This is a good trick I use on the Jands Echelon and the Hog 2 when I don’t know how a rig’s been patched. The problem is to find out where individual lanterns have been plugged in without having to think about it too hard. To start with I create a group of all dimmer channels, called ‘All Dimmers’. If I’m feeling nice I’ll fade the group up to around 15% for a while to let the fixtures warm up. Then I’ll select the group and press <Highlight>. Next up I’ll step through the individual lanterns using the <Next> button. When I find one that’s a Source 4 I press <@> <Full>. Once I’ve stepped though all the fixtures all the Source 4s are on at full blast. I then press <Active> <@> <Full>. This loads all fixtures at 100% into the programmer. I can then save a new group called ‘All S4s’.
Now that I’ve found all the Source 4’s, I can then find all the Par Cans, Pin Spots and whatever else is lurking in the rig. To select the lights I’ll use 'All Dimmers' <-> 'All S4s'. This selects everything but the Source 4s, I can then find all the Par Cans and save that as a group.
Once I have my groups of lanterns I can then subdivide them. If I’ve already found all the Source 4s I can select them, and set all the Source 4s that I wish to use as a dappled wash to 100%, then use <Active> <@> <Full> to select them before saving the new group. I can then use 'Source 4s' <-> 'Dapple' to select the remaining Source 4s that I wish to use as spots, and save that as a group.
The important thing to remember is that if any masters are on with fixtures at full then those fixtures will also be loaded into the programmer by <Active> <@> <Full>. If I’m leaving lights on for working light etc then I put those masters at 80%.
The end result is that I have all the lanterns arranged into useful groups that I can either use to create HTP masters or include into more complicated programming without having to remember or write down a single channel number. The disadvantage is that I cannot grab individual fixtures if I’m getting glare etc. In practise this isn’t too much of a problem.