Layout Editor

The Layout Editor places the fixtures of a fixture layout in space. You position, rotate, and scale fixtures in a 3D viewport.

Related concept: Layouts.

InterfaceCopy Anchor Link

Fixture listCopy Anchor Link

A side panel lists all project fixtures sorted by universe and address.

• Click a row to select it.
• Cmd-click a row to add it to the selection or take it out.
• Shift-click to select a range.

Rows in the layout have a context menu on right-click. To add an unmapped fixture to the active layout, click its +. To remove a mapped fixture, click its trash icon. The lightbulb icon toggles a fixture-wide highlight. The highlight forces every channel of that fixture to full, so you can identify it on stage.

Multi-part fixtures, such as the Pixelbar 8-Stack and Octostrip MKII, list each physical part as an indented row under the fixture. A part's row shows its name and DMX address and has its own +, trash, and lightbulb. With them, you can add, remove, or highlight a single bar and leave the rest of the fixture alone. Once the fixture is in the layout, you select its parts. When you select every part, Spectralite selects the fixture's own row too.

3D viewportCopy Anchor Link

The main editing area shows:

• fixture positions in 3D space
• transform gizmos for moving, scaling, and rotating fixtures
• a configurable grid overlay
• a gizmo viewcube for orientation

The viewport shows each fixture as a simple body in its real proportions, as it hangs, at rest. Its pixels show as dots on its face. The body grows and shrinks with the fixture's scale, so it always fits its dots. A moving head shows its base, yoke and head, turned the way its light leaves it (see Moving heads sit as they hang). To select a fixture, click its body or one of its dots, or Shift-drag a box across either.

Marks on each body show how it is placed:

• arrows show which way the light leaves the fixture. On a moving head, another arrow points to its front, the side it faces at pan 0.
• a mark on the mount side shows whether the fixture hangs, stands or is fixed to a wall. The editor reads this from its rotation.
• on a selected fixture, a ring marks the first cell, where its pixel data starts.

ToolbarCopy Anchor Link

• Axis Selector chooses the active axis (X, Y, Z) for alignment and rotation.
• Rotate rotates the entire layout 90 degrees around the selected axis.
• Align Start / Center / End align the selected fixtures along the chosen axis.
• Distribute spaces the selected fixtures evenly along the chosen axis. It needs 3 or more selected.
• Match Scale applies the active fixture's scale to all selected fixtures.
• Snap toggles snap to grid.
• Pixels follow pan/tilt makes the pixels on this layout's moving heads move with pan and tilt, so effects light them where they point. See Pixels that follow pan and tilt. The editor always shows heads at rest.
• Transform Mode switches between Translate, Scale, and Rotate modes.
• Labels toggles fixture label visibility.
• Floor draws an endless floor under the grid box, as in the Preview. It is on by default.
• Show bounds shows every fixture's bounding box, not only those of the selected and hovered fixtures.
• Point size sets the size at which pixels draw.
• Grid cells sets the number of grid cells.
• Fixtures switches between Silhouettes, each fixture's body, and Plot Symbols, a flat outline like a lighting plot. It is the same choice as Fixtures in the Window menu, so it changes every view at once.
• Camera switches between Perspective and Orthographic views.

Moving headsCopy Anchor Link

A moving head's body sits at rest, so you can check which way each head faces while you place it. A bar of lamps on one tilt shows every lamp on its own axis. Each head turns about the point that the fixture's profile gives, and its dots sit on the face of the head that carries them. For what the rotation fields mean on a moving head, see Moving heads sit as they hang.

A fixture whose parts carry their own heads, such as a stack of moving bars, draws a body for every part, so a part you move alone takes its head with it. Clicking a head selects the part it belongs to.

Scale and flipsCopy Anchor Link

Scale fits a moving head's pixels to your layout. It never changes how far or which way the head turns. On a head squashed flat in depth, a 15° tilt still turns its beam 15° about the axis that its body turns on.

