User Guide

Page 206 - 14. The Personality File System
Pearl 2004 Manual v1 - 27th August 2004
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
14. The Personality File System
If you can’t find the personality for the fixture you’re using, or you want
to know how to create a personality file, this section has the details.
14.1 Help, I can’t find a personality for my fixture
Avolites has a large library of fixtures on the website at
http://www.avolitesdownload.com/Personality%20Library/Default.asp
which can be downloaded quickly onto floppy disk.
You can also use this page to request a personality for a fixture if one
doesn’t already exist, and to report problems with personalities.
If you frequently use a fixture which isn’t in the Pearl’s internal fixture
cache, you can build it into the cache so you don’t have to mess with
floppy disks. To do this you need to download the Avolites Cache
Builder from http://www.avolitesdownload.com. You then need to load
your new cache file as described on page 196.
14.2 Create
14.2.1 What is and how do I write or change a Personality file?
The personality file is an ASCII text format file containing information
on how the desk should patch each channel of an instrument.
Since the files are in ASCII text format you can easily modify them and
create new versions for your own use. When editing files you must
ensure your word processor is set to save in plain ASCII text format. If
you use Windows Write make sure that when you open the file you
select ‘no conversion’ and when you close the file you save it in the
‘text file’ format.
Before editing make a backup of the original, in case your edits do not
work.
The Pearl normally stores the personality files in an internal cache so
that you don’t need to carry a personality disk around. The personality
cache is a special compressed file containing all the personalities. You
cannot currently add your own definitions to it, so you will have to load
your custom personalities from disk in the time-honoured fashion.
14.2.2 Personality file naming conventions
There are four extensions used by personality files: .PER, .D2, .R96 and
.R20.
Pearl software will read any .PER file and any.R96 file, however when
.PER files are read a message will be presented to the user to warn that
an old personality file is being used and not every function of the desk
will work correctly. Typically this includes tracking, pre-loaded focuses
locate fixture and tablet functions. .D2 files are for the Diamond II &
Diamond III.
Files with the extension .R20 can only be used with Sapphire 2000,
Azure 2000 and Pearl 2000/2004 control desks. These files have