Sam Jones

It is likely that your wattage field is a text field and not a number field. If it is coming from a SpotLight "Lighting Device" it is a text field. There is no way to convert the value of a text field in a worksheet to a number, so you're screwed. A vectorscript could be written to fill out a custom worksheet, but this is non trivial. Send me your drawing with the worksheet you are trying to make, and I'll see if you have other options than the dead end I've described.

It's still on the list. I have been clobbered by the day job, and the need to do some fixes for earlier versions for VW 11 and 12. I think this tool will start relatively simple and be added to incrementally. This will pose a problem from one version to another, because as the fields in the OI palette change converting old versions of instances becomes problematic. Also, Nemetschek's major upgrade schedule has been lowered to a new major version every 12 months. If they keep that up, it will retard working on new commands. That said, hope to get a useable tool out this summer.

I just posted a new version 08.1 of AutoPlot Tools for SpotLight for VW 2008. It contains the following fixes, additions, and improvements. www.autoplotvw.com 53. Enter Data for Selected This is an old macro that has been updated to do the following: a) move the drawing to the fixture being edited and highlight it. b)New to the latest version there is a "Last (Back)" button. 59. Manually Circuit Assign This macro will assign circuit number values to each fixture you click on. . The macro will increment each time by the increment level you set. If you do NOT want to increment on the next click press the Space Bar (or any letter key). The circuit number will no longer increment until you press the Space Bar again. Click on nothing (something other than a fixture) to end the macro. 60. Manually Circuit Name Assign This macro will assign circuit name values (A1,A2,etc.) to each fixture you click on. . The macro will increment each time by the increment level you set. If you do NOT want to increment on the next click press the Space Bar (or any letter key). The channel number will no longer increment until you press the Space Bar again. Click on nothing (something other than a fixture) to end the macro. This macro will go to the next letter when the number of circuits per multicable would be exceeded. If the last multcable letter is "Z" the next multicable letter will be "AA".On Jan 26, 2008, at 8:34 AM, Scott Hennessy wrote: 62. Combine to User Field This macro will combine any two selected field values into a selected user field. It will give you the option to choose a separator character to separate the values if you wish. 65. Assign Channels Lft to Rt 66. Assign Channels Rt to Lft 67. Assign Channels Top to Bottom 68. Assign Channels Bottom to Top These macros will assign channel values to all the selected fixtures incrementing by a queried amount from fixture to fixture. The assignment will happen in the screen direction indicated. 69. Assign Dimmers Lft to Rt 70. Assign Dimmers Rt to Lft 71. Assign Dimmers Top to Bottom 72. Assign Dimmers Bottom to Top These macros will assign channel values to all the selected fixtures incrementing by a queried amount from fixture to fixture. The assignment will happen in the screen direction indicated. These commands know about and pay attention to the 512 barrier in DMX universes, so if your moving light attributes would cross the 512 border, the macro will start that unit in a new universe. 96. Swap Leg Field Places (All) This macro will swap the positions of two selected fields and do the swap for all label legends. 97. Swap Legend Field Places This macro will swap the positions of two selected fields and do the swap for selected label legends only. (These macros are older, but did not work consistently. Now they do.) 99. Copy Label Positions You can copy the label positions of a placed fixture into all the lights that are selected. For example, if you have moved the label positions on some boom units using the control points for each field, you can copy those positions to as many other boom positions as you desire.

Patrick posted this same quesition on the VW Theater list and I answered it there. Below is what I said In VW2008, you can sort by more than one field. 1. Select "Create Report..." from the Tools/Reports submenu. 2. Select "Objects with a Record" from the "List all:" drop down menu. 3. Select "Lighting Device" from the "Listing objects with record" drop down menu. 4. Select the columns you want to display. 5. Click the "OK" button. 6. When the worksheet appears, enlarge to taste. 7. Click on row 2. That is select all of row 2. Not row 2.1 and not row 1, but row 2. a. if row 2 does not appear, but row 2.1 does appear go to the drop down menu in the worksheet and be sure "Database Headers" is checked. 8. Row 2 is the Database Header. Once it is selected the little icons that look like cell phone bars will appear. 9. Select the sort up icon and drag it to the primary field you want to sort by. Place the icon on the column you've selected in the "Database Headers" row, row 2. 10. Do the same thing again with another sorting icon for your secondary sort field. 11. If you wish you can have a tertiary sort field. **** TRICK **** Since all the fields that you care about are text fields, the will only sort alphabetically. Be sure to include any "Alt-" fields in the worksheet if you want to numerically sort. i.e. Alt-Chan, Alt-Dim, Alt-Unit, Alt-Circ. Put the sorting icons in these columns to sort by Channel, Dimmer, Unit Number, and Circuit Number respectively. Once you have created this worksheet, you do not have to create it again as you make changes, but you do have to remember to occaisionally do a "Recalculate". You can make a worksheet for each kind of sort you desire and have them open at the same time. Version 08 of AutoPlot Tools for SpotLight (www.autoplotvw.com) has commands to make an editable Channel worksheet that is sorted by the appropriate "Alt-" fields with one menu selection, and a command for an editable Instrument Schedule worksheet appropriately sorted. If you desire, you can change the sort fields (where the sort icons are) in either of them.

