bruce johansen

sorry, the date is 8 april 2004

ethan, you are not the first one to express the need to obtain the value of X. i've been on the tech board and to the tech support about it. i tried using "x center" which is defined in the manuel as the way to obtain x, but it brings back the value of the bonding box of the object and not the value of x. i took my problem to the theatre list. many people expressed the same need. Sam Jones(autoplotvw) published on the list a script that did just this and it works great.consult theater list archives march 2004.

hi katie, i suspect that you are refering to the g3 ibook. it is an apple laptop with a one button touch pad. he also has a macnally (2 buttons, second one is programmable) mini mouse and it behaves the same way. if it was the g4, it's an apple tower with the original one button mouse. i have tried matching my friends preferences to mine , with no results. it's my impression that the situation is caused by how the OS is implemented on apple machines that are not towers.

Double- clicking a symbol in the resource browser on my g5, os 10.3.6 sl 11.x.x will select the symbol, make the symbol and the insertion tool active . As it did on last machine (g4,os 9.2.2, sl 10.5.x) But on my friend's g3 ibook, os 9.2.2 and sl 10.5x, it does not. Clicking on the symbol opens a window that let's you select "make active". If you choose to, then the insertion tool is automatically selected also. Either choosing the insertion tool before clicking on the symbol combined with the fact that you are in list or thumbnail view has no effect at all.

g5, os 10.3.6, vwsl 11. i'm getting a fatal program crash (no error is mentioned) everytime i try to set a "z" value on a light position object in 3d right view. did i miss something or should i report a bug

on a g5,dp1.8,os10.3.5,vwsl11.0.1, it's the same problem. eventually it will be fixed. in the mean time, the old workaround works better than ever. when a label is locked, try this: select the lighting instrument(s), go to the object information palette and click on the show data button. scroll down til you see the "do not edit" field. double clic in that field, than hit delete, than hit enter. et voila. it works for me. if you lose labels ( sometimes they disappear !), do the same . bruce

in my experience it's 1- no/ you can't 2-yes but of no practical use/yes in the paperwork 3-no make life easier on yourself. the reason for a 2d plot is to see the work that has to be done on stage. (represent an organized view of the objective: hanging it right) with this in mind, make a 3d symbol of a pipe of the lenght of the truss, make 2 duplicates of that symbol in the object info palette . each will represent a side of the triangular truss. then rename them: trusstop d/s, trusstop up/s and truss bot. now if you edit each one in the following manner, you will have a 2d plot that is readable and fairly clear and a 3d plot which is still usable to do a sideview for trim and other purpose. edit trusstop d/s 2d symbol and move the pipe y=-3' edit trusstop up/s 2d symbol and move the pipe y=3' insert the symbols with the light position tool at the place were they are really.they will show 3' off in 2 cases , 3' should be enough to display the lamp + lamp info without interfering with each other . but in 3d will be in right place. good luck

hi craig, i have been able to do what you want, here is how i do it. on a g5, os10.3 vw sl 11.0.1. 1-in the object information palette, make a duplicate of the lamp you want to modify.( select lamp,resources/duplicate.then rename it ( name. hang)) 2- select the new lamp then resources/edit, in 3d component. in the edit workspace, select the complete symbol, go to side view and rotate it 180 deg. deselect the symbol and exit edit workspace. you now have a lamp( 2 symbols) that is good in top plan, and can hang or sit in 3d view. e-mail me for a plot if need be. hi siska, one might want to show where the ml goes on an upright truss so that the electricians can assemble the beast with a good chance of getting it right. cause in top plan view 10' of upright truss with 3 par cans and a mac 2000 look pretty weird,but in front view, it's like a picture. something about a 1000 words. but beware, a problem with sl is that a visuallisation of a beam is impossible if the angle (beam to horizontal plane) is less then about 20-22 deg.bummer!

if you edit the symbol , you can select each sub object and see who they belong to. you can , in edit , select all the sub objects and chang their class. i don't understand the need to seperate the different types of fixtures but using different layer would probably fill your bill.

