I realize I may be considered a dinosaur -I STILL use Cinabex (many of you younger lighting designers may never even heard of this brand.) I would like to be able to specify the “C” number and get a proper color associated with the instrument symbol. I realize I can simply put C17 as the color and it will show up on the plot - but would miss the helpful color association that acts as a second confirmation I have the correct instrument.
I was able to set up such a system with MacLuxPro to do this. Is there some “secret knowledge” that will allow me to get this feature in the color choice section of the instrument info panel?
Using my colors
Using my colors
Rhett Bryson
Department of Theatre Arts
Furman University
Greenville, SC 29613
Department of Theatre Arts
Furman University
Greenville, SC 29613
Importing a color library from MacLux Pro
A user can add to the color library used by LXFree by placing a file with a ".lxcolors" extension in either the system or user Library/Application Support/lx/colors folder**. When LXFree starts up, it looks for .lxcolors files in both these directories and adds their contents to its color library. There will eventually be a color library editor that will assist in creating and editing a custom color library file. However, like many of the databases used by LXFree, the color library is stored in XML format which leaves it open to editing by other applications. XML is a text based format that can be edited using a text editor such as BBEdit or the freeware TextWrangler from Bare Bones Software (barebones.com).
MacLux Pro 2.1.6 can export its libraries in XML format. The color library format is very similar to LXFree and can be used with a little editing. (MacLux Pro stores its libraries in a single binary file, MacLux Pro Prefs, that is in the same folder as the MacLux Pro application. You will not be able to use this file directly.)
To export the libraries from MacLux Pro 2.1.6, choose the Preferences command and click the Export Libraries button. This will export a file containing all of MacLux Pro's libraries. You will need to alter this file in order for LXFree to read it. By saving the exported library file with the name "mycolors.lxcolors", instead of the default "MacLuxPro_Libraries" you will have started the process. The resulting mycolors.lxcolors file can be opened by TextEdit which is part of OS-X. (You may need to Choose Application... in order to open mycolors.lxcolors with TextEdit or the editor of your choice).
There are two things you need to do to allow your file to be used by LXFree. The first is to strip away all the non-color library information. Leaving the first line, "<?xml version="1.0"?>", delete the next 6 lines leaving "<color_library>" as the second line. Search for "<key_library>" which will take you to the end of the color library information. Delete the rest of the file leaving the line "</color_library> as the last line in the file.
The second thing you need to do is to change the <gel> tags into <color> tags. This is easily done by searching for "gel" and replacing with "color". Most text editors have a Replace All function that allows you to do this for the entire file in one operation.
The mycolors.lxcolors file is now ready to be used by LXFree. Place it in either the system Library/Application Support/lx/colors folder or your user username/Library/Application Support/lx/colors folder. LXFree will add the colors from this file to its library when it starts up.
**note: this post was updated for LXFree 0.9.1313. Prior versions look for a single "colors.lxcolors" file placed directly in the lx application support folder. Older versions did not support multiple files in the colors directory.
MacLux Pro 2.1.6 can export its libraries in XML format. The color library format is very similar to LXFree and can be used with a little editing. (MacLux Pro stores its libraries in a single binary file, MacLux Pro Prefs, that is in the same folder as the MacLux Pro application. You will not be able to use this file directly.)
To export the libraries from MacLux Pro 2.1.6, choose the Preferences command and click the Export Libraries button. This will export a file containing all of MacLux Pro's libraries. You will need to alter this file in order for LXFree to read it. By saving the exported library file with the name "mycolors.lxcolors", instead of the default "MacLuxPro_Libraries" you will have started the process. The resulting mycolors.lxcolors file can be opened by TextEdit which is part of OS-X. (You may need to Choose Application... in order to open mycolors.lxcolors with TextEdit or the editor of your choice).
There are two things you need to do to allow your file to be used by LXFree. The first is to strip away all the non-color library information. Leaving the first line, "<?xml version="1.0"?>", delete the next 6 lines leaving "<color_library>" as the second line. Search for "<key_library>" which will take you to the end of the color library information. Delete the rest of the file leaving the line "</color_library> as the last line in the file.
The second thing you need to do is to change the <gel> tags into <color> tags. This is easily done by searching for "gel" and replacing with "color". Most text editors have a Replace All function that allows you to do this for the entire file in one operation.
The mycolors.lxcolors file is now ready to be used by LXFree. Place it in either the system Library/Application Support/lx/colors folder or your user username/Library/Application Support/lx/colors folder. LXFree will add the colors from this file to its library when it starts up.
**note: this post was updated for LXFree 0.9.1313. Prior versions look for a single "colors.lxcolors" file placed directly in the lx application support folder. Older versions did not support multiple files in the colors directory.