Elation Capture Upgrade, CAPTURE-DUET, CAPTURE-SOLO-20, CAPTURE-SYMPH-20 Users Manual
Capture 2019 Reference Manual
Revision A
Copyright © Capture Visualisation AB 2019
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Introduction
System Requirements
Installation
Windows Installation
macOS Installation
Licence Installation
Library Updates
Support
Software Overview
Main Menu
Design Views
DMX Control
Project Window
Navigator
Smoke Settings
Rendering Settings
Software Options
General Options Tab
Connectivity Options Tab
Object Manipulation
Adding Objects
Navigator commands
Transform
Align
Spread Even
Clone
Sequential Unit
Sequential Circuit
Sequential Patch
Sequential Channel
Model Import
Using the Import Model Tool
Supported Model File Formats
Autodesk DXF and DWG (.dxf and .dwg)
Cinema 4D (.c4d)
Cinema 4D Hantmade Stage Plugin Support
Sketchup (.skp)
WaveFront (.obj)
3D Studio (.3ds)
Fixtures
Fixtures Overview
DMX Universes
Fixture Settings
Replacing Fixtures
Adding Filters and Gobos
Custom Gobos
Customising Gobo and Color Wheels
The Fixtures Tab
Fixture Data Import and Export
Using the Import Fixture Data Tool
VectorWorks Import Workflow
Using the Export Fixture Data Tool
Exporting to grandMA 2
Exporting to Hog 4
Importing exported fixture data in grandMA 2 onPC
Layers and Filters
Using Layers
Using Filters
Scenes
Using Scenes
Materials
Using Materials
Mapping Materials
Material Properties
Texture Generators
Media Fixtures
Video Projectors and Digital Lights
Video Players
Using CITP Media Sources
Controller and Media Server Connectivity
NDI Video Sources
LED Screens
Using LED Screens
Plots and Paperwork
Plots
Plot Options
Fixture Properties with Plots
Plot Styles
Exporting Plots
Motion Controllers
Using DMX Motion Controllers
Adding a DMX Mover
Adding a DMX Rotator
Patching a DMX Motion Controller
Snapshots and Video Rendering
Snapshots
Appendix A - DMX tables
Cameras
Smoke Boxes
DMX Movers
DMX Rotators
Appendix B - Pan & Tilt Calibration Guide
Before You Start
Position the Fixture
Pan Calibration
Tilt Calibration
Introduction
This manual should serve as one of the primary tools for installation and operation of the Capture software.
Capture Sweden’s e-mail support, online web forum and YouTube channel are all available as important
complements to this manual.
Please visit our website http://www.capture.se for regular software updates and important product
information. Also make sure to notify us if your e-mail address is changed, since e-mail is our primary
communication channel.
System Requirements
Capture 2019 for Windows requires a 64-bit installation of Windows 10. Capture may run on older versions of
Windows, but these are not officially supported.
Capture 2019 for macOS requires macOS 10.13 or higher and Metal support. Please refer to Apple's HT205073
article https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT205073 "Mac computers computers that support Metal" for more
information about Metal compatibility.
Installation
Capture installation packages for Windows and macOS can be downloaded from our website http://www.capt
ure.se. The installation packages contain a copy of the latest library at the time the installation package was
built. The latest library, which is updated on a daily basis, can be downloaded separately at any point.
Windows Installation
Capture is distributed with a Microsoft Installer (.msi) package for Windows. Once you have downloaded the
installation package, double click it to launch the installation.
macOS Installation
Capture is distributed as an “.app” package inside a .DMG (Disk Image) for macOS. Once you have
downloaded the installation package, double click on it to mount the disk image and drag and drop the
application to your Applications folder as illustrated in the window that appears.
Licence Installation
Capture licences are contained and distributed as licence key files and licence key file tickets. Capture licenses
are personal and the same licence key file can be installed on multiple computers. Once a licence key file has
been installed on a new computer it must also be unlocked before it can be used.
Licence key files are obtained using licence key file tickets and installed from within Capture in the Licensing
dialog, accessible from the Welcome window on startup as well as from the Tools menu.
Once a licence key file has been installed and the licence information has appeared in the dialog, choose
either Automated unlock or Manual unlock in order to unlock it. The automated option connects over the
Internet and allows immediate unlocking as long as the licence has not been unlocked on too many
computers. The manual option allows you to send the unlock request to us by e-mail to unlock@capture.se
and may take some time as it requires manual attention from our support staff, but we will help you as
promptly as possible.
Library Updates
Library updates are available on our website http://www.capture.se and are updated on a daily basis. If you
have requested library additions and we have notified you that a new library package is available this is where
you would obtain it.
