Improve the behaviour of "Live DMX" feature in Editor
Posted: Mon Oct 06, 2025 11:39 pm
Thanks in advance for reviewing this request.
The "Live DMX" test feature in Editor is very useful. However, there are THREE items in this feature I request be considered for improvement.
Although the setting is contained within the editing window PER CUE, the setting is effective for ALL CUES. In other words if I turn it on in one cue, it's on when I open the next cue. There are two ways to take this:
FIRSTLY, it is unconventional for a GLOBAL setting to be displayed WITHIN A CUE and I suggest it 'should' instead be somewhere independent such as the ribbon bar. This would enable it to be disabled or enabled BEFORE clicking on/editing a cue.
SECONDLY, I would prefer it NOT to be a global setting (or to have an over-ride from the global setting per cue). An example reason: I have a high volume smoke machine in some queues. If I turn on Live Test while editing a few pure lighting cues and then forget to turn it off before clicking on the cue with the smokes, I get smoke if my machines are on.
And this brings me to THIRDLY, something I see as a BUG but which may be a matter of the design not catering for the use case:
Un-checking the "Live Test" box does not undo its effects.
This is a problem because if we get the issue described secondly above, my smoke machine is firing on all cylinders and I cannot stop it by removing the check in the box that caused it; I need to either drag the dimmer away from it's set position or hit a separate hotkey to stop it,
From a design perspective I think I am proposing that the "Live DMX" test box has a first action on enabling as "capture and save all prior DMX channel values" and likewise, when it is unchecked, "restore all prior DMX channel values".
The "Live DMX" test feature in Editor is very useful. However, there are THREE items in this feature I request be considered for improvement.
Although the setting is contained within the editing window PER CUE, the setting is effective for ALL CUES. In other words if I turn it on in one cue, it's on when I open the next cue. There are two ways to take this:
FIRSTLY, it is unconventional for a GLOBAL setting to be displayed WITHIN A CUE and I suggest it 'should' instead be somewhere independent such as the ribbon bar. This would enable it to be disabled or enabled BEFORE clicking on/editing a cue.
SECONDLY, I would prefer it NOT to be a global setting (or to have an over-ride from the global setting per cue). An example reason: I have a high volume smoke machine in some queues. If I turn on Live Test while editing a few pure lighting cues and then forget to turn it off before clicking on the cue with the smokes, I get smoke if my machines are on.
And this brings me to THIRDLY, something I see as a BUG but which may be a matter of the design not catering for the use case:
Un-checking the "Live Test" box does not undo its effects.
This is a problem because if we get the issue described secondly above, my smoke machine is firing on all cylinders and I cannot stop it by removing the check in the box that caused it; I need to either drag the dimmer away from it's set position or hit a separate hotkey to stop it,
From a design perspective I think I am proposing that the "Live DMX" test box has a first action on enabling as "capture and save all prior DMX channel values" and likewise, when it is unchecked, "restore all prior DMX channel values".