Why Focal Points?
On many moving heads, each optical element sits at a slightly different distance behind the lens, so a focus that's crisp for one gobo wheel looks soft for another — and adding a prism shifts it again. Focal Points lets you set the right focus once per element. From then on DMXDesktop applies the correct focus automatically whenever that element is used, so your beams stay sharp without manual tweaking mid-show.
Opening Focal Points
Open the menu on a moving-head fixture and choose Focal Points. The option appears for fixtures that have a focus channel plus at least one gobo wheel, prism, animation wheel or zoom.
Quick calibration (fixtures without zoom)
For each beam element listed, click Preview to project it live on the real fixture, drag the focus slider until the beam is sharp, then click Set focal point. A green tick and value confirm it's saved. Click Stop to release the fixture, and Done when you've calibrated each element.
Zoom-aware calibration (the wizard)
If the fixture has a zoom channel, focus changes as the beam zooms, so DMXDesktop opens a guided wizard. Pick an element on the left — Base (open beam), each gobo wheel, prism and so on — then work across the zoom steps (Zoom 0, 64, 128, 192, 255). For each step, ramp the focus, hit Sharp when the beam is crisp, nudge by ±1 or ±5 if needed, and Save. The app builds a focus curve across the zoom range and fills in everything in between. Use Add point if a particular zoom needs extra precision. A note appears if the fixture has frost, which releases auto-focus while it's engaged.
Combination corrections (advanced)
Some elements focus differently when used together — say a gobo plus a prism. Expand Combination corrections (advanced), tick two or more elements that can be on at the same time, click Calibrate selected combination, and save a point or two. These fine-tune the rare cases where the standard curves aren't quite right — most rigs never need them.
Re-use across your rig
Calibrated one fixture? Click Apply to matching Fixtures to copy every focal point to identical fixtures in the same show. Use Clear all to start over.
Where your focus is used
Once set, your focal points apply automatically in cues, effects, DJ and automatic shows, and Timeline playback. If you ever set focus manually or program it into a cue, that always wins — Focal Points only fills in the focus when nothing else has. See also the Pan/Tilt Finder for aiming your movers.