sorry objective 1

frustration #1 i prefer slaving over a 1500 piece puzzle, it's not as frustrating and i stand of attaining a viable result. frustration #2 useless is the operative word frustration #3 i was told that you should have a layer per pipe with it's associated lamps. then give that layer a height.that would solve the anti-gravity problem. but with a 12 pipe light plot with 5 sets of legs and 5 borders. a cyc and it's cyc bar, a ground row and 3 painted drops, i could not manage productivily all of that garbage. f#4 my mother used to say about things like that : ils n'ont pas invent? le bouton a 4 trous" f#5 that is not the only thing that behaves like that. f#6 i would not know, i usually give up out of frustration by that time and pen the details in by hand. don't get me wrong, i still believe that sl has a lot to offer, but more user friendliness should be objective number 12, not nuts and bolts and springs and ......

in my experience it is. there has been multiple discussions here and in the theater list by what i would call heavy hitters,in the last few months as to what worked best, lw, filemaker, etc... the general concensus i perceived was that you want something specific( the answers your need), you have to go outside of SL or learn vectorscripting and/or SDK. then maybe... VW seem to believe that their worksheet is adequate, i beg to differ. what we have here is a cold hand luke syndrome: " what we have here is a problem in communication"

on the first, i say same as jim. on the second, welcome to the nice feature of summary report. great in theory, impractical in pratice. you can't choose where you put it , can't reformat it, just plain can't!!!!

on # 1 question:no, they don't track. if you move (retrim ) a light position object, the lamp does not follow, it's z height is not updated either . if you refresh , the lamp is not refreshed. also, even if you have toggled the auto-number feature, it does not. but if you retoggle it, it does renumber.i call it the antigravity effect. it's a good thing reality on stage does not behave like SL in this case. question #2: because most likely you created the symbol( or they were created) in a class other than class A. tech support says:" Just so you know in the future, is that symbols are made from several objects. So those sub objects can each have a different class. If one of those classes are off, then it will make the whole object disapeer."

Yes martin, i encountered the same manifestation as you describe. By a previous post, i seems the problem is related to the changing of the origin. When i stopped moving the origin to what i was drawing and started drawing with the origin of the document, the manifestation stopped. Since this WORKAROUND works for me, i stopped wasting more time with the label legend and planned my drawing in such a way as not to have to change the origin. It's a little less freedom, but a lot less pain.

i wish to apologize , i seem to have missed the chapter where the CRITERIAS that makes a post worthy of an answer are listed. i seem to have laboured under the misconception that the techboard was the place to go to see what the other members were experiencing and to get an indication as to the nature of a given problem, thereby saving time and frustration. thru time , i've noticed that the problems i have, seem to fall in 4 different categories. 1-my own stupidity or lack of knowledge, 2-misunderstanding or not being able to understand the instructions, 3- platform and/or OS compatibility and 4- "known problem". -since it's a posted fact that company policy is not to maintain a bug list, it stands to reason that category 4 problems are not part of the CRITERIAS -as for categories 1-2-3, to get an answer, it seems to be dependent on my attitude. but i fear where missing the whole point. i invested in a product that is supposed to help me express my concepts, ideas and solutions in such a way as to communicate them in a comprehensive format to others, so as to attain a final product.and right now , i'm experiencing difficulties which make it very painfull to do so.it is extremely frustrating not being able to deliver because you can't get a handle on a programming problem and solve it. i'm a lighting designer, not a programming designer. and i know i've got an attitude and i'm not wondering why.

my particular manifestation of this tool as described in "miroor tool hell " and "mirror tool revisited" is still present in 10.5 and the multicircuit tool is a bit better i.e. the workaround is not as complex but it is not as "moves as a single unit"

i tend to disagree with you on that one. since i'm in the habit of indicating my focus intentions on my plot ( where i will want the lamp to go) i prefer to work more with the manager to get it to display the text in a logical way. linking as you suggest would tend to clutter in my point of view. but then the manager is such a difficult beast to tame, that our idea makes sense in a way, but it would, i believe, still clutter.

while working with my example in the post "mirror tool revisited", i noticed something that i find illogical. in that example, i modified the z value of the light position object (trim of pipe) to 40' and i happened to check the z value of the lighting devices.they were still at 20'. since an inserted lighting device on a light position object acquires the position i.d. and z value from that light position object, it would stand to reason that any retrimming of pipe ( changing z height of light pos. obj.) would update the x value of the attached light devices. (and if you refresh instruments, it does not update the z of light devices.) since retrimming is a fact of life in this environment, it would be essential that SL mimick real life. Please Try This and Post.

