Workspace Configuration

Instructor-only material. Not published to academy.photorobot.io public site.

Delivery context

Workspace configuration is the first “you do things, not just understand things” module in the Operator track. b01-B04 were conceptual or diagnostic — B05 is where students sit at CAPP and produce a working workspace they could use in production tomorrow.

This makes B05 the most hands-on-dependent module so far. Online delivery without lab access is harder than for previous modules; if you can run it in PhotoRobot Studio Praha or on-site at the customer, you’ll get dramatically better outcomes than over screen-share.

Calibration: ask the class their CAPP experience. New operators have never opened CAPP — start in Sample Workspace. Experienced users (people moving from BASIP, transferring between studios) skip Section 2 and dive into the order-of-operations.

Time allocation (75-min textbook + 30-45 min workbook + hands-on)

Textbook block (75 min)

Workbook block (30-45 min)

Exercises 1-4 (15 min): quick group / individual exercises. Exercise 5 (15-25 min): full workspace setup brief — sort 10 steps in correct order. This is the integrative test. Do it together on whiteboard. Exercises 6-7 (5-10 min): lights decision + pre-flight checklist.

Hands-on block (separate, 30-60 min if hardware available)

Each student creates their own workspace from scratch in CAPP, with at least one robot + one camera + one light. Instructor walks the room, helping.

Live demo points

This module REQUIRES live demos. Don’t skip them.

1. (Sample Workspace, ~5 min) — Open CAPP, navigate to Sample Workspace, show the virtual robots. “This is what we work with for the rest of this module — no need to be afraid of breaking anything.”

2. (Add Robot flow, ~10 min) — Switch to a real workspace (or new empty). Click “Add robot” — show what an empty discovery looks like. Then power on a Control Unit; in a minute, it appears in the list. Add it. Then deliberately power off the unit; show what happens (gray dot in Locator, disappears from “Add robot” list). Power back on, refresh.

3. (Fast-Shot with physical cable, ~10 min) — Bring both PhotoRobot and third-party shutter cables to class. Show the visual difference. Demo configuring Slot 2 for PhotoRobot cable, Slot 1 for third-party. Show what happens with mismatched slot (camera doesn’t trigger — silent failure). Then correct. Students remember this for life because of the silent-failure demo.

4. (LaserBox, ~10 min) — If a LaserBox is available, walk through adding it. If not, use screenshots / video.

5. (Camera angle, ~10 min) — Add a fixed-mount camera to the workspace. Run auto-centering BEFORE setting the angle (it fails — show students the misaligned crop). Then set the angle correctly. Re-run auto-centering. Success. The “before/after” demo cements why angle setting is mandatory.

6. (Lights, ~15 min) — Show Broncolor flow. Show FOMEI LAN flow (if equipment available). Show DMX LED with two channels. Skip FOMEI USB unless students will encounter legacy installs.

If delivering online without lab access: use pre-recorded videos of all 6 demos. Workspace is inherently visual — text won’t substitute.

Common mistakes / misunderstandings to anticipate

“I’ll just modify my workspace later if needed”

Reframe: workspaces represent production-ready configurations. Modifying mid-shoot risks: wrong preset applied, light command going to wrong group, camera triggers misaligned with rotation. Create new workspaces for new setups; modify only for incremental same-paradigm additions (one more camera, etc).

“Slot 1 vs Slot 2 — does it really matter?”

Yes, and the failure mode is silent. Demo this in class (per live demo point 3). Once students see the silent failure, they remember.

“Why does my fixed camera need angle setting if it’s just pointing at the table?”

CAPP doesn’t know geometric relationship between camera and turntable without explicit input. Setting angle = telling CAPP “the camera is at X degrees relative to the table normal, distance Y from rotation center.” Auto-centering math depends on this. Swing-capable robots (Robotic Arm) calculate it dynamically because they move through known positions.

“Broncolor vs FOMEI vs DMX — which is best?”

Reframe: customer already has lights. Don’t sell them on switching. Configure for what they have. If they’re buying new: Broncolor is premium, FOMEI is mid-range, DMX LED is flexible. The choice is made elsewhere (sales / customer preference); your job is configure correctly.

“USB dongle is fine, my old install works”

For now, yes. But macOS updates will break it. Recommend migration to LAN Transceiver during next scheduled customer visit. Don’t force urgency if production is stable, but plan ahead.

“Add robot list is empty — locator says units are there”

Common confusion: Locator shows units on the network; “Add robot” shows units NOT yet in this workspace. If a unit is already in another workspace (active or saved), it may not appear. Verify: remove the unit from the other workspace, then re-scan.

Q&A anticipation

1. “How many robots can a single workspace have?” Answer: No hard limit documented. Practical limit: ~10 robots per workspace before UI becomes unwieldy. Large multi-bay studios usually run multiple workspaces (one per bay).

2. “Can two computers share a workspace?” Answer: Workspace definitions are local to each CAPP instance. Cloud version sync may exist for larger installations — check current CAPP version. Generally: 1 computer per workspace at a time.

3. “What if I delete a workspace by mistake?” Answer: No built-in recovery. Backup workspace configurations by exporting (if CAPP supports) or by documenting the setup externally. For production-critical workspaces, this is studio manager responsibility.

4. “Do I need to set up the workspace before connecting hardware, or after?” Answer: Connect hardware first (robot online, camera USB plugged in, lights powered). THEN create workspace and add discovered hardware. Empty workspace + “Add robot” with no robots online = empty list = confusion.

5. “Can the workspace contain hardware on different subnets?” Answer: No. B03 + B04 cover the subnet requirement. All Control Units + the computer running CAPP must be on the same subnet for discovery. Workspace inherits this constraint.

Workbook discussion plan

Diagnostic — is the student ready for B06?

Critical signal: Exercise 5 performance. If they can sort the 10 steps in canonical order from memory after the textbook session, they’ve internalized the model. If they need to look it up, work through one more practical workspace setup in class before B06.

Materials needed

• Slides — canonical setup flow diagram, shutter cable Slot 1/2 visual, lights paths comparison
• Lab computer with CAPP installed
• At least 2 Control Units (different models if possible — e.g., Cube V6 + Robotic Arm V8)
• At least 2 cameras (Canon DSLR + Canon mirrorless ideally)
• Both PhotoRobot and third-party shutter cables (for slot demo)
• LaserBox (20-port or 4-port — for Section 6.2/6.3 demo)
• Lights from at least one supported category (Broncolor / FOMEI / DMX LED)
• Workbook printed / PDF — one per student
• Module knowledge check ready

Notes for refresh delivery

Workspace setup is a daily skill — most operators retain it. Refresh focuses on:

• New CAPP features added since student’s original training (workspace UI evolves)
• New hardware models added to PhotoRobot lineup (new robots, new Control Unit generations)
• Edge cases the student didn’t encounter in their day-to-day (e.g., LaserBox setup if their studio doesn’t use one)

Refresh delivery: 30-45 min textbook scan + Exercise 5 re-run as diagnostic.