Subfixtures
Control the individual pixels of a matrix fixture.
Some fixtures, like LED bars, pixel panels and pixel washes, are built from several individually addressable pixels. A Subfixture is one of those pixels, and once a fixture has them you can select and control each one on its own, exactly like a regular fixture.
Which fixtures get them
A fixture gets Subfixtures when its definition has a matrix and the mode you patched it in actually addresses the pixels. A mode that only exposes "Red Master", "Green Master" and "Blue Master" for the whole device has no Subfixtures, even though the definition has a matrix, because there is nothing to split. Patch the fixture in a per pixel mode instead and every pixel becomes its own Subfixture.
This relies on the fixture definition being set up for it, with a matrix and channels that address its pixels. If you write your own definitions, see Create a Custom Fixture.
Id and name
A Subfixture's id is <fixtureId>.<pixelKey>, so pixel 7 of a fixture with id bar1 is bar1.7. Its display name follows the same shape, for example Bar 1.7. Rename the fixture and every one of its Subfixtures picks up the new name automatically.
Selecting Subfixtures in the Stageview
A fixture with Subfixtures renders as a grid of lamps in the Stageview, each the same size as a plain fixture's lamp, so a twelve pixel bar is as tall as a single fixture and twelve times as wide.
- Clicking a lamp selects that one Subfixture.
- Double-clicking a lamp selects every Subfixture of the device, the same as selecting a plain fixture.
- Dragging always moves the whole device, wherever on it you started the drag.
- The rubber band selects individual Subfixtures, so you can frame a handful of pixels across one or several bars.
- Right-clicking a device offers its definition's named pixel groups, such as the halves, thirds and quarters of a bar, as one click selections.
Selecting a matrix fixture anywhere else in the app, for example in the Patchlist or a group, selects its Subfixtures the same way. See Selection and Groups. Pickers that target fixtures, such as an effect's Targets or a group, list a matrix device's pixels in a collapsed folder right below it, so you can aim at the whole device with one click or at single pixels by opening it.
Selection order
From two selected fixtures upwards, each one carries a small number: its position in the selection. The Stageview draws it on the lamp, the Patchlist shows the position of the device in a column of its own.
That order is not decoration. Fanning a value like 0..255 spreads it along exactly this order, and so does the Phase of an effect, so the numbers tell you which way a chase will run before you build it. Reverse it or thin it out with the selection tricks in the toolbar.
Orientation
A Stageview item can be rotated in 90 degree steps, which is useful when a bar hangs sideways or a panel is mounted upside down. Two ways to rotate it:
- Hold Shift and drag just outside one of the item's corners. The handles have no marker of their own: the cursor turns into a rotate arrow when you are over one. The fixture's tooltip says so too.
- Right-click the item and pick Turn left or Turn right.
Rotating pivots the device about its own middle, so a bar stays where you put it instead of swinging around its first pixel. Orientation is stored per Stageview, so the same device can face one way in one Stageview and another way in a second one. Right-click dragging still pans the Stageview even when it starts over a device. The context menu only opens if the pointer did not move between the button going down and coming back up.
Unlinking a pixel
A device's pixels normally sit in one grid and move together, which matches how a bar or a panel is built. Rigs are not always that tidy: pixels get spread across a truss, or one head of a multi head bar ends up somewhere else entirely.
Select the pixels you want to place separately, right-click the device and pick Unlink. They come loose exactly where they were, so nothing jumps, and from then on each one drags, rotates and selects on its own. The device keeps the pixels it still has, and its box shrinks to fit them without moving any of them.
Right-click an unlinked pixel and pick Link back to return it to the grid. Double-clicking it still selects the whole device, including the pixels that are no longer next to it. A device whose pixels have all been unlinked disappears from the Stageview, since there is nothing left of it to draw.
Master channels
Not every channel on a matrix fixture belongs to a pixel. Pan, Tilt, a device wide Dimmer, Zoom and similar channels apply to the whole device and are called master channels. Selecting several Subfixtures of the same device and setting Pan or Tilt still produces a single value, not one per pixel, because a master channel is written once no matter how many of the device's Subfixtures are selected.
The Functions panel marks a master channel's card with a thin grey ring around it, so you can tell at a glance that the value you are setting affects the whole device rather than just the selected pixels.
Effects
A pixel channel like Dimmer or Color runs the effect once per Subfixture, each with its own Phase, which is what turns a Curve effect into a chase across the pixels. A master channel like Pan or Tilt runs the effect only once per device, using the first Subfixture's Phase, since writing it more than once would just repeat the same value at the same point in the cycle.
Disable subfixtures
The Patch panel has a Disable subfixtures option for any fixture whose definition has a matrix. Turning it on removes the device's Subfixtures, so it behaves like a plain fixture again: one selection, one set of Functions cards, no pixel grid in the Stageview.
If the device already has values or references stored on its Subfixtures, for example in the Programmer, a Scene step or a Preset, nextDMX asks for confirmation first and tells you how many it found. Confirming moves those values onto the fixture itself instead of discarding them. Turning the option back off needs no such step, since the fixture's Subfixtures are simply available again.