Patching Fixtures

Patching assigns a fixture instance to a DMX universe and start address. Once patched, phix knows exactly which DMX channels to send values to when you control that fixture.

Basic patching

patch <TypeName> <FixtureID> "<Name>" <Mode> <Universe> <Address>

Parameter	Description
TypeName	The fixture type name (as shown in list gdtf)
FixtureID	A unique numeric ID for this fixture (used to select it later)
Name	A human-readable label (e.g., "Front Left")
Mode	The DMX mode name from the GDTF file
Universe	DMX universe number
Address	Start address within the universe (1–512)

Example — patch one moving head:

patch "Robe MegaPointe" 1 "SR Spot 1" "Mode 1" 1 1

Patch multiple fixtures sequentially:

Add a count parameter to patch several fixtures in a row, each offset by the channel footprint of the previous:

patch "Robe MegaPointe" 1 "SR Spot" "Mode 1" 1 1 count 4

This patches fixtures 1 through 4, auto-incrementing the start address.

Viewing the patch

list fixtures

Shows all patched fixtures with their IDs, names, types, universes, and addresses.

Modifying the patch

Rename a fixture:

label fixture 1 "New Name"

Move a fixture to a different address (repatch):

patch move 1 1 100

This moves fixture 1 to universe 1, address 100.

Renumber a fixture:

patch renumber 1 101

Changes fixture ID 1 to 101.

Pan and tilt invert

If a moving head's pan or tilt is reversed compared to your stage layout, you can invert the output:

invert fixture 1 paninvert fixture 1 tiltinvert fixture 1 pan tiltinvert fixture 1 none      -- remove all inverts

Unpatching a fixture

Remove a fixture from the show:

unpatch 1

This removes fixture ID 1. Any cues or presets that referenced it are updated automatically.

Parking fixtures

Parking locks a fixture's DMX output at its current value, regardless of what the programmer or executors are doing. This is useful to hold a fixture in place while you work on other things.

park 1          -- park fixture 1park 1 thru 4   -- park fixtures 1-4unpark 1        -- unpark fixture 1list parked     -- show all parked fixtures

caution

Parked fixtures do not respond to any programming changes until they are explicitly unparked.

Sub-fixture patching

When you patch a GDTF fixture that contains multiple independent geometry sections (e.g., an LED bar with individually addressable pixels), phix automatically creates sub-fixtures.

For example, patching an LED bar with 10 pixels creates:

• Parent fixture 101
• Sub-fixtures 101.1 through 101.10

See GDTF Fixtures for details on selecting and controlling sub-fixtures.