2D Patch With The Patch Editor For DMX Output

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In this tutorial you can learn how to create a 2D patch for DMX fixtures with the help of the Patch Editor.

 

Date: 10/2018
MADRIX Version: 5.0 (Created with)

Corresponding Video Tutorial: »Creating A 2D Patch For DMX Output With The Patch Editor

 

Note:

We will use the result of this task in the tutorials »Merge Patches, »Create Fixture Groups, »Export, Modify And Update A Patched Fixture and »Layer Mapping. If you also want to have a look at this tutorials, it is recommended to save the patch at the end of the tutorial.

 

Task:
We have to create a patch for different fixtures with different pixel amount according to the following patch plan.

The patch consists of RGB PAR LED and 4 Pixel RGB Batten fixtures.

 

       

 

1.

Please go in MADRIX to Preferences > Patch Editor.
[Keyboard shortcut F3]

 

 

2.

The Patch Editor opens and you will see the current patch. If you open the Patch Editor after the start of MADRIX (without loading a setup), you will find the default patch of 50 x 50 pixels.
The complete manual chapter about the Patch Editor you will find here: »Using The Software > Patching > Patch Editor

 

 

3.

When we want to create a new patch in the Patch Editor, it is recommended to start with an empty patch. Please click the New button in the toolbar and an empty patch will be generated

 

 

4.

Now we can start to add the fixtures according to our patch plan. To add fixtures to the patch grid please click the Add button in the toolbar.

 

 

5.

The Add Fixtures window opens and the default Protocol and Product is selected if you open it the first time.

 

 

6.

Now we need to change the settings in the Add Fixture window to patch the fixtures according to the patch plan.

First we want to patch the 4 RGB LED PAR cans. We know it is a simple RGB light and requires 3 channel per fixture. In that case we know we don't need to patch a specific fixture and we can use the !generic RGB Light 1 pixel.

 
In the Fixture section we don't need to change the Protocol and the Product.

Protocol should be DMX

As Product it should be !generic RGB Light 1 pixel selected

 

In the Placement section we want to select the correct count and placement (Offset and Start Position) according to the patch plan.
We know we have to patch 4 RGB LED PAR cans and when we have a look to the patch plan we see the "RGB PAR cans" are on the top but there is one of the "4 Pixel RGB Batten" left of them and between every "RGB PAR can" is a bit offset.

So we change the settings to:

Count  X to 4. We don't need to change the Count Y and Z. It should be 1.

The Offset X will be set to 1

Start Position X will also be changed and set to 2.

 

In the Addressing section we don't have to change a setting this time. Because according to our patch plan we start on DMX Universe 1 with DMX Start Channel 1 and the address assignment is from left to right.

After we finished the settings we can click Add

 

 

7.

Now you can see four fixtures are added according to our settings in the Add Fixtures window. Before we go ahead with patching of the other fixtures we will compare it with the patch plan. If everything is ok, we can continue the patching. If not, we should correct the wrong settings.

 

8.

In this step we open the Add Fixtures window again and patch the five "4 RGB pixel batten" fixtures. From our task we know there are 5 pixel battens and every one has 4 RGB pixels. In this example we want to create the pixel batten as a fixture, which consists of !generic RGB Light 1 pixel. According to the patch plan we add this fixtures below the par cans and start at the left side in the patch. The DMX start address of the first pixel batten is 13 in DMX universe 1. Furthermore we can see there is a bit space between every pixel batten, where the LED par cans are located.

Because of this requirements we have to set:

In the Fixture section we don't need to change the Protocol and the Product because we patched the !generic RGB Light 1 pixel fixture already during patching the RGB LED par cans. The Add Fixtures window will remember the last patched fixture

 

In the Placement section we want to create 5 pieces of 4 pixel batten starting at the left side with an offset of 1 pixel below the PAR cans.

So we change the settings to:

Count  X to 5

The Count Y we change to 4

Count Z  we don't need to change. It should be 1.

The Offset X will be set to 1

Start Position Y will be set to 3.

 

In Addressing section we have to change the settings for the Main Orientation because we want to use the !generic RGB Light 1 pixel as a vertical batten and also the DMX Start Channel needs to be set to 13 according to the patch plan. If Auto Address is enabled in the Toolbar of the Patch Editor, MADRIX will automatically set the DMX Start Channel to the next free address.

 

We have to change:

Main Orientation to Vertical

DMX Start Channel to 13

 

After we finished the settings we can click Add

 

 

9.

After adding the fixtures you can close the Add Fixtures window and the current patch should look like the following picture

 

 

10.

Now we have created the patch but we need to change the size of the Voxel Map that MADRIX can calculate the effects on the correct size according to the patched fixtures. Therefor please open the Matrix Settings.

 

 

11.

In the Matrix Settings window you can easily click at the Match Voxel Map Area button and MADRIX will automatically set the correct Size for X, Y and Z.

In the next step you can click OK.

 

 

12.

Now close the Patch Editor and you can see the new created patch consists of 4 pixels (the RGB LED PAR cans) on top and 5 x 4 pixels (the 4 Pixel RGB Batten) below.

 

 

 

Congratulations! You have successfully learned how to create a 2D patch consisting of different fixtures in MADRIX

 

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