lalcaraz

I have created a set of tutorials (over 24 hours total) that teach VectorWorks from beginning to end. They cover 2d drafting, 3d modeling, RenderWorks and Spotlight. They also cover AutoPlot, Savvy Tools, Lighwright 5 and Adobe Acrobat Writer. To learn more, go to the training video page on my website: http://lradesigns.com/training-videos/ They are designed to teach VectorWorks classes but can be used just to brush up on tools you already know. Thank you! Lonnie Alcaraz Professional Lighting Designer Professor at UCIrvine

I have created a set of tutorials (over 24 hours total) that teach VectorWorks from beginning to end. They cover 2d drafting, 3d modeling, RenderWorks and Spotlight. They also cover AutoPlot, Savvy Tools, Lighwright 5 and Adobe Acrobat Writer. To learn more, go to the training video page on my website: http://lradesigns.com/training-videos/ They are designed to teach VectorWorks classes but can be used just to brush up on tools you already know. Thank you! Lonnie Alcaraz Professional Lighting Designer Professor at UCIrvine

Thanks Katie It would be extremely helpful

Kevin Thanks for the response, I believe we have gone round with this before, as I recall the answer -- will this be fixed in V10? But the real question is, why is 1 position on the plot notoriously renumbering itself when autonumber is Off? Thanks Lonnie

Can that be changed?

I posted this question a few months ago but never received any response. Is it possible, when posting a new topic, to have the 'Email Notification' box checked as a default. I cannot think of a time that I would not want this checked and it gets really annoying when I forget to check it. Thanks Lonnie

My assistant has had problems on the plot we are working on. We have to leave added units as a letter designation (ie. 1a, 2a, etc) and also have accessories like twinspins that need to stay with the letter designation. She has turned off Auto Renumber but the Twin Spins and all units on the Beam 3 position continue to renumber themselves, causing her an extra 1/2 hour of work everytime she exports back to Lightwright Any ideas? Thanks Lonnie

Matthew and Katie Thank you so much for the responses. This computer is actually my Students and as I do not use Mac, I am hoping all of this makes sense to her I will pass it along and see if it fixes it. The file renders fine on my PC notebook, so I am thinking it is probably memory allocation, unless the Image Color bug is specific to Mac Thanks again Lonnie

I have allotted the maximum amount of RAM that my computer will allow Any other ideas?

I have a file that crashes when I use Final Quality Renderworks I tried to use custom renderworks and it seems that when I set it to High, Transparency On and Anti-Aliasing on, it crashed If I lower to "Low" or turn off either Transparency or Anti-aliasing, it renders without crashing but does not look good The error I get is:The application Vectorworks has unexpectedly quit, because an error type 2 occurred. I am using a Mac Notebook 400 with a 30gig HD and 576 megs of RAM I can render at final quality in other files but not in this one This file renders fine on all other machines I have tried it on, except for the notebook Any ideas? Thanks

Kevin Thanks for the info. I hope you can resolve it. Why would this be happening on the same machine when importing/exporting from Lightwright to Vectorworks? Thanks Lonnie

Kevin Passing the Symbol Name Field and the Use Legends Field is a very useful thing to do, so that when Orphans come in, they are complete. I spoke with a friend who uses Spotlight on a network with an Equal amount of PC's and Mac's and he say's that the exact same thing happens to the Degree Symbol when transferring from Mac to PC or vise versa. Thus it is not just a LW/VW thing. Let me know what you find out Thanks Lonnie

When 9.5 came out there was a bug that would cause any Lighting Instruments with the Degree Symbol to change to rectangles because VW did not understand that symbol and thus the symbol name (ie Source 4's) I know that Kevin fixed this problem and it is integral in 9.5.1 but I now have a new, related bug. If I am using the stock ETC symbols with the Degree Symbol in the name and I export it into Lightwright and then back into VW, the degree symbol changes from a small circle to a box, thus whehn I refresh, all Source 4's turn into rectangles. In LW, the degree symbol is fine, and in the expoted "text" file, the degree symbol is fine but when that text file goes into VW, it changes it to a box. Any fix for this? One other problem that I do not understand is that the stock Altman 8" Fresnel symbol does the same thing but the name of the symbol and the name in the symbol name field appear to match but it stays as a rectangle until I use "replace with active symbol" Thanks Lonnie

