Import an MVR

Start with an empty scene

File › Import › MVR… fills the open scene, and only an empty one. In a scene that already holds something, the menu entry is greyed out and its tooltip says why. Merging a rig into work you have already done would need a rule for what counts as "the same fixture" in two documents, and doing that approximately would be worse than not doing it.

So getting a rig on screen is two steps: make a new scene in the Explorer, then import into it.

The import is a dialog with five steps — File, Layers, Fixtures, Summary, Import — and nothing is written to the scene until you press Import on the last one.

1. File

Drop an .mvr onto the dialog or browse for one. The step also lists this scene's earlier imports, each with its log.

FlexViz reads the file first and shows what it holds: how many layers, fixtures, 3D objects and fixture types, which tool wrote it, the MVR version and the size.

2. Layers

Every layer in the file is listed with its fixtures and objects, all ticked. Untick what you do not want — all and none speed that up — and the panel on the right totals what is left.

contents unfolds a layer, so you can leave out one fixture type or one kind of object at a time. Objects are grouped by name, so forty "Podest 1…40" are one line.

Truss, prop or scenery

Every object group has three choices, and FlexViz suggests one:

Change the suggestion where it is wrong. ⚠ Leave a big venue as scenery. Thousands of objects as props make a list nobody can use and a slow viewport.

A layer you empty completely is not created. The log records how many fixtures and objects you left out, so whoever receives it does not think they went missing.

3. Fixtures

This step asks only about fixture types that need an answer: those whose GDTF has no usable 3D body, or could not be read. Types that came with a body say in file and need nothing.

For a type without a body there are three ways to draw it:

• a plain stand-in, sized from the profile — nothing is downloaded,

• a profile already in your library,

• a profile from GDTF Share, shown with its revision and whether the manufacturer published it.

The mode the file asked for is shown beside every type, and a GDTF Share profile is mapped to that mode. The choice is per type, so a file with a dozen affected fixtures of one type needs one decision.

• ⚠ A GDTF Share profile you choose is downloaded when you press Import, into your library, before the scene is written. If the download fails, nothing is imported, and you are back on the Summary to choose again.

• When the GDTF Share catalogue is out of date, this step says so and offers Refresh. If gdtf-share.com is down, the copy you have is kept and still searched. Signed out, the same place offers Sign in.

4. Summary

A last look before anything is written: the layers, how each fixture type will be drawn, and on the right what will happen — trusses into the Rig list, props into the Props list, scenery, stand-ins, and how many profiles still need downloading.

A type can fail here too — a GDTF Share match with no mesh of its own, say — and the Summary says so in red, where the choice was made, so you can go back and pick another profile or the stand-in.

5. Import

Press Import. FlexViz downloads any outstanding profiles, places fixtures and scenery, and writes the scene.

The finished screen totals what happened — how many fixtures came in cleanly, how many have something worth reading, how many could not be represented — and offers Download log.

After the import

• The import marks a version, named after the file. The rig as it arrived is in History under its own entry, and you can come back to it after a week of edits.

• Fixture numbers: fixtures the file numbered keep their numbers. Fixtures it did not number are numbered here, in file order, and the log says how many. Some tools write no fixture numbers at all.

• ⚠ A fixture whose DMX mode the file names wrongly is placed but left unpatched. Modes of the same fixture can differ by hundreds of channels, so a guessed address would silently overlap its neighbours. An unpatched fixture is visible; a wrong patch is not. The log names each one.

• ⚠ Scenery cannot be selected, moved or deleted. Clicking it does nothing, on purpose: it is a backdrop the import puts there, not something the Plan tools edit.

• Scenery has colour and shape, no textures. Almost no real file textures it, so a curtain is the right colour and size but not patterned.

• ⚠ A set piece whose mesh cannot be read is placed but draws nothing. You see a gap where it should be, and the log names the file and says why.

• ⚠ An imported truss is the part the file names, never one of ours. It is drawn from the file's own mesh and listed under Imported in the Rig tab by its article name. It is not matched to a catalogue truss, because "the closest" part could put the wrong truss on the rental list. It can be selected, moved and renamed, and fixtures can hang from it. It does not snap to other trusses, because FlexViz has no measured ends for a part it did not make.

• ⚠ An MVR export writes an imported truss's place and name but not its mesh yet. Imported props are not exported. See Export an MVR.

The import log

Every import leaves a log you can download and forward. It is written for the person who exported the file: it names the file, its size and its SHA-256 checksum, which tool wrote it, and then what happened to every single fixture.

⚠ A failed import still has a log, and that is when it matters most: it is the only thing you get, and it tells whoever exported the file what to fix.

The log stays available under Logs › Show logs… and in the Explorer's Files tab, long after the import dialog has stopped being reachable. FlexViz does not keep the MVR you uploaded, only the log. See Logs and files.