You probably have to turn on the beam in the OI Palette. The beam buttons won't be available unless you have assigned a focus point to the fixture. Sam

Rick, It is unlikely that you will see an solution similar to automated actions and their menu access. This is because vectorscripts cannot call other vectorscripts, and vectorscripts cannot write vectorscripts, so there is no way to store the user assignments AND put those assignments in a menu choice. Spotlight has implemented the most reasonable and possible way to allow for total user freedom in field assignments. I wrote export and import routines that specify those assignments, so that the process would be faster and easier. When I first did this, I was pretty sure that there would be others who would want different match ups, but you're the first one to mention either here or on the Spotlight mailing list that you wish you could have different match ups. I'm sure you have good reasons for your match ups, and I would be very curious as to what those match ups are. Which brings up an interesting possibility. It would take me about an hour to modify export routine and an hour to modify the import routines to match your specifications. How much is it worth to you? Since you can use Spotlight's mapping file method, probably not much. Just a thought. On an additional note, The AutoPlot Tools for SpotLight automatically export the X coordinate. That's been handy for hanging charts.

I apologize for the commercial, and I've been biting my tongue (keyboard?), but since Steve brought it up. "AutoPlot Tools for SpotLight" greatly simplifies the import export process. Steps in the process, one command: "Export SpotLight Data (LW4)" and export done. "Automated actions" for LW4 are provided to import and export in and out of LW4. One command "Import SpotLight Data (LW4)" and import done. It also improves it. How about added lights showing up at their position instead of the orphan box? How about marking fixtures that have been eliminated? Many people use the "AP" or "AutoPlot" to refer to both "AutoPlot Tools for SpotLight" and "AutoPlotVW"; they are not the same. Rick, I think your dissatisfaction with number of symbols needed was with "AutoPlotVW"; take a look at "AutoPlot Tools for SpotLight". There are also many other useful commands in "AutoPlot Tools for SpotLight", but I'll let others chime in here if they want or start another thread on 3rd party add ons which would include Joshua Benghiat's "Beam Draw" and Andrew Dunning's "Video Screen". PS: Rick, if you really want extra fields, look at AutoPlotVW, but it would a require a major shift in paradigm, which you might not be up for.

I don't know if it's a bug or not, but you might try just placing symbols (duplicating array) and then converting the symbols to lighting instruments. HTH, Sam

When this happened to me, I opened it in VW2008 saved it, then exported to VW12.5. Everything worked. This looks to me like a corrupt file problem. You probably don't have a VW2008 lying around to use. First try opening a fresh file and workgroup referencing all the layers in the drawing. If that doesn't work, try exporting the file as Vectorscript and then importing the Vectorscript file. I'm sitting in tech rehearsal at the moment so I can't walk you through this, but the help files are pretty good. HTH

In VW 12, using the editable worksheet, sort by the "Alt" fields, e.g. Alt-Chan or Alt-Unit.

T W Marshall, There is no update as of yet. Work on this tool has been tabled until my other tools are updated to VW 2008. It is not forgotten, but it is down the road a bit. Sam

