Morph and Cloning Fixtures, and Expanding Palettes

When you patch a fixture into your show file, it is copied from the fixture library on the console you are working on and is as current as the fixture library on that console. Remember, we update our fixture library online every day. That fixture in your show file is fixed as that version, until you updated the show file using morph or reloading it from a newer fixture library.

Morph:

Morph is used to change out an existing fixture in an existing show file or to update a fixture in a show file from a fixture library that has been updated.

When morphing, the console will do attempt to transfer all programming and palettes to the new fixture type.

Tip: Turn off Auto Palette if you do not want new palettes to be generated. Existing palette names will be preserved but will have the new fixtures morphed into them.

Open the Patch window.

Choose the fixture to Morph into the new fixture.

Confirm the selection is shown in the menu bar.

Select the head type column of one or more fixtures in your show file.

Choose the "Morph Head" soft button on the top right of the screen.

Confirm the action.

Your selected fixtures will be morphed into the new type; NOTE: if the new fixtures have equal or fewer channels than the original fixtures, the start addresses will be retained, and there will be no need to re-patching; however, if the new fixtures have more channels, they will be unpatched when morphed, and you will need to re-patch them to fit correctly within the universe.

Clone:

Clone can duplicate existing fixtures in your show and their programming. This can be used if a rig grows from show to show.

To Clone, Open the Patch Window

Select the fixtures you would like to Clone a cloned fixture is added for every instance selected; if you select 4 fixtures this will result in 4 cloned fixtures added to the show.

Select the "Clone Head" Soft Button on the top right of the screen.

Confirm the action in the popup; you will see several options for what information you can clone. Splitting FX will separate your FX; for example, you have a whole new truss of fixtures you are cloning too, and you want the new truss to have FX starting at the same point as the old FX.

Click Done when you are finished, and you will see the new fixtures added to the patch.
NOTE: the console will patch these new fixtures in the first available address they will fit, and with the next available head numbers, you may need to re-patch and/or change head numbers to suit your show.

Expand Palettes:

The Expand Palette function allows data in Cues to be expanded to use all attributes from a Palette. IE if your show started with Sharpy Wash 330's, Programmed using CMY colour Mixing, and the next show those are replaced with normal Sharpy Beams that only have colour wheels, you can use Expand Palettes to include colour wheel info into your existing colour palettes and cues that include the CMY palettes, allowing faster updates to your show to include the Color wheels of the new fixtures.

To Expand Palettes, Morph your fixtures as explained above; the Console will automatically expand the existing palettes to include the new attributes. However, these palettes will need to be updated to show correctly in the show.
The image below is the original CMY Sharpy Wash Palette; information in a palette can be viewed by choosing the "View Palette" soft button on the top centre row in any palette window. This will show you the contents of whatever palette your cursor is on.

Once your fixtures are Morphed, you can see the console has expanded the information to include the colour wheel for the new fixtures. However, you will need to update the palette to playback the proper colour; notice it went to colour scroll when morphed.

If you programmed your cues using these palettes, the cues will now be updated with this new information as well, meaning, in this case, a quick update to your colour palettes, and you should show should play back as expected with the new fixtures.

For information on how to manually expand palettes, please see section 10.17 in the Magic Q Manual.