Groups Panel

The Groups Panel is the main method for selecting and managing your lighting rig.

Important Concepts

Within Lightforge, all lighting fixtures are organized into groups, subgroups, sub-subgroups, etc. Any change made to any group will affect all of the children of that group. If you select a group that contains the entire lighting rig, and change the intensity, it'll change the intensity of all of the children of that group.

The Toolbar

Home

The Home tool centers your viewport on the lighting rig and zooms to fit it in the viewport.

Release

The Release tool releases any held values in all selected fixtures or groups.

Edit

The Edit tool toggles edit mode for the selected groups or fixtures. To change positioning of groups, add, delete or edit fixtures, you need to be in edit mode.

Lock

The Lock tool toggles lock mode for the selected groups or fixtures. When a group is locked it continues outputting the values it was at when it was locked until you unlock it. This allows you to turn a certain group or fixture on and lock it (house lights for example), and then record all your cues with the houselights off for your show, while still keeping them on while you are programming.

The Info Bar

The info bar gives information on the group, fixture, or tool that the mouse cursor is currently over.

The Layout

The groups panel contains two types of objects; groups, and fixtures. Groups are rounded rectangles, and fixtures are circles. Fixtures give indications of basic attributes such as intensity, pan, tilt, and color.

Color Coding

Orange Outline - The outlined fixture or group is holding values. These values will override any values set in the current cues. When you record a cue, or a palette, these held values get saved into the cue or palette, and then the groups or fixtures are releases. To set a group or fixture to hold values, select the fixture and change any attribute (pan, tilt, color, intensity, etc. To release the hold either press the R key, or press the release button in the groups panel.

Salmon Background - These groups or fixtures are currently set to be locked.

Adding Groups

To add a group, first place it's parent group in edit mode by selecting it and pressing "Enter" or pressing the edit icon on the toolbar. Once in edit mode right click on the group and select "Add Group" from the context menu. This will bring up a dialog asking you to enter the name of the group and how many columns and rows to assign to it. Each cell in the grid created by this can be assigned a group or a fixture.

Editing Groups

To edit a group, first place it in edit mode, then right click on the group and select "Edit" from the context menu. This will bring up a dialog asking you to enter the name of the group and how many columns and rows to assign to it.

Adding Fixtures

To add a fixture, place the group you want to add it to in edit mode, then right click on the group, and click "Add Fixture" in the context menu. This will bring up the Fixture Dialog to allow you to choose how to patch your new fixtures.

Editing Fixtures

To edit a fixture, place the fixture you want to edit it to in edit mode, then right click on the fixture, and click "edit" in the context menu. This will bring up the Fixture Dialog to allow edit your fixture settings.

Rearranging and Scaling Groups and Fixtures

To rearrange your group layout, place whatever groups or fixtures you are wanting to rearrange into edit mode, and click and drag the group or fixture to the cell you would like it to occupy. To scale a group click and drag the scaling handles on the group or fixture.

Keyboard And Mouse Shortcuts

Release - R

Select Multiple Groups - Right Click or Control + Left Click

Home - Home

Move Viewport - Middle mouse drag or M + Click and Drag

Zoom In - Mouse Scroll Wheel or +

Zoom Out - Mouse Scroll Wheel or -

Toggle Edit - Enter

Toggle Lock - L

Select Previous Fixture - ,

Select Next Fixture - .

Set Intensity Off - [

Set Intensity Full - ]