Library packages are installed from within Capture, using the Upgrade library command in the Tools menu.
Note that library packages are not compatible across releases.
Support
Support to our customers is offered through e-mail and our online web forum at http://www.capture.se.
Under extraordinary circumstances we may also communicate with you over telephone, Skype or other
communication services.
Use support@capture.se for technical support.
Use library@capture.se for questions regarding the library or if you are missing fixtures.
For fastest possible assistance, please e-mail us using the address your licence is registered on.
Software Overview
On startup the Welcome dialog is shown with shortcuts to open recently opened project files and the Capture
news feed. Once this has been closed, the main Capture interface remains.
The main components of the interface highlighted in the image are:
1. Main menu.
2. Design views (three in total).
3. Project window.
4. Navigator selection interface.
5. Navigator view interface.
Main Menu
The main menu is available at the top of the main window.
In the File menu you will find the basic commands for opening, saving and closing Capture project files.
Note the variety of different options are available for opening older Capture project files.
The Import Model feature is used to open up other project files in parallel and allows you to copy items from
other projects into the project you are working with (which is done using the arrow navigator button).
The Import Data feature allows you to import a variety of drawing formats from other programs, as well as
specific project data such as fixture patch, weight, etc.
The Import Project Content feature allows you to import layers, filters, reports, plot styles and plots from
another project.
The Export Presentation feature that allows you to create an executable file that will launch your project,
which is embedded in the executable file, and show the Alpha view. Presentations cannot be used to edit
project files, they merely serve as a viewing and presentation tool.
The Export for Capture Nexum, Atlas, Argo functions allow you to export your project to older versions of
Capture.
The Export focus sheets feature creates a set of images, one per fixture (or as configured in the
configuration dialog presented), giving you a view out through the aperture of the fixture. It requires you to
pick a folder into which the images are placed.
In the Edit menu you will find access to the unlimited Undo and Redo commands.
The Tools menu gives you access to the Options window and the Translation window.
Design Views
Capture has three design views, Alpha, Beta and Gamma. These views can be configured to the users liking.
Configuring a design view is done by clicking on the green list button as shown below.
Command Description
Wireframe
Wireframe is the default view and works as a 3D CAD wireframe view whereby a
user can orbit any object in 3D but it is only rendered in wireframe.
Plot
Replaces the Paper view from previous Capture versions. This view is used to
make plots.
Live Live 3D rendering view.
Custom
In Custom mode, you can configure your own look view with either
wireframe/solid, perspective/orthographic etc.
Camera
Camera shows a list of preset camera positions for quick navigation, as well as
the ability to launch one of the user made camera positions.
Store Camera
By positioning the camera to a user defined location, a user can then go to the
Store camera option and choose a camera preset to store the current camera
pose to.
Grid Grid toggles the grid on/off for the selected view.
Widgets Widgets (such as the camera) can be toggled on/off for the selected view.
HiddenObjects Hidden objects can be toggled on/off for the selected view.
ProjectInformation Toggles the project information on/off for the selected view.
FixtureInformation
Fixture information replaces the previous Live Information option from Capture
Argo. It overlays fixtures with programming information like shutter and color
mix status.
QualityInformation Toggles the FPS and quality info on/off for the selected view.
Save Image.. Save an image of the currently selected view.
Some view settings are not available in the navigator. Additional settings for each view are available in the
Design tab of the Project window. With the Views category selected, each view has one column of
properties appear on the right hand side.
The Grid width and Grid height properties determine the distance between grid lines.
The Vertical field of view property lets you control lens angle of the view’s camera.
The Aspect ratio of a view can be set to follow 4:3 as well as 16:9.
The Brightness, Exposure and Atmosphere settings controls the look of the view when in Live mode. If you
have enabled the “Simpler Graphics” option of Capture, Brightness and Exposure are replaced with Fixture
Lighting and Fixture Lighting Differentiation.
DMX Control
It is possible to control a view using DMX. This is achieved by either manually assigning a Patch universe /
channel or by dragging the view’s camera from a design view to a channel in a Universe view. The Patch
mode option can be used to select the number of channels used by the camera. See Append A for details on
the DMX channel layout.
Project Window
The Project Window is the main information area in Capture. It hosts the properties for the selected items,
additional settings for the Alpha, Beta and Gamma Views, settings for Layers and Filters, Scenes, Materials,
Custom Gobo wheels, Custom Frame (color) lists, Reports Plot styles and Plots. Furthermore, the window is
split into a navigation list down the side with the properties for whatever is selected from that list available on
the right. Along the top are some tabs - Design, Fixtures, Universes, Media, Snapshots and Library. Generally
speaking, to add an object of any type to a capture project, it needs to be dragged from the library tab to one
of the design views. Objects can only currently be dragged into a wireframe or plot view.
