Export an MVR

Open File › Export scene as MVR….

Opening the dialog does not export anything. It is a place to look as well as to act: the exports you already made are listed on its second step, each one still downloadable. A file you sent to a console last week can be handed over again without exporting it again.

The export has two steps, Layers and File: what goes in, then what comes out. Both are in the header, and either one can be clicked to go back.

1. Layers

Every layer in the scene is listed with what it actually puts in the file: fixtures, structure (truss), and how many fixture profiles it needs. All layers start ticked.

• contents unfolds a layer by type, for example Clay Paky Sharpy (Standard) 15 × or H40V 3.00 m 2 ×. "Venue" with 214 objects is a different decision from "Venue" with nine.

• The panel on the right, In the file, counts the whole export. ⚠ Profiles are counted once per file, not once per layer: two layers that use the same moving head need one GDTF between them.

• all and none are there. none leaves one layer ticked, because an export of nothing is not a smaller file. The last layer cannot be unticked.

Unticking a layer keeps it out of this file only. Use it to cut a console MVR without the venue, the power plan or the foyer. ⚠ Nothing in the scene changes: the layer is not hidden, moved or deleted, and the next export starts with everything ticked again.

When other layers depend on it

If you untick a layer that other layers hang on, FlexViz asks first and says what it costs:

It works both ways. Leave out the truss, and the lights hang in mid-air. Leave out the lights, and the truss arrives bare. Leave it out anyway lets you through, because a partial export is often exactly what was meant. FlexViz never quietly adds a related layer back or takes one away with it. Ticking a layer back on never asks.

⚠ Nothing moves. A fixture whose truss you left out is still exported exactly where it hangs. Its position is worked out against the whole scene, not against the part you export.

2. File

• Save as names the download. ⚠ The export itself keeps the name it is listed under (the scene's name, with the date beside it), so you can still find what you handed over next month.

• MVR version, units and axes are shown, not chosen. FlexViz writes MVR 1.6, and MVR is defined in millimetres with Z up by its own specification. A picker for any of them would either do nothing or produce a file no console accepts.

• Archive contents lists the three kinds of file that go in and how many of each: the scene description, the fixture profiles (GDTF) and the structure geometry. ⚠ There are no folders; the format wants everything at the root of the archive.

• The line at the bottom says how many files, and whether this is the whole scene or 2 of 3 layers.

Press Export MVR. The progress bar is real: the server counts files into the archive, and the three stages beside it are the order the exporter writes in. When it is done, the new export is at the top of the list with its size and a download link.

Patch conflicts and Export anyway

If two fixtures in the file share DMX addresses, step 2 lists the conflicts before you export. The first press on the button only shows the warning; the button then reads Export anyway, and the second press exports.

⚠ Conflicts are counted for the file, not for the scene. Two fixtures at one address are no conflict in an export that contains only one of them, so leaving a layer out can clear the warning. It is worth fixing a conflict instead of exporting past it: some consoles drop the whole patch when two fixtures share an address (see Sending it to a console).

Exporting marks a version

The scene saves itself continuously, so an export would otherwise be of a moving target. Every export first marks a version called MVR export and exports exactly that. It appears in History like any other version, which is how you answer "what exactly did I send them?" later, and get back to it.

In History, Export MVR on an older version exports that version, not the scene as it is now.

A partial export says so

A scene without its venue and a scene whose venue was left out look the same to whoever opens the file. So a partial export is marked:

• the line on step 2 reads 2 of 3 layers instead of the whole scene,

• the row in the list of exports says how many layers it holds,

• the file's own notes name the layers that were left out.

The file also carries only the fixture and truss definitions the remaining layers need, which is most of an archive's size.

Earlier exports

The list on step 2 is every export of this scene, newest first, with when it was made and how big it is.

• ⚠ A row can outlive its file. If the file has been deleted (in the Explorer's Files tab) or the server's storage was cleared, the export is still listed, marked file gone, with no download. The export happened; what it produced is gone. Its log is still there, see Logs and files.

• A row that says things worth knowing has notes: hover to read them. They are the same notes the export log carries, for example a fixture with no GDTF behind it.

What goes into the file

⚠ Fixtures and truss are not split apart by type. If you keep a truss and its lights on one layer, that is how they arrive, because that grouping was your decision. And a truss carrying fixtures never contains them in the file: everything is written side by side at its real place in the world. Nesting is what used to put a whole rig below the floor in one console.

Not in the file yet:

• set pieces, scenery and props,

• the mesh of a truss you imported from another MVR (its place and name go in; the export log says so),

• groups.

Next

• Sending it to a console: grandMA3, MagicQ, Capture, and how to check a file before the show.

• Logs and files: where exports and their logs are kept.