I am glad that someone else is having these problems I have posted it, along with some of my students but have not gotten adequate replies This happens randomly and on may different machine and machine types Please help

I actually had Kevin Moore look at the symbols I had created and he found the problem In the "Device Type" in the light info record, I have put in LIGHT (ALL CAPS) Spotlight, for some reason does not like that, so when I changed the defaults to "Light", they were fine I also was told by Kevin that it is best to leave the "Device" field blank, as it is filled in when you choose to insert something as a light or an accessory in Spotlight

I am having this issue also I believe that Matthew is right. You can update a workgroup that is currently open in another file, but only on the same machine It seems that if 1 machine has as source file open and another machine attempts to update that file in workgroups that an error appears:"The file "___" could not be opened for reading, probably because another user has it open for editing. Please try again later." Not being able to actively update over a network pretty much defeats the purpose of workgroups Is there any fix for this? Thank you, Lonnie

Matthew Thank you for your response. However most of the machines that are having these problems are home machines or notebooks, running XP or ME. Thus there are not restrictions on rights to the machine. However, I did test what you listed below and it will allow me to add a new key. The other thing is, that on my home machine it is happening all of the time but on a lot of my students machines it is happening periodically (from frequently to seldom) but still happening. Any other ideas? Thanks Lonnie

I am importing 2 image files into my light plot Union StampTheatre Logo When I print it looks fine but when I send it to a PDF writer or distiller the background turns from white to black Any ideas? Thanks Lonnie

Kevin It is happening on all types of machines Mac and PC with ME, XP and 2000. It is happening consistently on my desktop and a few other machines and intermittently on others It is all of the preferences -- ie, background color, eight handle selections, save reminder, etc Also it is not remembering the last open and save file locations It is not losing serial numbers I hope that answers most of your questions Thanks Lonnie

Kevin I am inserting the component parts as lights 1st and then converting to Multicircuit Unit If I do it with record info, it does not work but if I do it without it, it does Thanks, Lonnie

I AM LOSING MY PREFERENCES EVERYTIME I CLOSE AND RE-OPEN VECTORWORKS I AM RUNNING ON 9.5.1. I WORK AT A UNIVERSITY AND THERE ARE ROUGLY A DOZEN PEOPLE USING VECTORWORKS AND ALL OF THEM HAVE HAD THIS PROBLEM AT ONE TIME OR ANOTHER 2 PEOPLE CONTINUALLY HAVE TO RESET THEIR PREFERENCES THIS HAS HAPPENED SINCE VW9.01 UNTIL NOW PLEASE HELP! lonnie

I have been having problems with certain symbols combing into a Multicircuit Unit and I think I figured it out It seems that if the units you are trying to convert to a multicircuit unit, ie. 3 parts of a cyc light, have 'Light Info Record' information, that they will not convert. I have tested this on units with Default Info in the Light Record and then without and when I remove the info, they convert OK Has anyone encountered this problem and is it a bug? Thanks Lonnie

I am working with a workgroup reference that is a symbol I want the workgroup to render with a black fill When I render it, only parts come out black and the remainder comes out white If I go back to the original file everything looks fine when rendered but when it is workgrouped, it comes out part black and part white Any ideas? Thanks Lonnie

Katie Genrally I do this when creating my own lighting symbols, as I need the symbol to be seen as one object, so that it can have a fill. The way I have used compose curve in the past was to take a group of polylines and create them as a polygon, or a group of lines and convert them to a polygon, or a combination of the 2. When I use 'compose' it chooses parts of the overall object to convert but not the entire object into one. I just do not understand the basic reasoning why the 2 tools cannot live side by side Thanks, Lonnie

Katie Thanks for the info I did a test, I switched to the Standard Workspace and Compose Curve appeared again but if I edit the 'standard' workspace and look under tools from available menus, it is listed as Compose and Decompose Thus I can see no way, short of unisntalling the 3d Power Pack, to truly get Compose Curve back - or without continually switching between workspaces. This is rediculous -- the 2 tools do different things, why would one negate the other? Is this something that could be put back and where would be my best place to post this? Thank you! Lonnie