Create a fixture definition
Build or edit a fixture definition in the Fixture Editor, with modes, pixels, emitter roles, and parameters.
Some fixtures ship in the built-in library and some do not. When yours is missing, or when you built a custom rig by hand, you author its definition yourself in the Fixture Editor. A fixture definition is the reusable description of one model of light: the modes it offers, the emitters it mixes, and the non-color controls it exposes. It carries no address. Patching a definition into a show is a separate step, covered in Patch a fixture. This page is about building the definition itself. For the model behind the terms used here, read Fixtures and patching first.
Open the Fixture Editor
Choose Project > Fixture Editor. The editor opens in its own window. The left sidebar lists every fixture already in the library, grouped by manufacturer and searchable, so you can start from a blank definition or from a copy of one that is close to what you need.
Click New Fixture to start empty. Click any fixture in the list to load an editable copy of it: the editor gives the copy a new ID so your edits never overwrite the original library entry.
What you are building
A definition holds one or more modes. A mode is a selectable DMX personality: the exact channel layout the fixture uses when its display is set to that mode. Inside a mode you define two kinds of thing. A pixel is a single addressable emitter point, the smallest unit the engine drives color onto, and it carries the emitter roles (red, green, blue, and any extra colors) that the fixture mixes at that point. A parameter is a non-color control such as a dimmer, shutter, pan, tilt, or gobo. The editor works on a fixture's default unit; genuinely multi-part hardware with separately positionable sub-fixtures (the strips of a multi-strip bar, for example) is authored outside this editor. See Fixtures and patching for how sub-fixtures fit the wider model.
Channel numbers in the editor are counted from 0 and are relative to the start of the mode, not to any patch address. Channel 0 is the fixture's first channel; the patch decides where that lands on the wire later.
Build a definition
Fill in the Metadata section at the top: Name and Manufacturer identify the fixture in the library, and ID is its unique key. For a new fixture the ID is generated from the name as you type; you can override it. All three are required to save.
Set up its modes
The mode bar sits below the metadata. The Mode dropdown selects which mode you are editing, and each entry shows its channel footprint, for example 16-Channel (16ch). Use Add Mode for each personality the fixture offers, and give each one a name that matches the fixture's own menu (for instance 8-Channel and 16-Channel). Delete Mode removes the selected mode and is disabled when only one remains. Every mode holds its own pixels and parameters, so switching modes swaps the whole layout you are editing.
The count on the right of the bar (N channels) is the mode's footprint. Spectralite computes it from the highest channel any pixel or parameter in the mode uses, so it updates as you work; you never set it by hand.
Place the pixels
Expand the Pixels section. Pick a Color Variant first: RGB, RGBW, RGBA, RGBWA, or RGBWAUV. The variant decides which emitter roles each new pixel gets and how many channels it consumes. Then build the layout:
- Click Add Pixel to add one pixel at a time. Each new pixel takes the next free channels for the chosen variant.
- Or click Generate Pattern to lay out many pixels at once as a Line, Grid, Ring, or Cube. Set the count, spacing, and axis or plane; the dialog previews the pixel and channel totals before you generate.
The middle pane is a 3D viewport where the pixels sit in the fixture's own space. Click a pixel to select it, Shift+click to select several, and drag the transform gizmo to move the selected pixel. The toolbar switches the gizmo between move, scale, and rotate, toggles grid snapping, and sets the grid resolution. Positions are small: a fixture's pixels live inside a unit cube, so a strip of pixels spans a fraction of one unit, not meters.
Map each pixel's channels
Select a single pixel to open its properties on the right. Position gives its X, Y, and Z directly if you would rather type coordinates than drag. Under DMX Channels, each emitter role (Red, Green, Blue, White, Amber, UV) has a checkbox and a channel number. Enable the roles this pixel actually drives and set each one to the channel that controls it. The color engine reads these role assignments so an authored color renders onto the right emitter; how that solve works is in Color.
Add the non-color parameters
Expand the Parameters section for everything that is not an emitter: dimmer, shutter, pan, tilt, gobo, and the like. Click Add Parameter, name it, and set CH to the channel it drives. Tick Fine when the control is 16-bit and give its fine (low-byte) channel. Under Ranges, name the value bands a control uses (a gobo wheel's slots, a shutter's open and strobe zones) with their start and end DMX values. Ranges are labels for those bands; they do not change what the channel outputs.
Spectralite drives controls up to 16-bit (a coarse channel, optionally paired with a fine channel). It does not emit 24-bit or wider values, so a control needs at most its channel and one fine channel.
Save the definition
The footer offers two destinations. Save to Project embeds the full definition into the current show only, which keeps the project self-contained and portable. Save to Library writes it to your local fixture library so every project can use it. Either way, the editor validates first: the name, manufacturer, and ID must be filled, every mode needs at least one pixel or parameter, and no two elements in a mode may claim the same channel. If a check fails, the footer lists what to fix.
Next steps
A saved definition behaves like any library fixture. Add it to a show and give it an address the same way you would a built-in one.
Add a fixture
Bring a definition into your project from the library.
Patch a fixture
Set the universe, address, and mode once the fixture is in your project.
Import GDTF
Import a manufacturer's fixture profile instead of authoring one.
Fixtures and patching
The model behind definitions, modes, pixels, and sub-fixtures.
The Fixtures panel
Manage every patched fixture in the current project.
Share a patch
Move a finished rig between projects and machines.