Crestron Studio™ 1.32 Release Notes
A letter from the Software Development Platforms Technology Manager
Dear Crestron Studio User,
It's been a year since the last Studio release, and as you probably know, that is an eternity here at Crestron. For that reason, I wanted to take a moment and personally let you know what we’ve been up to and why things seem to be taking so long.
Rest assured Studio is alive and well with a host of new and exciting features and capabilities. Our primary focus this year was to make sure the bugs were removed to ensure platform stability and improving application speed. With that focus, we had to make some hard decisions with respect to feature additions vs performance. Our choices were based on the mission to provide Studio a solid foundation that you can trust. With its firm foundation, Studio has an exciting future planned with many great things to come.
In this release, performance is also greatly improved. The touch screen designer performance is exponentially faster than the previous release and program build times are improved. There are still parts of the application that are slower than we like, as well as some extended build times, but the team is hard at work and won’t rest until we reach our goals.
This new edition of Studio has a comprehensive list of current Crestron devices, as well as the capability of adding support for new devices much faster. One of the best features includes automatically generating great looking Smart Graphics touch screens and automatically connecting default programming, which means a large time savings to get these types of systems up and running from scratch. For the hard-core SIMPL programmer, you are not going to see as many new things in this release for you. That is why SIMPL and VTPro-e are both still moving forward for the foreseeable future, and can remain your primary development platforms.
The Road Ahead
While we now have a tool that is more reliable, faster, and can build some great looking systems we realize our work is far from done. Studio has a boundless future ahead and we will now have more frequent feature releases. We have an extended “to-do” list, a list that many of you have helped us create. I thank you for all for your patience, thoughtful suggestions, and useful feedback. I assure you that these suggestions are not lost and we are working to add much more to the Studio platform in the future. My goal is to be able to get these requests rolled out much faster than in the past, and to ensure the platform will become more and more robust with every subsequent update.
Thank you,
Jason Oster
Technology Manager, Software Development Platforms
Introduction
- Crestron Studio™ is Crestron's advanced programming application with the following features:
- Screen Designers for Smart Graphics projects and for MLX-3 type list based screens
- Screen Designer/Programming Designer integration.
- Ability to import Smart Graphics™ VTPro projects.
- Custom Macro style programming dialog for events, keypads, touch screens. Includes global macros, variable editor, scheduler, as well as assigning device commands, conditionals, delays, etc. Visual callout programming dialog in Touch Screen Designer.
- Automated page and program generation if desired, with touch screen pages completely redesigned and based on Smart Graphics
- Programming Designer full functionality, with ability to import SIMPL Windows™ programs
- Finish View: Build, upload, Network Setup Wizard.
- Ability to combine generated programs and SIMPL programs
- Full content of Device and Crestron databases is imported and available.
- The following sections are available in the release notes:
Required Firmware/Software
- Released Toolbox version 2.38.823.14 or later.
- 3-Series firmware version 1.010.0060 or later.
- Smart Graphics™ Controls version 2.06.04.06 or later.
- The following are needed ONLY if you intend to import modules/programs/VTZ files into Crestron Studio:
- SIMPL Windows™ 4.02.56 or later: You MUST use this version or later to save/compile any modules/programs.
- VTPro™ 5.6.06.00 or later: You MUST use this version or later to compile Smart Graphics™ projects into a VTZ for import. Version 5.2 fixes additional bugs.
New Features
- New Features for 1.32.043:
Generates touchscreen layouts and programming for additional Smart Graphics UIs, including MLX-3 and Crestron App templates (both for Tablets and for Phones)
Home Screen Editor
Basic Pyng Integration
Selection, per touch screen, for visible Rooms and Sources
Source Routes - Continued refinement and additional device support
Improved speed
Improved memory management
Touch Screen designer includes the ability to show join numbers and click assign of all join types
Language culture locked to English, to prevent issues in non-English versions of Windows.
