James Russell

Hysterical blindness... oh I'm so there! But seriously nice script Pat, even just from a layout/efficient code perspective. *General thanks* J

Maarten, I knew there'd have to be one. Thanks. J

Nicholas, I've found the Area Light to be quite handy for what I believe you are trying to achieve. I recently did a whole heap of led panel work with low res screens. Just make a polygon of any type, presumably in your case a rectangle, and choose Modify>Convert>Convert to Area Light. You'll get some options about direction and output. Have a play. I'll find some image if I can. Hope that helps. Cheers, J

Hey all, Writing some custom scripts at the moment. When you're using the polyline tool and you hit the u key it cycles through the possible curve options for that tool. Is there a way whilst in a script I could hit a key, for example the + key and the script could increase or decrease an integer? In my head it would be like this: h:= Getkeypress; {in loop or pause?} If h=107 Then IntVal:=IntVal+1; {where 107 is the key value of + on numpad} If h=109 Then IntVal:=IntVal-1; {where 106 is the key value of - on numpad} Now that's not real code but is there an equivalent in VS? Cheers, James

Hey all, I just used the create custom tool script to make this: Procedure CustTool; VAR Name:STRING; Result:BOOLEAN; BEGIN PushAttrs; FillBack(256); FillFore(257); FillPat(0); Result:= SetDefaultBeginningMarker(2, 0, 0.078735, 0.078735, 0, 0.000000, FALSE); Result:= SetDefaultEndMarker(2, 0, 0.078735, 0.078735, 0, 0.000000, FALSE); PenPat(-4); PenSize(2); CallTool(-204); PenBack(256); PenFore(257); PenPat(-4); CallTool(-204); PopAttrs; END; Run(CustTool); The main issue I'm having it that it won't save my dash style (Dash Style-4) into the script. Had a quick look at the VS appendix but couldn't find a reference to dash styles. Anyone have a clue what line I can add here to do dash styling? Cheers, James

Hey all, Thanks for great responses here. I've had a read through all and have just tested your script Pat. It's all good in terms of rotating the symbol within the group and I'm pretty sure I can play with the IF constraints to isolate it to a symbol as required the only issue it that the rotation seems to be around the group centre not symbol centre. See the attached file for results and a little more insight. Thankyou for the responses Raymond and Miguel, it's little snippets like this that'll get me over the line at some stage Cheers, J

Hey all, Working on a little automator at the moment. I have a group containing various arc and lines and then in the middle of it a circle, lines and text all within a symbol. What I want to do is copy the group around to a few places and rotate it. After rotating the full group I want all the symbols contained within to remain at a rotation of 0?. I thought I'd use this opportunity to make/try a script, and I have this thus far: {-----------------------------} Procedure Loop; Procedure RotTest(h : HANDLE); VAR rot :real; BEGIN rot:= GetSymRot(h); If GetSymName(h)='Symbol-1' Then BEGIN SetRot3D(h,0,0,0,0,0,0); ResetObject(h); sysbeep; End; END; BEGIN ForEachObjectInLayer(RotTest,0,1,1); END; RUN (Loop); {----------------------} But it doesn't work. Can someone read over and let me know if I'm on the right track? Any help appreciated. Cheers, J Ps. Sysbeeps are cool okay.

I personally would agree with Peter and Bill, the process of 2D - adding and subtracting, extruding and copying as a symbol. Then if you need to change a detail you change one and it changes all, you need to re align some cuts just go back in the object history. Interesting project though. J

Kim, It is interesting, both the fact that they are rendering this way and their location within the drawing. Are you sure you haven't left a square used for crating the top of your legs on the ground plane and it's rendering this? Does it appear in another rendering mode? Hidden Line perhaps? If you post the file either here or through PM I'm sure someone here can assist, at the very least re-render and see what's going on. Cheers, james

Thanks Maarten and Josh, Maarten - I tried the change, no result yet but I think I still need to do a bit more reading about handles and referencing. Josh - Change one field you say... Ah! This is a work around for part b) of my problem. There are two outcomes that I wanted to achieve from this. The first being object manipulation through a script from within the resource browser, ie. Select a few symbols in your browser and have them all filled black or width increased by 100mm. The second part was record manipulation. Much like your Instrument Maintenance can rewrite the base Light Info Record on a fixture but on a batch scale. I've done some modifications to the Light Info Record (not quite mastered yet mind you), in an attempt to give a lamp a specific Label Legend upon insertion, ie. Fluro batten having an elongated Label, ganged cyc units and small conventionals vs large conventionals. In this case I was hoping to just select the fixtures in my library and much like the dialog for Change One Field select the record/parameter/field value and set the selected fixtures. I think Change One Field will work, I'll just move batches of things into folders, make the required batch changes and move them back. I'll keep at it regardless in all the spare time I have Cheers, J

So I wrote this: {-------------Test Change Record - Selected Items----------} PROCEDURE xxx; CONST record = 'Light Info Record'; parameter = 'Device Type'; value = 'New Type'; FUNCTION Replacement (h:HANDLE) : BOOLEAN; BEGIN h:=FInSymDef(h); SetRField(h,record,parameter,value); END; BEGIN ForEachObjectInList(Replacement,2,0,FSymDef); END; Run(xxx); {---------------} Two things. Didn't work. Not unexpected but would have been nice. The ForEachObjectInList says that Object Options can be Selected Objects Only (2), does this include if you've selected something in the resource browser? Secondly traversing depth... er...? J

