The Test tab
The Test tab lets you validate a show without committing any data. Nothing is recorded; the motors simply follow the spline.
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On the Show card, choose the show in Show to run. It starts as the show selected on the Shows tab.
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On the Axes card, use Select All, or individual checkboxes, to choose which profiles participate. An axis can be ticked only when its motor is connected and it has a take in this show. Select All ticks every axis that can run, and while it is on, an axis that becomes ready, for example when its motor connects, is ticked too. A row greys out when its motor disconnects, and comes back when it reconnects.
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Click Go to start to move the ticked axes to the start of the show (see below), and wait for them to arrive.
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Click Start to run the show. Position, speed, and torque trace on the chart in real time, and the label on the left of the bar reads Running.
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Click Stop to end the run early.
Each axis's row shows its motor's status light and live position, as the Axes list does: green when the motor is in position, yellow-green while it moves, yellow when it is disabled and red for a fault. Hover over the light to read the status; click it to enable or disable the motor. The arrow at the end of the row chooses what is drawn for that axis: Data Points, Generated Spline, Position, Speed and Torque.
When there is nothing to draw — no show, no ticked axis that can run, or every graph turned off — the chart area shows the CoolMuscle logo instead of empty charts.
To watch the axes' path as they run, choose a layout with the path on the bar above the chart (see chapter 8). Contours draws the planned path and, as the motors report back, the path they actually take.
Note. While a show runs, including between Loop Show runs, the Shows and Axes tabs, New, Open, Save, Options and the video's Play and Pause are unavailable. Click Stop first.
Going to the start
Go to start moves each ticked axis to the first point of its take, at the speed and acceleration on its Run To card (see chapter 6). As Start does, it enables each motor and takes it off the controller first. Watch the rows: when every light is green, the axes are in position and you can click Start.
In a Stream run, Start waits until every ticked motor is enabled and at its start, within the motor's own in-position tolerance. Until then, a line above the bar says why, for example Pan isn't at its start: press Go to start. or Tilt is disabled: press Go to start. An axis with no take isn't waited for, and a Motor Memory run doesn't wait.
Go to start is available whenever Start is.
Run settings
The Run Settings card sets how the show runs.
Stream or Motor Memory
Run from chooses where each motor gets its take:
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Stream — Contours sends each take to its motor as the show runs. The takes in the project as it is now are what run, so there is nothing to load first.
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Motor Memory — each motor runs the show from its own memory. Load the takes into the motors first, with Load motor or Load all motors at the foot of the Axes tab (see chapter 6); Load all motors also appears beside Motor Memory on this card. A motor runs whatever was last loaded into it, so load again after you change a take or the list of shows. Contours still starts each motor, so the motors must be connected.
Data capture and Loop Show
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Setting |
What it does |
|---|---|
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Data capture interval |
Point Interval has the motors report their position, speed and torque at each take's point interval, which is what the charts trace. OFF turns the reports off. |
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Loop Show |
Starts the show again each time it finishes. Loop Count is the total number of runs; |
Show video during a test
If the show has media attached (see chapter 9), its video appears on the Test tab's Media card, and you can pop the video out to watch it full size. The video follows the test run:
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The video starts from the beginning as soon as the motors report movement, so it stays in step with the actual motion rather than with the button press. Each Loop Show run starts it from the beginning again.
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If Data capture interval is set to OFF, the motors don't report their movement, so the video starts when you click Start.
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Stopping the run, or the run finishing, pauses the video.
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If a motor doesn't respond, the video stays paused.
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While a run is in progress, the video panel's own Play and Pause buttons are disabled.
If a motor is lost during a run
If Contours loses the connection to an Ethernet or serial motor during a run, a message at the bottom of the window names the axis, and the axis is shown as not connected. The other motors carry on, and the run ends when they finish. Reconnect the motor (see chapter 5) before the next run.
Note. Contours can't yet tell when it loses an Ethernet motor set up for UDP, or a serial motor that is switched off while its USB adapter stays plugged in. Such a motor goes on showing as connected, and a run that includes it doesn't finish on its own: click Stop.
Running and stopping a show
You can also run a show from the Shows tab without going through the Test tab:
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Run show — runs every profile in the selected show. If the show has media, the video plays from the cursor position (see chapter 9).
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Stop show — halts playback immediately.
Caution. Before running a show with a live audience or around people, always test at reduced maximum speed and torque. Confirm nothing collides with stagehands, props, or walls. Motors driven by a bad spline will move as fast and as hard as they are allowed to.
Run To Cursor
Drag the cursor on the chart, or on the zoom bar under the chart, to a time in the show. When you let go, the motors move to exactly the positions that appear at that time — every axis in the selected show, or only the selected profile's axis — at the speed and acceleration on each axis's Run To card (see chapter 6). With a show selected, Run to cursor on the Shows toolbar does the same for the cursor where it is. This is the fastest way to pre-position everything before a run, or to audition a specific beat inside a show.
Caution. Letting go of the cursor, on the chart or on the zoom bar, moves the connected motors to their positions at that time. Make sure the machine is clear before you drag the cursor.