This is a long post sent to both the Stagecraft list and the VW Spotlight Tech Board, in response to a discussion about a VW Cable Tool. (It doesn't exist yet). From the VW SpotLight Board. 07/04/07 04:38 PM Re: Cable Plots [Re: MERV] chstech Sam, is this still a work in progress? i do not see anything on your website. All the best, Andy #82101 - Yesterday at 09:30 PM Re: Cable Plots [Re: chstech] eskramer Sam - Please post on stagecraft when this is done. This will save lots of time Eddie I currently have a 2D cable tool that I implemented after talking with a film electrician about power feeds. It's a path tool that has you draw a polyline and provides the following fields and calculations. 1 - a pop up menu from which to specify the AWG size of the cable (4/0, 2/0, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16) 2 - a pop up ment from which to specify voltage (110, 115, 120, 208, 220, other) 3 - a text field to specify the "other" voltage choice 4 - a text field to specify the maximum amperage for cable run 5 - a text field to specify number of conductors (usually 1 but more can be specified, which will effect voltage drop calculations. 6 - a display of the CM value for the AWG specified. 7 - a text field to specify the vertical distance that needs to be taken into account to calculate the cable run length. 8 - a display of the length of the cable run (the perimeter of the polyline + vertical distance field. 9 - a display of the voltage drop in volts for that length and size of cable. 10 - a display of the percentage of drop from the supplied voltage. 11 - a display of the voltage delivered to the end of the run. 12 - a field to specify a label for the cable. This label will be displayed at both ends of the polyline so that you can tell which end of the polyline goes to which other end. There are control points on each of the label text fields so that they can be moved. 13 - pop up menu to specify the text size of the labels. 14 - a check box to determine if you want the labels displayed or not. The cable object will recalculate its displays based on what you enter and change in the OI palette. I haven't posted this with any of my tools or separately on my web site, because at this point the path cannot be edited with the 2D reshape tool. You have to redraw the path if you want to change it. I hope to fix this soon. This was thought to be a tool primarily for feeder cable. (I know, how how many #16 AWG feeder cables have you seen?) However, it is mildly helpful if you want to see how badly you are taking it on the chin with those long extention cord runs. The tool will probably never be a 3D tool. It is way too much trouble to draw in 3D paths and even more trouble to edit them. All you really need to know is the relative elevations of your positions and obstacles (door jams) and their number and fill in the vertical distance field. If you want to use it, as is, let me know. From the discusssion on the VW Spotlight Tech board some have expressed the desire to draw cables in a manner that would allow them to take the shop orders of the drawing. I will address specific feature and record field requests below in response to , but first a word of caution. First, it will be extraordinarily rare for a designer to put that kind of detail into a drawing. (A cold day in hell might be a good description.) So, it will be left to the electricians who use VW to add this kind of detail to the drawing. The more you want to pull off a drawing, the more you have to put in it. If we provide tools to allow for creation of such detail in the drawing, there will that many more things to enter and draw, and, therefor, that many more things to forget or create errors with. An argument can be made that putting much of the information that has been requested in the drawing would not be any faster than editing that information in an Excel spreadsheet. There are differences of course, but finding those differences and optimizing which data and how that data gets entered (automated?) is the trick. How many production electricians are using VW to figure out their shop orders? Some? Certainly. Many? Probably not. Michael Creason creates incredibly detailed drawings with records attached to almost everything very little of the data is entered in an automated fashion. I really envy people who are that compulsive. They make fabulous electricians, programmers, and ALDs. If there was a good set of "cabling tools," perhaps more would be done. It also seems clear that a "set" of cabling tools would be the most efficient way to address different functions, e.g. a power feed tool, a multi cable tool, a portable cable and or jumper tool, control cable tool, and tools for audio cable. I am interested in trying to create these tools, but there is way too much on my plate right now, so the first version certainly won't be around for LDI, and probably not before the end of the year. Below is a discussion and some questions about the suggestions and features Diane Kesselschmidt mentioned in her post. On Jul 6, 2007, at 6:32 AM, Diana Kesselschmidt wrote: ... -breakin tail type Would you plan on typing this in, or should there be a default? -origin label for each break in tail (like circuit number but allowing letters as well as numbers) which defaults to spare when not filled in Are you really planning on patching from the drawing? Real question? -destination for each tail (multi A) which defaults to the multi it drops on like when you drop a unit on a position but you can still change it if you want and -origin for each break out (multi A) which defaults to the multi it drops on I doubt that there would be separate drawing entities for each tail, just fields in the OI palette. This would mean no dropping and therefore no defaults. -origin label for each regular cable or multi (ie touring rack X ckts 1-6) Which label goes on which end is a reasonable question. At first glance you might think that the position label would go at the position end of the multi and rack label at the rack, BUT. When you're looking at the end of the multi on the drawing you know its end is at a particular position, because that is where it is drawn to. You might want the rack number at the position and the position label at the rack, so you don't have to trace the line on the drawing. Essentially the labels indicate where a multi came from. If these fields are primarily intended for a spreadsheet or other listing then the reverse might be true. -number of lines per run (6 circuit multi versus other number of circuits--so if you have to chose bundles versus multi late in the prep based on shop availability it is an easy transition) I'm not clear on the functional difference between a bundle and a multi. One is made up of separate runs of SO cable. Would you need to know this so you can count those runs? -destination label for each regular cable or multi (ie FOH L Lekos) This makes sense as a field in the OI paletted for display in worksheets or lists, but why would you label the destination on the drawing? The cable ends at its destination on the drawing. The labels will take up some rapidly decreasing real estate on the drawing. -destination of each tail which defaults to spare when not filled in This should probably be a circuit number either a number or A1, A2, etc. -fields for break outs for tail length so that if you know you have a long tail or a staggered tail you can determine your small jumpers needed if you want to get into that much detail I would probably make this a single field that specifies length or "staggered." You would have to know your staggered lengths. -the ability to swap tails instead of automatically attaching them to a run is vital for when you have soco ins and connections so each tail should default to the cable run it is dropped on but you can change it -breakouts tail type --pretty much all of this can go in the object info box Yep, each multi gets a field for multi type (veam or soco [are there others], a field for break in (has it or not), and a field for break out. How to handle daisy chaining multis is unclear to me. -there should be a function to make these connections autofill the light info (execute function, click connection end, click unit= then the unit has that circuit number in its data ready to go, like when "manual" auto numbering) Not going to bother implementing this. Look at your LW paperwork. -the ability to do a fast count like when you get a count in an automated legend, compact so it fits nicely in a notes box, (with spare counts by location option) Counts of what? The counts could be put in a worksheet or text fields could be rearranged and resized. There is no way to know what qualifies as "compact" for each drawing let alone each electrician. -you should be able to place a mark at a point in your poly-line like a locus called "vertical cable point" or something that macros a 3D drop (-Z) or rise (+z) so the additional length is calculated in and those of us who use 3D can rotate the view and see that it works or fix it. A field for vertical rise or fall, certainly. An actual 3D object? I'm not going to bother. I tried to edit a 3D polyline once, for the cable tool described above. It's painful, and for me not worth the effort for the info I got out of it. -these must be colorable by class or layer and not be relegated to grey or something so different systems or cable types can be differentiated easily and perhaps the ability to run an auto generating key for this would be vital too This would mean not using symbols or only coloring by layer color, all of which is probably doable. -the previously described rounded-up report would be great! it must differentiate by type, length and breakouts must be counted by tail type In the beginning, I think the tool would just break a cable run into lengths drawn from a list of available multi lengths and portable SO cable lengths. Would such a tool be used by more than a few? Is it enough better than just reading the perimeter field of a polyline? Thanks for bothering to read this. Sam Samuel L. Jones Developer of: AutoPlotVW, AutoPlot Tools for SpotLight, and Chain Hoist Tools. sjones@arts.ucla.edu =============================================================

