Export for QLab

In the Cues view of the Tech tab, Export for QLab turns the cue sheet into a cue list for QLab 5 — scenes, lighting, mic, sound and projection cues in running order, with the audio, images and video each one plays. The same export is on the Reports tab as Cue List for QLab. Anyone who can open the cue sheet can download it (the board operator is usually run crew); changing its settings needs cue-editing access.

Being rolled out: this is switched on account by account. If you don't see it on your cue sheet, it isn't on for your account or company yet — ask support to turn it on.

What you download

One folder, named for the show: your media in audio and video, the cue list, a script called Build in QLab, and a READ ME. CueCall doesn't write a QLab workspace file — the script builds the cues inside a workspace you open in QLab, using QLab's own scripting.

1. Consoles

  • Lighting cues: choose how QLab tells your console to go — an ETC Eos console over OSC, another console over an OSC message you write, MIDI Show Control, empty QLab Light cues, placeholders only, or leave lighting out. A lighting cue sends its own number: LX 12 fires cue 12.
  • Blackout cue: a lighting cue with no number can't tell the console anything, so it becomes a placeholder. The exception is a cue described as a blackout: enter the console cue your blackout lives in (often 0) and those cues fire it.
  • Mic cues: placeholders only, an OSC message per mic to your mixer, a command that runs on the QLab Mac with the mic numbers, or leave them out. A mic swap is always a placeholder — nobody can do one from a console. A cue that names a mic group sends one message for each mic in it.
  • Mic levels: if your mixer takes a level over OSC, add a level message and say what value Low and Loud are on your mixer. A mic cue marked Low or Loud then sends the level as well as turning the mic on. Left blank, the level appears in the cue's name only.
  • Mic groups: the show's groups can be edited here too. A cue naming a group with no mics in it yet is listed under what needs attention.
  • Projections: each projection takes the previous one down, as a cut or as a crossfade of the length you set.
  • Layout: a group per scene, a divider per scene, or one flat list; CueCall's cue numbers, 1-2-3 numbering, or none; department colours; and whether fly, deck, automation and spot cues appear as placeholders.

Until someone chooses otherwise, lighting and mic cues are placeholders, so a first export never sends anything to a console.

2. Media

  • Automatic: a sound cue linked to a song plays that song's Performance track — only that. The song's own audio file and its rehearsal tracks are never picked automatically; a song with no performance track leaves the cue needing a file, which you can choose by hand. A video cue plays its scene's projection when the scene has exactly one.
  • Choose a file: pick any audio file for a sound cue, or any image, video or projection for a video cue, from the files on the show. The same choice is on the cue's own form, as Plays
  • Upload: if the file isn't on the show yet, upload it from the cue's row. It's added to the show's files (under Sound or Projections) and linked to the cue in one step. Uploading needs file-upload access as well as cue-editing access.
  • Nothing: for a cue QLab doesn't play — a number the band plays live, say — so it doesn't go out with a rehearsal track attached.
  • Needs a file: a cue with nothing to play is still built, and is listed so you can fix it.

The package only carries files you can open yourself. If a file is restricted to roles you don't hold, its cue shows as needing a file in your export.

3. Download, then in QLab

  • Download package: everything, media included. Without media is the quick one when only the cues changed.
  • Save to a folder: in Chrome or Edge, writes the same folder straight to a place you pick — no ZIP to unpack and no size limit. It skips media that is already there, so it's also the quick way to update, and if it's interrupted, saving to the same folder again picks up where it stopped.
  • Big shows: one ZIP carries up to 1GB of media. Past that, use Save to a folder. In Safari or Firefox, download the package without media and then each file from the list in the dialog.
  • Build: unzip on the Mac that runs QLab, open a new workspace in QLab (File → New Workspace), double-click Build in QLab and press Run. The first time, macOS asks whether Script Editor may control QLab — choose OK. The script names the workspace and asks before it changes anything.
  • Save where it offers: the script saves the workspace into the package folder. Keeping the workspace beside its audio and video folders is what keeps the media linked when the folder moves to another Mac.
  • The report: it finishes with a summary and a CueCall build report listing media it couldn't find, cues that need a look, cues QLab marks as not ready, and what's left to set up in QLab — the network or MIDI patch for your console, levels, the projector.

When the cues change

Download again, replace the files in the folder, open your saved workspace and run the script again — it offers Update

  • Changed to match CueCall: cue numbers, names, notes, linked files and console messages. New cues are added in place.
  • Left alone: levels, video geometry, patches, colours, and any cue you added by hand.
  • Timing: a pre-wait, a fade length or an auto-continue you set in QLab is kept. The exception is a cue whose timing was changed in CueCall since the last build — then CueCall's timing is applied to that cue, and only that cue.
  • Removed cues: a cue deleted in CueCall is disarmed and labelled [REMOVED], not deleted, so nothing you set on it is lost.
  • Cues that change kind: if a placeholder becomes a console message (or the other way round), the old placeholder or message cue is replaced. Audio, video, fade and light cues are never deleted.
  • Your own notes: each cue's notes end with a line like [cuecall:…], which is how an update finds the cue. Anything you type below that line is kept; leave the line itself in place.

What you need

QLab 5 on a Mac. Your QLab licence decides which cue types it will run — a cue it won't run shows a red X in QLab, and the build report lists it.

QLab® is a registered trademark of Figure 53, LLC. CueCall is not affiliated with or endorsed by Figure 53.

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