Basic rules (DDF-Syntax) DMXC3

Basic rules (DDF-Syntax) DMXC3

Article describes DMXControl 3.2.0

Function Elements Intensity Table of Contents Part 1: Basics General introduction Basic structure Basic rules Part 2: Functions Intensity Position Color Matrix Radix Gobo Lens Blade Shifter Effect wheel Stage effects Free Functions Part 3: Procedures Functions Examples Part 4: Examples LED Spotlight 4-Light Bar Moving Head

Basic Rules for Creating a DDF

General Rules

The following basic rules should be observed when creating DDFs:

• DMX channels are always counted starting from 0 in the DDFs. Therefore, for an LED PAR with 5 DMX channels in the DDF, the DMX channels are also listed as 0 to 4, while the functions in the DMX channel are labeled from 1 to 5 in the user manual.
• The designation of the devices is limited only to the designation itself, as it appears on the cover of the manual. Additional information such as the DMX mode/channel assignment or any other comments should not be included there.
• Values for strobe frequency, pan and tilt pan ranges, gobo rotation speed, etc. should be entered without units. The usual units for these values are listed in the table below.
• The associated DMX values, for example for gobo rotation speed, should be entered so that the speeds increase clockwise and counterclockwise from the gobo rotation stop point.
• Images for the device icon as well as for the gobos should be stored in a resolution of 128 x 128 pixels and as *.png files in the DDF.
• DDFs are usually written in English to remain universally applicable and usable for all language versions of DMXControl 3. In addition, the default language of DMXControl 3 is English.

Expected Units for Values

The following table provides a general overview of the units in which the HAL expects values for the listed functions. These are the values for the minval and maxval attributes when a range element is used in a function (gobo wheel, strobe, zoom, etc.) to describe the value range of the function on the specified subset of the DMX channel. The permissible values for the minval and maxval attributes can be found in the description of each function.

Value	Unit	Usage
Speed	1/s (Revolutions per second)	Gobo rotation, prism rotation, continuous rotation of the color wheel, continuous rotation of the gobo wheel
Color temperature	K (Kelvin)	Color temperature
Frequency	Hz (Hertz)	Strobe frequency, gobo shake speed
Angle	° (Degrees)	Pan and tilt pan range, gobo indexing, prism indexing, zoom
Dimensionless	% (Percent)	Dimmer, Iris

Troubleshooting

These are common errors that prevent a DDF from being added to a project:

• No pan range specified in the range attribute for pan and tilt.
• No value specified for minval and maxval for strobe.
• The model tag is still misspelled.