Troubleshooting and FAQ

Find your symptom or message below. Messages are shown in quotes as they appear in the app.

Saving and opening

What does the save state in the status bar mean?

The status bar runs along the bottom of the editor.

It says	Meaning	What to do
Saved	All edits are on the server	Nothing
Unsaved	You have edits that are not saved yet	Wait, or press Cmd+S (Ctrl+S on Windows)
Saving…	A save is running	Wait
Save failed	The last save did not work	Check your connection, then press Cmd+S or Ctrl+S
Conflict	Someone else changed the show while you had unsaved edits	See the next question
Local	This is a local draft, not a saved project	Baking needs a saved project

"This show was updated by someone else."

Another person saved the show while you had unsaved edits. Save to resolve it, or reload the page to get their changes.

"Show updated with the latest changes."

Another person saved the show while you had no unsaved edits, so your screen updated by itself. You do not need to do anything.

"Couldn’t reach the server"

The server could not be reached, so you are working from the offline copy of this project on this device. Check your connection.

"Couldn’t load this project"

The server could not be reached, and this device has no offline copy. Check your connection and click Retry, or click Back to shows.

"Project not found"

The project does not exist or you cannot open it from here. Go back to the dashboard and check that you are in the right workspace.

I do not see my team's shows

You may be in the wrong workspace. Use the workspace switcher on the dashboard.

"Created the show, but the upload failed"

Your recovered local work was placed in a new show, but the upload did not finish. Open that show and press Save to try again.

"Could not rename the project" or "Could not delete the project"

The change did not reach the server. Check your connection and try again.

Safety checks

The Safety button says "no Launch Pad = no limits"

Your show has no Launch Pad, so there is nothing to compare with. Add a Launch Pad.

"Nothing to check yet"

No element has slots yet. Add a formation with slots.

The Whole show row is red

Two formations are in flight at the same moment and pass too close to each other. That takes two Launch Pads, because one pad's drones are only ever on one formation. Jump shows you the moment. See Safety checks.

Safety is green, but the baked numbers are over the limit

Safety measures your slots, not the flights between formations. Lengthen the Track clip, or see how long a move takes.

The Altitude row is always green

Altitude has no limit in the app. Compare it yourself with what your flight permission allows.

Baking

"Open a saved project to bake it"

You are in a local draft. Open a saved project from the dashboard.

"Could not save your latest changes"

The save before the bake failed, so the app stopped the bake to keep it in sync with your design. Check your connection, wait for the status bar to say Saved, and bake again.

"Bake failed:" followed by a reason

Read the reason, then click the button to try again. See When a bake fails.

The Bake Show arrow is missing

The arrow is hidden in Bake mode and while a bake is running. Click Exit or wait for the bake to finish.

"No baked versions yet"

This show has no finished bake. Click Bake Show.

"Could not load the bake history"

The Baked versions dialog could not reach the server. Check your connection and open it again.

Drones do not leave the launch grid

The Launch Pad needs a clip with a formation. Check that a Takeoff or Track clip exists on the Drones channel, and that a Formation Group has been dragged onto it. A clip that says (missing) has lost its target. See Drone events.

Some drones stay behind

The show has more drones than free slots, and the extra drones hold. Compare the slot total of the Formation Group with the number of drones on the Launch Pad.

Drones pass through each other

In the editing preview this is normal. Drones fly straight lines there. Bake the show to see the real routes.

The show looks old

You may be watching an older bake, or you may have edited since the last one. Check the version in the banner, then bake again.

"This baked show can’t be played (old or unavailable format). Exit and re-bake."

This version cannot be played any more. Click Exit and bake again.

The banner stays on "Buffering…"

The next part of the show has not arrived. Check your connection. Loading tries again as playback continues.

The Statistics panel shows text instead of numbers

The whole bake has to load first. Wait a moment.

"No baked show to analyse."

The Checks tab has no bake to read. Load a bake, or bake again.

I cannot edit anything

You are in Bake mode, which is read-only. Click Exit.

After Exit, I cannot see my slots

The viewport stays in Drones view. Click Slots in the top bar.

Colours

The drones fly but stay dark

This is normal. Drones stay dark until a colour clip lights them. Add a clip to a Colors channel. See Colours.

Video

Render video… is not in the Project menu

It appears only in Bake mode. The same goes for Flight paths… and Pyro report. Bake, or load a bake from the arrow next to Bake Show.

"Video export needs Chrome or Edge."

This browser cannot make the video. Open the project in Chrome or Edge.

Include audio is off and will not switch on

The dialog tells you why: there is no soundtrack, the audio is muted, or the browser cannot encode sound. See Sound.

"Cancel the export first"

You tried to close a dialog while it was exporting. Click Cancel, or wait for it to finish.

"Enter bake replay before exporting."

The export needs a loaded bake. Enter Bake mode and try again.

"The baked show has no duration to export."

The loaded bake has no length. Check that your show has clips, then bake again.

"The 3D viewport is not ready for export."

Wait a moment for the viewport to finish loading, then try again.

Flight files

A warning says pyro ignitions were skipped

An ignition could not be matched to a drone. See Pyro cues.

Some exported altitudes are below 0

Turn on Correct negative altitudes in the export dialog, and check the bounding box. See Correct negative altitudes.

The exported show faces a different way than in the viewport

The export removes the heading of the Show, so formations point forward. The preview in the dialog shows what is written to the files.

Pyro report

Nothing opens when I click Pyro report

Your browser probably blocked the new tab. Allow pop-ups for this site and try again.

The tables show only dashes

The Launch Pad has no pyro loadout. Fill in the Pyro loadout section, bake, and create the report again.

Importing and sharing

"Unsupported file"

The importer reads SVG files and images such as PNG and JPG. For an .fsf file, use Import formation… See Share formations.

"No usable paths/shapes found in that SVG"

The SVG has nothing the app can turn into curves. Open it in your drawing program and check that it holds vector shapes.

"Could not read the SVG file" or "Could not read the image file"

The file may be damaged. Save it again, or try another copy.

My imported image has no drones

An imported image is a reference plane for tracing, not a formation. Place a Point Cloud over it and edit the points.

"Not a valid formation file" or "Could not read that file"

The file is not a working .fsf file. Export it again from the original show.

"Nothing to export in that formation"

Select the Formation Group itself, then export again.

The import items in the Project menu are grey

Importing is disabled in Bake mode. Click Exit.

Map and Environment

"Turn on the 3D map first"

The flat map has no ground height to read. Turn on the 3D map. See 3D map.

"No map under the origin yet"

The map is still loading. Wait for it to appear, then try again.

"No coordinates found in clipboard"

Copy the coordinates again. The Paste button reads degrees, minutes and seconds, a Google Maps link, or latitude and longitude.

"Could not read clipboard"

The browser did not allow access to the clipboard. Allow it for this site, or type the coordinates.

"Viewport not ready"

The 3D view is still starting. Wait a moment and try again.

Audio

"This show already has an Audio element"

A show has one Audio element. Add clips to the one that exists. See Audio.

"That file has no readable audio duration" or "Could not load that audio file"

The browser could not read this audio file. Convert it to a common format, or try another file.

I cannot hear the soundtrack

Check the mute button in the timeline controls. Audio stays off until you unmute it.

Editing tools

"No centerline to convert"

Turn on Centerline on the SVG element, wait for it to compute, and try again.

"Link at least 3 points into a guideline first"

The point editor needs three or more linked points before it can distribute them.

"Pick at least one drone"

When you split drones from a path, choose at least one drone and leave at least one behind.