g-4, os 9.2.2, sl 10.1.2 1- draw a 3d light position object, centered at x=0,so as to have a center lineand name it lx, give it a height of 20' (z=20') 2- insert a lighting device at 10' left of center,x=-10' y=0" rotation =0 deg.it will acquire the position and z value from the light position object. 3- duplicate and mirror that light device in relation to center line. you will get x=10' y= 0"and rotation is -180 deg, position and z value will come from the light position object. 4- with the focus point tool, create a focus point at x=0 y=10'accept z=5' name it 1. 4- select the 2 light devices, put 1 in the focus box, press enter to get the draw beam box active, select draw and check the workspace. both lighting device should draw there respective beams. on my machine, the left lighting device is as expected, it points and intersects the focus point. the rightside lighting device, ( duplicaed and mirrored one) the field is drawn to the top of the workspace and the beam is drawn to the bottom of it.of course, neither of these two intersect the focus point. you can try changing the value of x to see or the value of the rotation to see.if you think you can replace this device with the same symbol made active or any other, it does not work in so far as correcting the rotation and the problem remains. it takes 10 minutes to try it and post a result! please contribute, thanks. ps keep the file for the next post "trimming"

after having STRANGE BEHAVIOURS and moving rulers, i finally have a lighting plot. now to focus it. i place a focus point wih i.d. . chose a lamp, chose focus lamp, i.d. the focus point and select draw beam.surprise! the beam does not intersect the focus point but is "x" feet off to stage left ( "y" is good). i try several others and my record is 3 intersects for 5 tries.what gives? what is the common factor here? the beams that do not hit the focus points are from the lamps that i duplicated and mirrored on the same position from stage right to stage left of center. i proceeded to delete and reinsert one of the lamps on stage left and re-input the data. wonders of wonders, it now draws it 's beam to the focus point.why? clue 1: a duplicated and mirrored lamp(symbol) points in the right way but is reported as beeing rotated -180 deg in the OIP. clue 2: is you move from mac os 9.2.2 to 10.1.5 and reopen your file , you will find that the text label for the dup. and mir. lamp is reversed.just visiting the edit layout of the label manager will correct that. clue 3: you cannot replace a mirrored and duplicated lamp by the same symbol using "replace by active symbol". proof:it stays rotated -180 deg. so were do i go from here. either i'm ed or my file is or my machine is or the tool is! it would be nice if you users would try to duplicate this behaviour or lack of and report it.from the techboard, i would appreciate a comment or two, a graemlin would do in a pinch

just read the post of swiftconcerning label legend text. since it's the same behavioras i have, i tried klinsay's solution. yes when i hover over the text i get a cursor cue but no mouvement . i tried deleting the Do Not Edit field, the moment i get it all erased n click enter, it comes back.and as to having to redo multicircuit ins. well!!!

in the file i'm working on, i have a few strange things happening: 1- all the lamps that i have placed at the center of a light position object (light pipe) do not pick up the name and "z value" of that pipe, therefore do not acquire a unit number.consequence: i have to input manually. 2- even if auto-number is toggled on, it does not. Forcing me to either refresh or toggle off then on the auto fonction to get it to function. 3- when i insert an instrument at, let us say at x=13'according to the data bar, it shows up at x=12'11.971" in the Object Info Palette.and it is the same displacement value on all the instruments of that light pipe. (and yes the light pipe is centered at x=0.) 4- and when i try to align my instruments horizontally in OIP, if i do not input the inch symbol at the end but leave SL to do it, nothing moves, but if i add the inch symbol it's moves ok. 5- in my present file i have 3 label legends. one of which i can't move the labels in the workspace, well most of the time.sometimes yes sometimes no 6- i've already posted about the moving ruler thing so i'll skip that one. Has anybody noticed this behavior? A comment would be welcomed.

G4 OS 9.2.2 SL 10.1.2 HAVE JUST TRIED IT, SAME RESULT AS YOU

noticed a funny behvior with my x ruler at the top of the workspace. it shifts.sometime the vertical center line is at 0' and then at 2x feet left of center. but the x value of the position of the insertion tool is always at the right value. any probable cause?