name Left was added to the group section of the Patch Editor. You will find the group section on the bottom left of the Patch Editor.

In this step, we want to add the second fixture group.
Therefore, select the fixtures of the two columns in the middle. To select the fixtures, please press and hold the Shift key down, click and hold the left mouse button down, and move the mouse to create a bounding box over the 8 middle fixtures. After all 8 fixtures are selected, click again on the Create From Selection button.

Now, the New Fixture Group window opens.

In this example, we want to change the Display Name to Middle and the Display Color to Yellow. Then, please click OK and the fixture group will be created.

Now, we want to create the third fixture group. We are selecting all fixtures of the right fixture column and click Create From Selection

The New Fixture Group window opens.

We want to change the Display Name to Right and the Display Color to Blue and confirm with OK

There are now three different fixture groups listed in the group section of the Patch Editor.

Now, please close the Patch Editor. In MADRIX, please select an empty Storage Place and change the color of the SCE Color effect to Red

In this step, we want to open the Group Control. To do so, click on the Programmer button and a context menu opens. You will find this button below the Fade section.

As a result, the lower part (Effect Section) of the MADRIX user interface will change into the Group Control section.

You can now change the values of the sliders. You can see the result in the Preview Output and on your connected fixtures. The fixture groups are working like dimming groups for the assigned fixtures in every group.

Congratulations! You have learned how you can create and work with fixture groups.