So right now I'm quite content with just working within my file with symbols that are within it. As a little starter example I'm just wanting to select my symbol in the resources browser and have the script alter the width of that object from within the symbol. I think that's the first link I need to make in my head. I'll keep reading this list. Thanks Pat for the starting point, J

Thanks Pat, Seems only one screen. It's odd that before it would insist on putting my worksheets on my third monitor and now it only wants them on my first. I thought it might be related to where the dialog box was or the pallet/resource browser you were using to run the script but right now it seems it's irrelevant. Strange about the change in scale. Cheers, James

So I've got some working values now after a little trial and error and searching through some scripts involving worksheets, *Cough* Pat Stanford *Cough*, and now I pose this. 1) Multiple Monitors - How re: Location 2) Percentage of screen - Identifying a users screen res and adjusting accordingly. Call me crazy if you believe it to be so, Cheers, J

Hey all, I want to alter some records within symbols in the symbol library. My end goal is to select some symbols in the library, run the script and changes are made to records in each of the items in the library. I'm wondering if anyone can point me in the direction or let me know if helpful commands for: 1. Getting a handle to object selected in the Resource Browser. 2. Editing a record of selected symbol within Resource Browser. Anything relating to these would be helpful, even just for a read-through. Cheers, J

Hey all, Just doing some repetitive worksheet creation and writing some nifty scripts. Can anyone tell what kind of value ranges are used for SetWSPlacement? I've been trying multiple options but I can't make my worksheet appear anywhere except the middle of the screen with no changes, which I presume means out of bounds/ I don't understand, or in the top left corner of the screen with no width or height changes. Cheers, J

Shachar, Welcome ! The black dot you are referring to is a category containing sub categories. It's created by putting a dash ( - ) in your class name. For example: Set - Framing Set - Faces Set - LX Would all appear under the category of Set and then the individual classes within. Not sure if there is a way to mass turn them all on or off though.. Cheers, James

Michael, This is why I love monday mornings. Always something new to try from a weekend worth of pondering. I'll have a play with these, if nothing else they are really slick. I think your approach of identifying the lamps and which position they are on, apposed to the positions and which lamps they contain is probably the more appropriate path to take at this stage. I'll let you know how I go. Cheers, j

Hey all, Just doing some work on a theatrical template in some downtime. I have a database lookup for all the light position object in my drawing. Two seperate but related issues: 1) I want to count the number of lighting devices on each position. I thought this would be =count('lighting device'.'position'=B4) where B4 is the cell of the database containing ='light position obj'.'position name'. This just returns false. 2) I want to sum the total weight of all the fixtures on my position. Perhaps some sort of sum if? Don't really know where to head with that one. See attached for the basic layout screenshot. Cheers, J

It is possible in VW, I do it with colour documents all the time. Go to Print. From the centre dropdown go to Colour Matching. Choose ColourSync and in the profile dropdown select Other Profile..., select the Generic Grey Profile and hit print. I would presume it's similar for the windows client but I can't check till later. J

Ah I see! Normally when I go above 3 Criteria it's easier to cancel and start typing it. VW2011 vs 2010 perhaps re: drag and drop? J

Like an except to the criteria? As for the hand, I just select a column, move down a few pixels to get the hand, click and drag to a new position. It works with multiple columns selected too. J

Michael, Equally as nice! Couldn't agree more on any of these... except drag and drop columns, it's not very clear nor obvious but you get a hand for a few pixels when you have a column/row selected allowing you to do this. Could be a little more friendly. J

Hey all, Over the past few months I've been writing a little list on the side of my desk as I've hit problems or quirks. It's wishes and changes that in my opinion would make things a little better. Worksheets: Can't right click columns nor rows to add/delete/format. Desired functions such as, LEN (length of resulting string), LEFT & RIGHT (character results a number of characters left or right of a string end), FIND (find within resulting string) and SUBSTITUTE (substitute within a string). Call the rotation of an object, perhaps =ROT Lineworking of Spreadsheet cells meeting Database cells. Often the bottom or top border of a spreadsheet cell directly meeting a database row will result in lines being added to all database row. Often this is not the desired result, perhaps checkboxed? Formular bar only accepts 255 characters, more? =Height and =Width to be calculated not only from the bounding box but the base object (regardless of rotation), perhaps =Height for base object originally and =_Height for the bounding box? OR as an option in the database criteria dialog box, instead of having to open dialog, close, then edit formula. Easily accessible function guide covering all possible functions, accessible from worksheet window. Selecting multiple database rows and applying sorts/sums across all. Functions for objects on annotation layers for are they on an annotation layer (T/F) and perhaps an =VP for the viewport they are contained in. When working with a large amount of database rows open and then collapsing them it would be desired that the view returns to the bottom resulting row, not leaving the user several rows beneath with a grey table. Worksheet open on both Sheet Layer/Design Layer and in preview window at the same time. Moveable breaks in worksheets for split pages. When working with a worksheet of 120+ rows it no longer fits at a reasonable scale on an A1 page. It would be desired to have a method of splitting a table so it can be placed on multiple pages without needing to cover sections on each page or using multiple viewports. ----------- That's about it for now but I encourage you all to add if you feel the need or if you have found efficient work arounds for issues I'd like to hear them. I'll keep adding to this forum set when I've tidied more of my list. Cheers, James

Josh, A few weeks ago I played with a demo version of Lightwright, and I agree entirely that it is a tool which would not only be useful but also efficient for the lighting requests above. Also the Instrument Maintenance plug-in has been useful and will be for making mass changes when required. At the time of writing the previous posts I was more inquisitive as to why the library would be set up this way, having text where clearly the contents were a quantity. Thankyou though, alternatives are better than unsolvable. Cheers, J