Navigator
The Navigator is one of the main tools of capture. It is used for two primary functions - Navigation and
Manipulation.
The navigation part of the Navigator is present in the bottom right corner of the Alpha, Beta and Gamma
views. This Navigator is used to manipulate the view in terms of changing the camera viewing point and zoom
within the view as well as accessing the view settings via the spanner button.
The First button, a curve with arrows, allows you to move around a view. Holding the Shift or Ctrl keys allows a
different style of movement in the 3D views.
The second button is used to zoom in and out on the selected view. Holding the button and moving the
mouse up or down will control the amount the camera is zoomed in or out.
The third button is used to access the settings for the selected view as we discussed earlier. Additional
settings for each are available in the Design tab of the Project window.
Whenever you select any objects, within any of the Alpha, Beta or Gamma views within Capture; a second type
navigator appears. When objects are selected, they appear red with a a red grid around them that has some
control buttons below it. This second type of navigator is used to assist in the manipulation of the objects.
Objects can be selected by clicking on them with the mouse. Use the Shift key to add objects to the selection
and the Ctrl key to toggle individual object selection on and off. By click-dragging the mouse over a group of
objects, you can select them all at a time. If you drag from the left to the right, the objects must lie completely
within the region, but if you drag from the right to the left, it is enough for the objects to be partially inside the
region in order to become selected.
Clicking and moving the mouse anywhere inside the Translation grip allows you to move objects around. This
area is intentionally large so that it is easy to move items. While moving items, you can enable the ortho mode
by pressing Shift key. Snapping in the sense of bringing items to a minimal distance is built in and activated
during any translation, but is not triggered until after a short delay. When snapping is activate, the result of
the snapping is illustrated with an alternate colour.
Clicking and moving the mouse inside a Distribution grip will allow you to spread out or bring together the
selected objects over the given area in a proportional manner. The ortho mode is available here by using the
Shift key as well. The Rotation anchor is used to rotate objects. It can be moved around to define the center of
rotation and allows for both Individual rotation and Group rotation. Pressing the Shift key enables snapped
rotation.
The first button is the selection menu button. It allows you to select or deselect everything, with the added
“layer” option. Using the “layer” option will allow you to select or deselect everything but only in the current
layer. Layers will be discussed in a later chapter.
The second button is the actions menu button. It displays a small list of possible operations relevant to the
selected object(s). The list that appears is context sensitive, that is to say that selecting a Lighting Fixture will
display different options in the list than that of a Truss. Each available option/command will be covered later
in the relevant chapters.
The arrow button is used to drag objects out of one view to another. Using this button, the objects won’t
actually move per say. The button is used primarily for patching fixtures. Select multiple fixtures in the order
you wish to patch them and use the drag button to drag them onto a universe in the project window or on an
open universe window. This functionality will be covered later in the relevant section.
You may also use the arrow button to drag the object to a new location in the same window, thereby making a
copy.
The button with a list is the Quick Summery button. Pressing it when you have objects selected presents a
popup window about the selected objects displaying key data about them. This button reveals the fixture
control pane and is only visible when at least one lighting fixture is selected and the view is in Live mode.
Smoke Settings
Smoke is added to and managed using smoke boxes. New projects contain one auto sizing smoke box by
default. The presence of a smoke boxes is indicated by a cloud widget and when selected its extents become
visible. Smoke boxes can be deleted as any other object and more smoke boxes can be added from the
Library tab at any time.
To adjust the properties of a smoke box, select it and edit its properties in the Selected Items category in the
Design tab.
Control the overall amount of smoke in a smoke box using the Density property. You can also adjust the
Variation from perfect haze to puffy clouds. Edge softness adds a soft edge to smoke boxes.
Smoke boxes are animated in real-time and the speed of the animation is controlled through the Speed
property. This property is shared by all smoke boxes.
Typical applications of more than one smoke box include denser smoke on stage in an arena with otherwise
thin haze as well as localized fog situations such as heavy fog or fog behind a glass.
Limiting smoke to the area around the stage also helps avoid problems with beams shot into the audience
oversaturating the visualisation. The Smoke element is in a new project by default (much like the camera
object).
Smoke can also be patched to DMX. A smoke box can be patched by drag and dropping it in a DMX universe
view like any fixture, or by assigning an address to the Patch property in the Design tab. See Appendix A for
details on the DMX channel layout.
