Is there a shortcut to fan fixtures? For example, you have 5 moving head fixtures, 2 usl, 2 usr and 1 uscenter. What is the best way to program fixtures to pan towards center stage, then offstage, in a "Fan" type motion. Must you program X/Y for each fixture individually?
Ed

Yes you will have to program those steps manually.
Sincerely,

One ahorcut is to hold down the ctrl key and then click on your pan or tilt channel and that will move all like fixtures to the same value for that channel. Make sense?
Sincerely,

Yes James, I understand how that works, but for the type of movement I described, I believe I would have to program the X/Y individually for each fixture, as the values would not be the same for any fixtures,
Thanks
Ed

Yes you'll have to program it individually per fixture. Sorry.
Sincerely,

Yes, you're going to have to program this individually.

Here's my cheat:

Using the FX Generator, program ONE fixture for the fan/sweep in one direction to what you need. Save, generate, document(write it down on paper). Then, start over, repeat the process for the opposite fan/sweep. Hopeufully you end up withe same number of steps. Save, generate, document and now get to work.

You may need to repeat this as necessary to get the actual proper effect. I'm assuming you're only using 2 movers, but this could easily be replicated with many more.

Now, choose one of those FX scenes you generated and saved. You are saving often, right? using those notes and the correct fixture, modify each scene step as necessary(adding fixtures and values to fixture channels).

Dumbing it down for people who may be having trouble following:

Let's say I have two movers, one on each side of the stage. I want to start from them pointed at the center of the stage to moving OFF the stage(and then back IN). Let's look at this as two scenes: From center OUT and from OUT to center.

Let's assume to move the one on the left(audience left), it takes 6 steps using the FX generator to make a nice smooth move from center to outside. Let's say to do the same thing for the right mover, it also takes 6 steps to move from the center to the outside of the stage. Note that I created these moves from the FX Generator. I write down the values each one created.

Now, let's say I choose the LEFT SWEEP scene(center to left, using left mover) as my starting point, I then take my documented notes on the "center to right" scene, and then start adding them to the right mover on the "LEFT SWEEP" scene, which I've since copied and named "SWEEP OUT". Do your changes step by step and probably within a few minutes, it's all done.

Another option might be to do an X or Y inversion on one side's fixtures and match DMX channels. The downside is that you may not want a reversal all the time. This can be a good permanent and working option, but may not always provide the desired end results.

So, to confirm: Since NO TWO fixtures are doing the same thing, you'd have to adjust for each fixture individually, either on a scene by scene or step by step basis.

Thanks for the in depth response Chris.
I have more than 2 movers, using 5 for this particular fan movement, and I do not want to pan tilt invert, because I will not need that for the whole show. I never thought of the program one light or one side, and then copy, save and write the values on paper, then build the other side. That seems like a good idea, let me go experiment and I will let you know how it goes.
Thanks ,
Ed