James Russell

It's more the referencing fact that I'm after than the example. I have a lot of data relating to the lights position and features that I want to translate across to the accessory upon insertion. Even if the data was in a record and somehow making the record of the accessory reference or like a paste special field, so it copies whatever the reference is. There's no way to type formula into a record field is there? J

Is there a way when I insert and accessory I can give it the ability to reference a field of the lamp that it is attaching to and fill one of the record fields it has. Eg. Attaching a barndoor to 1.2K fresnel which has a frame size of 181mm. The field "Frame Size" already has this data on the 1.2K fresnel, can I upon insertion of this barndoor make it reference the lamp it is being attached to and fill its "frame Size" field with that same value?

Thankyou guys, I had misunderstood the features of Autoplot. I will have to investigate it much further. Cheers, James

Unfortunately there are two flaws in using the AutoPlot. I already have a symbol set based on the instruments provided by spotlight and I need to be able to attach any accessory to the fixture, including built custom accessories. I've been searching over the web trying to find a guide which will show how to write repetitive scripts for attaching or creating but haven't found one which is going be adaptable. In plain language I would think it would be possible to do a custom selection of some sort, choose the accessory from the resource browser and then it would just run the attach accessory script for each placing the accessory on/ close to the front of the lamp. Still searching, J

Mmm... I think I may have to. J

It would be rather cool to import speakers into designs and be able to view outputs, approximate ranges, overlaps, and test Db levels at any place upon your drawing. I think it would have to be a series of tools, to map coverage and for different tests/views. Cool idea, as for the need unsure, I'd definitely play with it though. J

I wish to attach a set of barndoors to 50 individual fixtures... quickly not indiviually . How? J

I think that's it...!

Woohooo =SUM('Lighting Device'.'Fixture ID'='Lighting Device'.'Fixture ID') Just managed to do the quantity... Now the hard part.

I've been working on this worksheet for a while now. It's generated from the basic instrument report. Basically I need to filter it but just can quite get it there. At the moment the lights are put into categories of the same type A1, A2, B1, B4, D3, etc. These lamps need to be grouped together and if there are multiples they need to be noted a quantity in a new column at the start of the spreadsheet. This part is fine manageable I believe, throw the Sum on top of the column Fixture ID and I'm guessing although I mightn't be able to do it, create the new quantity column and then a lookup of some sort applied. The major issue is that each of these lamps may have up to 4 accessories on them. These accessories need to be listed under each of the Fixtures ID's they are relevant to and tallied in the quantity column as well. For the example I am playing with the eventual outcome I would love is something like this: Any help would be greatly appreciated. Cheers James

Hey all, So I am attempting to create my own instrument insertion tool much like the existing spotlight insertion tool. The story thus far is that I have duplicated the lighting device plugin and modified the user fields and several other bits and pieces and wish to use this in conjunction with having the old original style ready to use. The plan as I see it would be to have two insertion tools, one which references the Lighting Device regular and one which references my new Lighting Device. I'm guessing that I would have to duplicate the Instrument Insertion Tool script, rename and change a value of some sort to reference inserting the new device but unfortunately the code is locked on this. Anyone have a work around? James

Thanks, that is absolutely perfect!

XCenter(criteria) The center of objects in the X direction =XCenter (n='board') YCenter(criteria) The center of objects in the Y direction =YCenter (n='board') ZCenter(criteria) The center of objects in the Z direction =ZCenter(n='board') Hope that helps, I've been using http://download2.nemetschek.net/www_misc/2009/getting_started/landmark/VWHelp/Vectorworks%20Fundamentals/wwhelp/wwhimpl/common/html/wwhelp.htm#context=Vectorworks_Fundamentals&file=18_WorksheetDatabase.19.8.html for that kind of stuff. James

I'm loving the database lookup that I've just recently (thanks Michaelk for the lookup assist) created for a plan I am currently working on. The only issue I have currently is that I want to rename the User Field 1 - 6 within the Lighting Device Info. Is there any way to change these field headings to Cost, Filter, etc. If this is impossible is there a way to make a new record for my lamps with the required fields and merge the values into a current worksheet? Almost like looking up all Instruments, listing their regular data from the general Lighting Device data and then in the next set of columns listing the new data from a separate record. Ponderingly, James

Michael, Works a treat. Decided to go round the create a record method, which already had the lighting device lookup nicely formatted and organised, then just added the secondary clause. Looks great having curtains on specific bars and changing the dead heights at will. Thanks for the advice, James

Within a drawing I am currently working on I wish to build a group curtains as objects which can be hung on lighting positions as you would a standard spotlight fixture. I can create the curtain fixture as a symbol and hang it as a lighting object the only issue is it then comes up in the LX count amongst the 300 odd lamps already in the rig. Any suggestions on how to a) make the curtain hang to a lighting position object yet not be counted within the lamp count (a dead object basically) or b) count these curtain objects in a separate count and removing them from the lamp count (a separate curtain counter if you will). Cheers, James

Redrawing the state theatre plans... urgh!

Respect Josh. Sounds exactly what I need thankyou. Cheers, James

I am attempting to create 92 fly bars in a theatre which I am drawing at the moment. I have created a bar Symbol which I intend to use as the Lighting Position Object for each of these fly bars. Does anyone have a method which will allow me to insert these bars easily and also automatically give them logical position names, eg. LX 1, LX 2, LX 3, etc. I could easily insert 92 of them and distribute evenly but how could the position names be incremental? Cheers, James