Fixture Setup

Before you can use fixture control, presets, or effects, you need to configure your light fixtures in the DMX Core 100. This involves importing a fixture profile and creating fixture instances that match your physical setup.

Fixture Profiles

A fixture profile describes the capabilities of a specific light fixture model - its DMX channels, functions (color, dimmer, pan/tilt, etc.), and personalities (channel modes).

Built-in Generic Profiles

The DMX Core 100 ships with built-in generic profiles for common RGB and RGBW fixtures - PAR washes and LED strips/pixels. For these simple fixtures you don’t need to import anything; just select the matching generic profile when adding a fixture.

Importing Profiles

The DMX Core 100 supports importing profiles from four popular fixture libraries. Start with Lightkey when you can - public catalog, one file per fixture, no account.

• Lightkey - .lightkeyfxt
• Daslight (SSL2) - .ssl2 (may require a free login)
• GDTF Share - .gdtf
• Avolites Personality Library - .d4; last resort, because the site ships the whole library as an archive. See Avolites Fixture Profiles for how to extract a single file.

If none of these libraries has your fixture - common with unbranded fixtures - build the profile in the Fixture Profile Editor from the DMX chart in the manual, or let an AI assistant build it from photos of the manual (see AI-Generated Fixture Profiles). Add profile… has a Build the profile by hand link that opens the editor and brings you back to the fixture with the new profile selected.

To import while adding or editing a fixture:

1. On Fixture Details, click Add profile… next to the Profile dropdown
2. Open a library, download the file, then choose it in the dialog and click Import
3. The new profile is selected - save the fixture to apply it

To import several files, or to inspect and delete profiles, use Lighting Setup > Profiles and Add profile….

On a wall-mounted unit you can instead copy the file to a USB stick and import it from Utilities > File Explorer on the touchscreen. File Explorer > Transfer in the Web UI still works as a bulk/alternate path.

The Profile dropdown on Fixture Details lists generic profiles, imported profiles, and any profiles provided by a loaded plugin.

Managing Profiles

Lighting Setup > Profiles lists every profile on the device: imported library profiles, the generic RGB/RGBW seeds, and read-only profiles from a loaded plugin.

• Open a row to see personalities and the 1-based channel map (the same numbering as the fixture manual)
• Hover the personalities summary to see each mode’s channel count
• Edit on a library profile’s details page opens it in the Fixture Profile Editor to fix a channel, add a mode or rename one; Duplicate makes a copy to change. New profile next to Add profile… builds one from scratch
• The details page also shows the profile’s type and beams (pixels or cells), and per channel its beam, whether it runs inverted, its fallback value and the color of color wheel slots
• Export on a library profile’s details page downloads it as a DMX Core JSON profile file (<Manufacturer> - <Name>.json), the same format Import accepts. Edit it and import it again to update the profile, or import it on another unit. Anything the format cannot hold is listed in the file’s warnings
• Delete is available for unused library profiles. Plugin profiles cannot be deleted. A profile that fixtures still use is blocked until those fixtures are reassigned or removed.

Adding Fixtures

Fixtures are managed under Lighting Setup > Fixtures in the Web UI, or Main Menu > Settings > Fixtures on the touchscreen. A touchscreen fixture also has a Zone field.

1. Go to Lighting Setup > Fixtures in the Web UI
2. Click Add a fixture or Add New
3. Select the Profile - a built-in generic RGB/RGBW profile, or one you imported. If it isn’t in the list, click Add profile… next to the dropdown
4. Select the Personality (channel mode) - this determines which DMX channels the fixture uses
5. Set the Start Channel and Slot/Universe Id
6. Optionally assign the fixture to a Zone with the Zone field on this fixture (not in the zone editor)
7. Click Save

Personality Selection

Most fixture profiles include multiple personalities (sometimes called “modes”). Each personality defines a different channel layout - for example, a 6-channel mode for basic control or a 16-channel mode with fine control. Choose the personality that matches your fixture’s physical DIP switch or menu setting.

Custom Options

Some fixtures support custom configuration options beyond the standard profile settings. These appear as additional fields in the fixture setup when available.

