Once the Fast Clock Server is enabled and running, it multicasts time messages containing the current fast clock time and the current “time zone.” See About Layout Time for more information about LCOS Fast Clock time. Layout time is an advanced feature of LCOS that can be activated at any time.
CLIENT nodes can respond to layout time messages in two ways:
- Time Triggers can cause a CLIENT to perform specific actions at a specific layout time; and
- Time Zones allow a CLIENT to set and change scenic elements for different periods of the day.
Layout Time Tool
To access layout time functions, navigate to a CLIENT and, in the main window, click Layout Time to invoke the Client Layout Time tool.
The top section has a row of buttons with time zone labels. Clicking one of those buttons invokes the Time Zone Settings window. See below.
Time Triggers
To create a new Time Trigger, click 
. A new trigger at default time 06:00 will be created and loaded into the edit area.
Use the Hour and Minute drop-down lists to set the time for this trigger.
A Time Trigger can manipulate 1 or 2 objects. An object can be one of four types:
- Port — any single digital output port.
- Relay — any single relay object.
- Scene — any Scene Object.
- Control — any Control Object bound to virtual port 128.
After you select an object type, the selector on the right will auto-populate with appropriate objects, if any are available. To the right of the selector is a state slider with two positions:
- Activate — on a port or scene object, this option means turn the object ON. On a Control, this will trigger the ON event. On a Relay, this option means the relay will be set to its ALTERNATE state.
- Deactivate — this option turns a port or scene object OFF, triggers the OFF event for a control, or resets a relay to its default state.
Time Zone Settings
Time Zones work exclusively with Scene Objects to help replicate the passage of time on a layout. Use them to have lighting and other scenic elements change as a fast clock day progresses.
To set scene objects for a particular time zone, click on the zone button at the top of the Layout Time tool.
You can select up to 4 scene objects to activate or deactivate for a time zone. Time Zone Settings are applied by a CLIENT when it detects that the current time zone has changed. Accordingly, the settings are applied only once at each change.
Other controls could change the same Scene Objects; time zone settings are lowest priority and therefore will not restore themselves once changed another way.