The CueList is more complicated than Submasters, Groups, and Patching, because it gives you more options for how to express information.

Basic Layout and Intensity Controls:

Above is a simple CueList.  There are three important sections here:

The lower left quadrant shows Cue information in rows.  Row 28 shows Cue 2, which has a Time of 3 and a Label of "PRESHOW".  We'll come back to more complicated Cue information later.

The upper right quadrant shows configuration information for columns.  We'll call each column a "control"- a single control may record intensity information for one or more channels, as well as other information.

Row 1 configures what intensity channels are manipulated by the control in column H.  Column H is a "control set", it manipulates multiple intensity channels simultanously.  Columns I, J, and K are just controls, manipulating one intensity channel each.

Automation channels, Scroller channels, and palettes will be covered later in this Chapter.  Visualization will be covered in a separate chapter.

Row 26 holds your notes relating to each control.

In Cue 1, Channel 1 (which we've noted is "Special 1") is set at 100%.

In Cue 2, Channels 1, 2, and 3 are all set at 100%.

In Cue 3, things are more complex.  XLCue will interpret things from left to right, with new values overriding old values.  So Cue 3 has Channels 1 and 3 set at 100%, and Channel 2 set at 75%.  Cue 3.1 is identical but expressed differently.

Scroller Controls:

Controls in columns L through O introduce a new feature: control of single channel color changing devices.

The instrument controlled by Channel 4 is fitted with a simple color scroller.  This hypothetical scroller can select Red, Blue, and Green gels.  When Channel 7 is set to 10%, the scroller will be in the Red gel.  At 20%, the scroller will be in Blue.

We have created the Palette area by changing cell background colors, and entering values in each cell to show what value that color should represent.  Now, by coloring cells at the intersection of Cues and Controls, XLCue will set the appropriate scroller's channels to the appropriate value.

In Cue 4, the scroller attached to the instrument controlled by Channel 4 is Red.  In Cue 5, all front light scrollers are in Blue.  In Cues 6 and 6.1, two scrollers are in blue and one is in green.

Once you've set up your Palette area, a handy way to set cell colors is using Paste Format.  Start by copying a cell with the color you're interested in (from your Palette or another Cue Row).  Select the cell(s) you want to copy the color to.  Now, you can press Ctrl+Shift+V to paste only the cell formatting, or right click and select "*Paste Format".

Multi-Channel Scrollers:

Some color changing devices require more than one control channel.  These might include two-scroll color scrollers like Wybron, Inc's CXI which uses two control channels, or a more advanced color changing device using 3 or more channels like SeaChanger's SeaChanger or many moving lights.

Controls in columns P through S use color changing devices requiring two channels.  Cues 7 through 9.1 show that after setting up your Scroller Channels and Palette, MultiChannel Scrollers are used in exactly the same way as simple Scrollers.

Automation Controls:

Automation Controls are used to control any device that isn't a dimmer or color changer (though you could also use them to control either of those).  This might include a moving mirror add-on for an ellipsoidal, a gobo rotator, a fog machine, or a fully automated lighting instrument.

In this example we're manipulating devices with two channels, one to control Pan and one to control Tilt.  These might be moving mirrors attached to an ellipsoidal like Specials 1, 2, and 3.

An Automation Palette is different from a Scroller Palette.  In an Automation Palette, the cell value is a descriptive word that we'll call a "focus point label".  The comment for that cell is a focus point value or set of values.  Here, the focus point label "Down" will set our first channel to 50% and our second channel to 100%.  Note that if our moving mirror used a "16-bit DMX Channel", we would use two consecutive channels to control pan, and two consecutive channels to control tilt.

Cue 10 uses the focus point label "Down", so one of our moving mirrors will have it's channels set to 50% and 100%.  Cue 11 will have all of our mirrors pointing "Up".  Cue 12 and 12.1 will have two mirrors "Up" and one "Right".  Cue 13 shows that instead of using a focus point label, we can enter channel values directly into a cell.  In Cue 13, one mirror will be pointing not-quite-to-the-right, while the other two mirrors still point "Up".

If we want to make "Not Quite Right" into a focus point, we can right click on cell V44 and select "*Create Focus Point".  We'll be prompted for a name for the new focus point, and it will be added to our Palette as long as there's room.  See Appendix: What You Can Modify if you need to increase the size of your Palette.

Columns can have validation rules configured to support being used as an Intensity/Scroller Control or as an Automation Control.  Intensity/Scroller Controls will allow only integer values 0-100, while Automation Controls will allow any value such as "ZOOM", "STRAIGHT DOWN", or "50&75".  The blank copy of XLCue has all columns configured as Intentisy/Scroller Controls.  To change a column, select a cell in the column, right click and select "*Set Column Type-> Automation", or press Ctrl+Shift+I.  To change a column back, select a cell in the column, right click and select "*Set Column Type-> Intensity", or press Ctrl+Shift+I.

Advanced Cue Info:

Now let's look back at the other Cue Info options available.

Cue 20 through 22 shows a loop- Cue 22 is Linked back to Cue 20.

Cue 23 through Cue 25 is a loop that will continue automatically- the Cue after Cue 23 (which is 24) will Follow automatically in 1 second.  Cue 24 will Follow to Cue 25, and Cue 25 is Linked to Cue 23 and will Follow in 1 second.

Cue 27 uses separate Up and Down Times.  Cue 27 will fade Up in 3 seconds, while the preceding Cue (probably Cue 26) will fade Down in 6 seconds.

Cue 28 will fade Up in 3 seconds after a Wait time of 3 seconds, while the previous Cue fades Down in 6 seconds.  Cue 29 will fade Up in 3 seconds, while the previous Cue will fade Down in 6 seconds after a Wait of 3 seconds.

All times can be integers or can use a single decimal point (e.g. 1.1 seconds).

Cue 31 shows the syntax for a Part Cue.  Any given Channel can only appear in one Part of a Cue.  If using Parts, you must be careful to monitor this, XLCue will not verify whether a Channel appears in more than one Part and may write invalid USITT ASCII files, the interpretation of which will be determined by your specific console.

The USITT ASCII standard is unclear as to some details of the syntax of Part files, XLCue will interface properly with the implementation chosen by ETC for the Express series of consoles and off-line editors.

The full show we have created is shown below.