Managing Fixtures

From the Lighting Setup > Fixtures page in the Web UI, you can:

• Edit a fixture - Click the pencil in its Details column to open its settings
• Enable/Disable - Turn a fixture on or off without deleting it, with Enabled on its settings page
• Delete - Remove a fixture with Delete on its settings page

Working with Several Fixtures

To enable, disable or delete many fixtures at once, tick the checkbox at the start of each row. A bar above the list shows how many are selected, with Enable, Disable and Delete buttons for the whole selection.

• The selection is kept while you move between pages, so you can pick fixtures from several pages before choosing an action
• The checkbox in the header selects every fixture in the list, on all pages. When only some are selected it shows a dash; click it again to clear them
• Enable and Disable apply right away and keep the selection, so you can undo with one click. A button is grayed out when every selected fixture is already in that state
• Delete asks first and lists the fixtures by name and code
• Clear unselects everything

The checkboxes are only shown to users with the Edit Fixtures permission. Presets, menus and other items that use a deleted fixture are not changed, the same as when you delete fixtures one at a time.

Hiding Fixture Functions

If a fixture profile includes functions you don’t use - for example, a strobe channel on a simple par can - you can hide individual functions to keep the Fixture Control view uncluttered.

In the Web UI, open the fixture’s settings and use the Hidden Functions list to select which functions to hide. Hidden functions remain in the profile but are excluded from the Fixture Control display.

Splitting and Combining Fixtures

Tip

If all you need is to make one copy a little brighter or dimmer than the others, you don’t have to split - set a per-copy intensity trim on the Fixture Control page instead.

If you have a fixture with multiple copies, you can split it into individual fixtures - each copy becomes its own entry with an automatically assigned code (e.g., Front_Wash_1, Front_Wash_2). This is useful when you need to assign copies to different zones or adjust settings independently.

To reverse a split, open any of the split fixtures and click Combine. This merges all matching split fixtures back into a single multi-copy fixture. The button shows the total count of fixtures that will be combined.

Note

Split is available when a fixture has between 2 and 50 copies. Combine is available when the system detects matching split siblings (same profile, personality, and code pattern).

Fixture Warnings

When editing a fixture, the system checks whether the fixture’s assigned slot has an enabled output configured. If not, a warning is displayed with a direct link to the Output Config page so you can set one up. This helps catch configuration issues before they affect your show.

Exporting Fixtures

You can export your fixture patch from Lighting Setup > Fixtures in the Web UI in two formats:

• Excel - Full export with formatting and totals, suitable for documentation
• CSV - For spreadsheet tools and data processing (UTF-8, opens correctly in Excel)

Each fixture is one row, sorted by address: code, name, enabled, slot and start channel, personality, copies, zone name, manufacturer and profile, profile code, copy trims, hidden functions and custom options. The End Slot, End Ch, Ch/Fixture and Warning columns are worked out for you (where the fixture ends, and which fixtures share channels); they are only there to read and are ignored on import.

The export is complete, so it can be edited and imported again, on the same unit or another one.

Importing Fixtures

With a large rig, patching fixtures one at a time is slow. Import on Lighting Setup > Fixtures reads a whole patch from a CSV or Excel (.xlsx) sheet, one row per fixture. It needs the Edit Fixtures permission.

To start from a blank sheet, download a template from DMXCore/DmxCore100-Tools: CSV or Excel. Its example rows use the built-in Generic profiles, so it imports on any unit as it is; replace them with your fixtures.

The quickest way to build the sheet is often from your own patch:

1. Import the fixture profiles you need (see Importing Profiles)
2. Patch one fixture of each type the way you want it - personality, hidden functions, custom options
3. Export the patch as CSV or Excel
4. Add a row for every other fixture: copy a row of the same type, give it a name and an address, and clear its Code so a new code is assigned
5. Click Import, choose the file, check the preview, and click Import in the dialog

How rows are applied

• A row whose Code matches an existing fixture updates that fixture. Columns that are not in the sheet keep their current values, so a sheet with just Code and Name renames fixtures and changes nothing else
• Any other row adds a new fixture. Leave Code empty to get the next free code (LIGHT12, LIGHT13, …)
• Fixtures that are not in the sheet are left alone, unless Replace overlapping fixtures is on (see below)
• Zone Name is matched to the device’s Zones ignoring case, extra spaces and punctuation, so dance finds a zone called Dance. A zone the device doesn’t have is an error, and the preview suggests the closest name. Turn on Create missing zones to create such zones instead (needs the Edit Zones permission). An empty Zone Name cell removes the fixture from its zone
• Nothing is saved until you click Import in the dialog, and then everything is saved at once. If any row has an error, nothing is imported