Rendering Settings
The rendering settings (previously visualization settings, under software options) is a tab within the project
window. Its properties control the rendering quality of the live design views.
The Multiple Apertures visualization option controls the rendering of multi-aperture (striplights, BB-7,
multi-LED moving heads) beams. In simple mode, only a single beam is rendered using the fixtures average
color.In realistic mode each aperture renders a beam of its own. In Automatic mode a single beam is rendered
for the fixture when all apertures have the same color.
The Beam Atmospheric Detail option allows you to control the level of detail created by a beam passing
through the smoke/haze in the atmosphere.
The Beam shadow resolution option allows you to lower the resolution of shadows created by beams.
The Automatic Quality option allows you to turn on/off the automatic quality functionality Capture uses.
Having automatic quality turned on will allow capture to be more efficient while rendering more complex
scenes by sacrificing quality to keep good performance.
The Resolution Scaling option allows you to render live visualization at a lower resolution than the screen.
The Atmospheric Resolution option controls the resolution of atmospheric visualization, (Smoke). The Beam
Atmospheric Details option allows you to control the level of detail created by a beam passing through the
smoke/haze in the atmosphere. Higher levels of Beam Atmospheric Detail are relevant when using many wide
angle beams and/or shooting through scenery that intersects beams.
The Beam Shadow Resolution option allows you to increase the resolution of shadows created by beams
when shooting over long distances or on/through scenery.
The Spill Lighting option enables the visualization of a beam contribution beyond a fixtures field angle.
The Frosted Transparents option allows you to disable the visualization of the frosted effect of transparent
materials.
Software Options
The software options are available through the Tools menu Options command and are split in two
categories.
General Options Tab
Here you can change the language of the user interface in Capture. By default it will follow the settings of your
computer.
The Ignore C: drive options is important on Microsoft Windows machines that have their Windows
installation on a drive other then C : \
Turning on the Live updating transformation option causes all simulation views to update at once when
moving or rotating objects.
Locking layers is a useful way of preventing accidental modification of fixed items such as the house of your
venue. The Locked layers unselectable option takes it one step further and prevents you from even
selecting such items.
The Show navigator on external selection is a feature for users with controllers that are capable of
selecting fixtures. Unless this option is enabled, fixtures selected from a controller will only highlight as red
and not display the navigator with the command buttons.
Free-flight navigation is normally accessible using the Shift key when navigating but can be set as the default
behaviour instead (in which case the Shift key can be used to access orbit navigation).
The size of the navigator’s rotation anchor can be changed with the Rotation anchor angle and Rotation
anchor length options. The rotation anchor snapping angle can be set with the Rotation snap angle option.
Connectivity Options Tab
This tab contains options for controller and media server connectivity. It can be important to set the Preferred
network address on a machine with multiple network addresses, but unless you are connecting to older
equipment it is not encouraged to enable the Compatible CITP mode as it may make it impossible to connect
to newer equipment.
You may also alter the incoming video format for CITP communication.
By default, Art-Net, sACN (E1.31), Compulite VC, ETC Net 2, HippoMap (HMap3), Lan Box, Lasergraph DSP and
PangolinLD are all set to Automatic. On rare occasions when a machine has more than one network adapter,
it may be necessary to change Automatic to a specific IP address available under the relevant protocol.
Object Manipulation
Any physical thing in a Capture project file is an object, whether it be a Lighting Fixture, piece of stage deck,
LED screen, table or chair - is irrelevant. They are all treated the same in respect to adding them to the project,
moving them around, cloning (copying) them, deleting them and accessing their properties.
To explore more about object manipulation, start a new Capture Project. Do this by going to the main menu in
the top left corner and pressing New.
Leave the Alpha and Beta views with their default settings. Change the Gamma view to the Live mode by
clicking on the green list button and selecting Live. Your windows should look the same as the image below.
Adding Objects
Now we have a clean project file, we can proceed to add some objects to it.
To add an object to the project, we must first locate it from the Library. The Library tab in the Project
Window is where all objects can be located. We want to add a stage floor.
Navigate to the Library, click on Objects, then again on Forms. Click on the Box form and drag it into either
the Alpha or Beta view. Your project should look something like the image below.
We can now proceed to changing the properties of the box so that it looks more like a stage floor. You may
select the box by simply clicking on it in any of the views. The red navigator will appear around the box. Press
the red spanner button to present the options available for the box.
Click the Properties option. This will toggle the project window to the Design tab with the Selected Items
section already active showing the properties for the box.
Change the box dimensions to a width of 12m, height of 0.1m and a depth of 8m. Your Properties should look
like the image below.
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