Is there any way to turn constraints off and back on using VS? I have tried setting Prefs 37 and 38, but they have no effect. I want to have the same effect as clicking on the squares in the constraints palette. Sam

While this could be done, it is not realistic to make a tool that would not be venue specific. Even then, the circuit locations would have to be indiviual objects probably with records attached. Is there in interest is a tool that would use a polyline to plot a cable path and return reports and info on all the paths drawn? I've already developed a cable tool that calculates voltage drop based on the length of a polyline and PIO parameters that include starting voltage and cable awg.

OK. I'm willing to add the tool to my collection. Think fantasy cable tool. What would the attached record have for fields? What would you want drawn on the plot? I'll see what I can come up with. Initially cable runs with a record attached should not be hard. You would have to fill out the record fields. A separate spreadsheet command could break the run into inventory lengths 100, 75, 50, 25, 10. It would have to take the maximum size, or perhaps all available sizes from some kind of preference record, but it's probably doable.

When using the duplicate array command you can choose whether to create the duplications tangent to the curve or to maintain the direction of the original. I used the former to distribute fixtures around the Mark Taper Forum's thrust stage, and I use the latter to distrbute fixtures on most curved FOH positions in proscenium houses. Unfortunately, the distribute tools in both AutoPlot and Spotlight only work on straight lines, thought the AutoPlot tools will let you rotate the distributed lights perpendicular to the distribution line.

Steve Shelly's Soft Symbols has all of these with hash marks and correct fixture info. Check out the Soft Symbols ETC update and the USITT update.