Import options

Two options above the preview, both off by default:

• Replace overlapping fixtures - fixtures that are not in the sheet but whose channels a new or moved fixture in the sheet takes are deleted, so you can re-patch a rig without clearing it first. The preview lists them as Delete rows with the fixture that replaces them. Overlaps the import doesn’t cause (fixtures that already shared channels and don’t move) only get a warning
• Create missing zones - zones the sheet names that the device doesn’t have are created, each once. The preview lists them under New zones

The preview

Choosing a file shows what the import will do before anything changes:

• A count of new, update, delete, unchanged and error rows, and the rows themselves with what changes for each update (for example Address 1.1 → 2.101)
• Errors block the import: a missing address, slot 0, a channel outside 1-512, an unknown zone or profile, a code used twice in the file
• Warnings do not block it: fixtures sharing channels (with other rows or with fixtures already patched), a slot with no enabled output, a copy trimmed to 0%
• Columns the import doesn’t use are listed, so a misspelled header is easy to spot

Fixture types

Each fixture type in the sheet - the Manufacturer, Profile and Personality as written - is matched once for all its rows, in the Fixture types table:

• Exact - the names match a profile on the device
• Suggested - the closest match. If a fixture with that profile is already patched, the suggestion is to make the rows like that fixture, which also copies its hidden functions and custom options. This is why patching one fixture of each type first pays off
• Your choice - pick a patched fixture or any profile (and personality) from the list
• Not matched - nothing close was found, or you cleared the match; pick one before you can import

The browser remembers your choices by type, so importing a corrected version of the same sheet does not ask again.

A row can also name its type directly: Profile Code (written by the export) picks the exact profile, and a Template column with the code of a patched fixture makes the row like that fixture.

Sheets from other programs

The import also reads patch sheets that were not made by DMX Core:

• CSV separated by commas, semicolons or tabs, and Excel .xlsx (the first sheet; title rows above the table are skipped). Old .xls files must be saved as .xlsx or CSV first
• Common column names work as they are: Universe for the slot, Address or DMX for the start channel, Mode for the personality, Instrument Type or Fixture Type for the profile, Purpose or Label for the name, Count or Qty for copies
• An address can be one cell: 2.101, 2/101 or 2:101 (slot 2, channel 101), or an absolute address such as 613 (also slot 2, channel 101) when there is no slot column
• Slots start at 1. If a sheet numbers universes from 0, add 1 to them first

Column	Accepted names	Notes
Code	Code	Matches an existing fixture to update it. Empty for a new fixture
Name	Name, Label, Purpose	Defaults to the profile name for a new fixture
Enabled	Enabled	Yes/No, true/false, 1/0. New fixtures are enabled by default
Slot	Slot ID, Universe
Start channel	Start Ch, Address, DMX, Channel	2.101 style also accepted
Copies	Copies, Count, Qty	1-680
Personality	Personality, Mode	Empty: a new fixture gets the profile’s first personality
Manufacturer	Manufacturer, Make, Brand
Profile	Profile, Fixture Type, Instrument Type, Model, Type
Profile Code	Profile Code	Written by the export
Template	Template	Code of a patched fixture to copy
Zone	Zone Name, Zone, Group	Must exist, unless Create missing zones is on
Copy Trims	Copy Trims	100% 80% 100%, one per copy
Hidden Functions	Hidden Functions	Separated by ;
Custom Options	Custom Options	Name=Value; Name=Value

Tip

After an import, the dialog offers the patch from before the import as a CSV. Importing it again puts back every fixture the import changed or deleted; fixtures and zones it added stay and can be deleted by hand. Download the current patch in the dialog saves the same thing beforehand.

Multi-Function Fixtures

Fixtures with multiple instances of the same function type (e.g., dual color wheels, multiple gobos) are fully supported. The system automatically detects and exposes all function instances for control.