Switching, renaming, duplicating a venue

A venue describes a place: its dimensions, its fixtures and their addresses, its groups, its screens, its DMX connections, its calibrations. You can have several (your theatre, a touring venue, the office for tests) and switch from one to another. A venue can serve several shows.

To get there: Venue menu, last section: Change venue, Rename the venue…, Duplicate the venue…, Delete the venue…. Calibrations are imported and exported with Import the calibrations (lyrescal.ini)… and Export the calibrations…, in the same menu.

The active venue is recalled in the main screen's title, in the form “show @ venue”.

The link between a show and its venue

A show contains no DMX addresses: it designates fixtures (by their identifier) and groups (by their name), declared in the venue.
Each time you save a show, it remembers the name of the active venue.
When you open a show, DreamShow switches by itself to its venue if it is different from the active venue. If that venue no longer exists, the active venue is kept and the log says so: “The show references venue “…”, not found — current venue kept (…)”.

Consequence: if you change venue then save the show, it now belongs to the new venue.

Changing venue

Venue > Change venue opens a submenu with one entry per venue (their name; the tooltip gives the file name). The active venue is ticked. Click another venue to activate it:

the patch, the selection tree, the filters and the simulation are reloaded;
the DMX output restarts on the new venue's connections;
the log notes “Active venue: …”.

The open show is not modified: its scenes now target the fixtures and groups of the same name in the new venue. Whatever does not exist there does not light up.

Creating a venue

At the bottom of the submenu, New venue… asks for the Venue name:. DreamShow creates an empty venue (12 × 18 × 6 m, one universe, the shared fixture library) and activates it. All that remains is to declare its fixtures: venue wizard or Fixtures, addresses, positions.

The file is named after the name (lower case, hyphens), with the extension .venue.json, in the data folder. If a file of that name already exists, creation is refused (“The file … already exists.”): choose another name.

Rename the venue…

Renames the active venue. A window asks “New name (current: …):”.

The new name is saved in the venue.
All the shows in the data folder that referenced the old name are updated, as is the open show: automatic opening of the right venue keeps working. The log gives the number of shows updated.
The venue's file name does not change.

Duplicate the venue…

Creates a complete copy of the active venue (fixtures, groups, screens, calibrations, connections, manual presets…) under a new name. A window asks “Name of the copy of “…”:”. The copy is created in a new file and then becomes the active venue.

It is the right starting point for a neighbouring venue (same fixture inventory in another place) or for trying out changes without touching the original. As for a new venue, the name must not give a file that already exists.

Delete the venue…

Deletes the active venue's file, after confirmation: “Permanently delete venue “…” (file)? Shows referencing it will say so when opened.”

The last venue cannot be deleted (“The last venue of the project cannot be deleted.”).
DreamShow first switches to another venue (the first in file-name order), then deletes the file.
Deletion is permanent: the file is not put in the recycle bin. Remember to export the project beforehand (File > Export the whole project (zip)…) or to duplicate the venue if you are in doubt.

Importing and exporting calibrations

Moving-head calibrations (see Moving-head calibration) are saved in the venue. These two commands save them in an .ini text file and reload them, for example after a change of venue or to take over the calibrations of an old installation.

Export the calibrations…: saves an .ini file (calibrations.ini by default), with one section per calibrated moving head, named by the fixture's identifier. The log gives the number of calibrations exported.
Import the calibrations (lyrescal.ini)…: reads such a file back. Each section is attached to the fixture with the same identifier. A ppshow lyrescal.ini file (sections [lyre1] to [lyre5]) is accepted too: [lyre1] goes to the first fixture of the group named “Lyres” (French for moving heads), [lyre2] to the second, and so on. Only the sections marked as calibrated are taken over. Imported calibrations replace those of the fixtures concerned, and the venue is saved at once. If nothing is recognised: “No calibration recognised in this file.”

Step by step

Preparing a tour in a second venue

Open the show (DreamShow activates its usual venue), then Venue > Duplicate the venue… and name the copy (for example “Tour — Village hall”).
The copy is active and the show stays open: adjust the dimensions, positions and addresses in Venue > Fixtures, addresses, positions…, and the outputs in Venue > DMX connections….
Check the show in the simulation, then save it under another name (File > Save as…): this version of the show belongs to the tour venue, the original stays linked to your venue. (If you reopened the original before this save, DreamShow would switch back to the usual venue.)

Giving a show back to its original venue

Venue > Change venue, choose the original venue.
File > Save: the show remembers this venue again.

Good to know

Venues are .venue.json files in the data folder; they travel with File > Export the whole project (zip)….
Changing venue does not rewrite the show as long as you do not save it.
The fixture library is shared by the venues: changing a definition changes every venue that uses it.
Deleting a venue deletes no show: those that referenced it stay, and say so when opened.