How would the tool you are looking for differ from a polyline or polygon tool? Both of these give you the perimeter measurement which is equivalent to the segment length total.

Spotlight is useful when making lighting plots using theatrical fixtures. There are many booth and convention exhibit designers in the U.S. that use it. Gobos are cut out (professionally etched in most cases) patterns made of thin steel that are placed near the focal plane of ellipsoidal reflector spotlights (ERSs) the result is the pattern in the gobo is projected on the surface that the ERS is pointing at. There are certain limits to the patterns (no unattached hanging elements) that can be used as gobos. If you want to include slide or data projectors in your designs, there is a very cool tool called Video Screen 2.13 available at www.landrdesign.com. It does not require Spotlight for use. I don't know if it's worth it for you to try and learn Spotlight. Most of it will not be of use to you for boutiques and art galleries, but it is the only way I know of rendering pattern projections (gobos) HTH, Sam sjones@arts.ucla.edu www.autoplotvw.com

Actually, SROSS got the script from me Sam Jones, the developer of AutoPlot Tools for SpotLight (APSL) and AutoPlotVW, www.autoplotvw.com. Joshua Benghiat is a lighting designer and talented vectorscript programmer who wrote Beam Draw and Plot Tools; more on those later. The macro I sent put the X coordinate in a user field. Petri is correct about the possibility of forgetting to use the macro before exporting. However, exporting a worksheet to Lightwright(LW) is of limited value, because LW and SpotLight(SL) handle accessories and devices in completely different manners. Special processing is needed to correctly go to LW. SL provides a special export function for LW, but it does not include the X coordinate as an option. APSL has an export function to LW that exports the X coordinate without using up a user field. This does not display on the plot at all. In APSL, there are dimensioning tools and tools for cleaning up fixture placement (avoiding dimensions like 5'-4 5/8") for placing dimensions on the plot. By the way, Josh Benghiat's "Beam Draw" tool is very cool and can display par beams with their correct shape. You can use this tool with or without SL, www.benghiatlighting.com Josh's "Plot Tools" and my "AutoPlotVW" are systems for making light plots that are completely separate from SpotLight.

For those of you who have been asking for an editable SpotLight worksheet that can be sorted by 2 fields, I have posted a new version of AutoPlot Tools for SpotLight (version 4.5). It has 3 new commands: Make Editable APSL WKS Read Editable APSL WKS Sort Editable APSL WKS Let me know if you have any questions.

Mickey, 12.5 is just out. No 2 field sorting. A 3rd party solution to that will be available shortly. Till then, you will find that you can sort Channels, Dimmers, Circuit Numbers, and Unit Numbers, by using the "Alt-" fields. This will sort the numbers correctly. The most useful sort, for now, is select all the units in one position and then make a worksheet sorted by "Alt-Unit". HTH

If Nemetschek doesn't do it in 12.5, I will, but it will be part of AutoPlot Tools for SpotLight. I think a much better solution would be for Nemetschek to make the worksheet reports interactive with the database records they display. That way you could have as much sorting as you wanted, and you wouldn't have to run a second macro to assign the changes you've made to the lights. It would also apply to any record, so that all the users of VW would benefit.

I've already responded to chstech, but for those who also care. Here's my take. It is very difficult to come up with an algorithm that will number CW or CCW. It is possible to make an algorithm for any activity that can be broken down into steps, but the agorithm for this would be long, complex and may require as much or more user interaction than just numbering the top half lft to rt and the bottom half rt to lft. A numbering macro is essentially a macro that sorts the lights by certain criteria and then assigns numbers starting at the top of the list by a given increment. Think about it; do you allow the user to start anywhere on the circle? If you do, can you describe in English the rules for sorting the the lights? If you restrict the user to picking lights at the cardinal directions of the drawing, top, right, bottom, left, applied to the circle, you will have a different set of rules for each direction. Constructing the 4 rules for the 4 CW macros and the the 4 rules for the 4 CCW macros would be possible (I've thought about it some), but I'm not sure it's worth the trouble.

Now that I'm back from a fabulous backpacking trip in the Clark range..... If the individual flipping of units is what you need, go to www.autoplotvw.com and download "AutoPlot Tools for SpotLight". The package contains, among other things, 2 commands, "Flip Each Object Horiz" and "Flip Each Object Vert" which do exactly what you want. It's shareware, so if you find it useful, please register.