Totally new Smart Graphics pages and custom modules for a system composed of Media Zones and Lighting Zones. Zones may only be used on 3-Series control systems.
Automatic page and program generation.
Pages can be modified manually after generation.
Visual page generation without programming can be done in manual systems
Page Generation Assistant is available to enable precise control of page generation
Page templates are for Smart Graphics touch screens and MLX-3.
Source Routing View: Specify audio/video paths through system. Switching will automatically configure the devices.
Added support for HR-100, HR-150, and TSR-302.
NOTE: As of this release HR-100 and HR-150 buttons will not have programming automatically assigned, but through the macro editor you can assign programming to each button.
Added Device Designer to allow definition of a device separately from a module.
Notes on current system limitations for automatic program generation:
Receivers and displays are limited to the following rules:
- Only 1 zone/output is supported.
- Breakaway of audio and video signals is not supported.
- No device feedback is supported; commands will only be sent from the program to the device.
- The device should be off when the program starts in order to remain synchronized.
- The following triggers are available from the program to the device: Power On, Power Off, Power Off Confirmation, Volume Up, Volume Down, Mute Toggle, Input selection (10 different inputs)
"Do not disturb" has no effect.
Media module commands, feedback items, and parameters may have missing or inaccurate descriptions.
Bugs Fixed
- Bugs Fixed for 1.32.043:
- Addressed multiple exceptions
- Addressed multiple memory leaks
- Update templates to include all Pyng subsystems
Included Data
- The included data represents data equivalent to Device Database 61.00.002 and Crestron Database 48.05.003.
- All data packages, including Discontinued packages, have been updated on the default Crestron download location.
Known Issues
Crestron Studio™
- If you are running 64-bit Windows™ 7 versions, about twice as much memory is now available to the application for use. There are warnings that will caution you when memory usage is getting too high, so that you may take precautions like closing Designers and saving your program.
- You must run as administrator for now, due to some issues with the Microsoft signing dll, capicom.dll.
- If you encounter an exception during program generation, close CS without saving. Then re-start CS and try again. Data about your exception will be uploaded to a Crestron server, so that we may better understand and fix bugs.
- There are a few PCs where SQL Express™ does not immediately begin running, causing the install to appear to fail. Restarting the PC will usually start SQL. Do NOT uninstall and reinstall SQL Express unless Crestron Tech Support tells you to.
- Studio cannot install on some PCs that enable the security setting "System Cryptography".
- Installs under Windows™ 8.1 may not succeed the first time. Wait for .NET Framework™ and SQL to finish installing - they are initiated by our install. Then run our install again.
- Devices not yet supported with modules: HDXSP, HD-XSPA, DM-MD64x64, DMC-VID4
Program Designer
- SIMPL+ Editor keystrokes show a noticeable delay when Touch Screen Designer is open, and to a much lesser extent if other designers are open. For optimal performance, close Touch Screen Designer, or for even better performance, restart Crestron Studio and run only the SIMPL+™ Editor.
Theme Editor
- Turn off restore points when working with the Theme Editor.
System Requirements
Supported Operating Systems:
- Windows™ 7, 32 or 64 bit platforms supported when installed and run on an account with administrative privileges and XP Compatibility mode turned OFF. We recommend 64-bit platforms because additional memory is available to the Crestron Studio application. DirectX™ 9 must be supported by the video drivers.
- Has been tested running on VMWare™ virtual machines.
- Has been tested running on Parallels™
Recommended PC Configuration:
- i7 processor with 8GB RAM
- Solid state drive
Trademarks:
- SQL Express, DirectX, .NET Framework, Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.
- VMWare is a trademark of VMWare Inc.
- Parallels is a trademark of Parallels IP Holdings GmbH.
- Crestron Studio, Crestron App, SIMPL Windows, VTPro, SystemBuilder, and D3 Pro are trademarks of Crestron Electronics Inc.