When you scale several selected fixtures together, moving heads move apart or closer and each keeps its own size and shape. Other fixtures in the selection stretch as usual. The gizmo and the scale fields both work this way.

A negative scale flips a head. The flip changes which of its cells sample which part of an effect. The head still pans and tilts as its DMX says. For mirrored movement, such as two heads that pan toward each other, turn on Mirror pan on the movement layer. Invert pan in the fixture's pan and tilt settings is for a fixture that hangs the other way round.

Adding fixtures to a layoutCopy Anchor Link

From the Layouts panelCopy Anchor Link

1. In the Layouts panel, create or select a layout.
2. Check that the selected layout becomes the active layout in the editor.

Adding fixturesCopy Anchor Link

Drag fixtures from the fixture list on the left into the 3D viewport. Spectralite places each fixture at the drop position on the grid. To add a fixture without dragging, click the + on its row in the fixture list.

You can drag only fixtures that are not yet in the layout, and only their rows have a grip. To add a fixture with the keyboard:

1. Select the fixture's row.
2. Press → to reach the grip at the start of the row.
3. Press Enter to pick the fixture up.
4. Press Enter again to drop it in the middle of the viewport, or press Esc to cancel.

Multi-part fixtures drop as a group, with each physical part as its own handle. When the fixture has fixture-wide (master) parameters, a master anchor also appears at the center. You edit those parameters there.

Click a part to select just that part. Option-click to grab the whole group and move it together until you break it apart. To add only some of the parts, click the + on each part's row in the fixture list. The new parts use the same anchor and group as the parts already mapped.

Selecting fixturesCopy Anchor Link

SelectionCopy Anchor Link

• Click a fixture to select it. For a multi-part fixture, a click on a handle selects only the part under the cursor.
• Option-click a part to select its whole group.
• Cmd-click adds the fixture to the selection, or removes it when it is already selected. With Option held as well, it adds or removes the whole group.
• Shift-click, without dragging, adds or removes the fixture as Cmd-click does.
• Shift-drag on the canvas draws a box and selects every fixture whose bounds it overlaps. Cmd+Shift-drag adds those fixtures to the current selection. Esc cancels the box.
• Click empty canvas to clear the selection.
• The editor highlights the active fixture in orange and other selected fixtures in yellow.

TransformCopy Anchor Link

With fixtures selected, use the transform gizmo to move, scale, or rotate them. Switch transform mode with the toolbar toggle or the keyboard shortcuts. With several fixtures selected, a rotation that you type into the rotation fields turns them together about the middle of the selection. The gizmo does the same.

Multi-part fixturesCopy Anchor Link

When you drop a multi-part fixture, every part starts in the same group, so Option-click grabs and moves them as one. When the fixture has master parameters, a small anchor handle sits at the centroid of the parts. You edit the fixture's master parameters there, and the anchor follows the parts as they move. To open a context menu, select the group and right-click:

• Break apart dissolves the group. Every part keeps its current position, and the anchor stays at the live centroid as a free handle. You can then move each part on its own.
• Group combines an unrelated selection into a new group. Cmd+G does the same.
• Join group merges the current selection into an existing group from the submenu.
• Leave group removes a single part from its group and leaves the rest intact.

Break apart needs the whole group selected, so Option-click a part first. Leave group needs one part selected, so click that part.

Alignment and distributionCopy Anchor Link

With several fixtures selected, the toolbar aligns or distributes them along the active axis:

• Align Start aligns the fixtures to the minimum position on the active axis.
• Align Center aligns the fixtures to the center position on the active axis.
• Align End aligns the fixtures to the maximum position on the active axis.
• Distribute spaces the fixtures evenly along the active axis. It needs 3 or more selected.
• Match Scale applies the active fixture's scale to all other selected fixtures.

Keyboard shortcutsCopy Anchor Link

Related panelsCopy Anchor Link

• Layouts: manage all layouts.
• Address Space: the DMX overview.