Numbering the rig

Every fixture carries three different things, and it pays to keep them apart:

• the number (#12) is what a programmer types and what the console shows,

• the name (Sharpy 04) is prose for people,

• the address (1.093) is where it sits on the wire.

The number is first on each plan label, and it is what an MVR export writes as the fixture's FixtureID, so it is the number your console will call it by.

Edit › Number rig numbers the whole rig the way a plan is read: each fixture type kept together, the rows nearest the audience first, left to right within a row. Fixtures within about 0.75 m of each other in depth count as one row, so a truss nobody hung to the millimetre still numbers straight across.

It only runs when you ask. Numbers are stored, so moving a fixture never renumbers it on the side, and a plot you printed, sent or exported keeps matching the rig. Run it again once the rig has settled.

Edit › Renumber… is the deliberate one: it counts the selected fixtures from a start number and by an increment you choose, in the order the Patch list shows them. "The upstage truss is 101 onwards" is a Renumber.

• Update fixture names to match is optional. It keeps each name and replaces only its trailing number: Robin 300 LEDWash 03 renumbered to 103 becomes Robin 300 LEDWash 103. Numbers inside a name stay: in Robin 300 LEDWash 03 only the 03 changes. If the selection holds more than one kind of name, the dialog asks what to call them rather than guessing.

• A number already worn by a fixture outside the selection is marked, not blocked. Hover a marked number to see who has it. Applying anyway leaves two fixtures answering to one number, which a console cannot tell apart, so fix the other one too.

A duplicated or pasted fixture gets the next free name and number, not a copy of the original's, for the same reason.