Kevin Jones

Hi Tom Thanks for the quick response. I can certainly see this working both ways. It just seems a bit less than clear right now. As a touring dance lighting designer for most of the work I have done the booms with sidearms are built as needed to spec as sidearms may need to change heights to design spec whether using the Altman sidearm or hardware (KeeClamp or cheeseborough and pipe) sidearm approach since they are not part of most rep lighting plots unless it is a dance house. I have watched part of the video link you sent but was interrupted part way through. Mark has provided really great information but I will need to watch it all again and create a simple point by point worksheet for myself to be able to remember the steps the first few times I try to recreate the process. Glad work is ongoing to improving the sidearm library. Either approach (lighting accessory or rigging element) could work (I think at least) once it is clear what the steps in the process are. In my mind it is a bit cumbersome to have so many different versions of the lights with multiple lenses, overhung, underhung, single tee and double tee sidearms in the resource browser library to simply draw a boom. As well as doing the light maintenance to make the counting work correctly. That is my main argument for the sidearm not being a lighting accessory but part of the rigging system. The original question above about how to modify the relationship between the sidearm insert point, rigging position and the fixture is still not clear to me however. Perhaps the video link will make this clearer to me. Sadly, I was distracted almost immediately after I began to watch it earlier and have not been back to it since. Thanks again for your response. Be Well! KAJ

Greetings everyone Just found this thread on sidearms and vertical booms as I am trying to get back up to speed on VW after a year of furlough from my job. I have never been satisfied with the workflow drawing a sidelight or FOH position with sidearms. Schematic views may be an improvement but I have not quite figured that workflow out completely yet. Would it not be better/easier to have the actual sidearm as part of the rigging device and have the "sliding tee" fitting as an accessory for the light replacing the c-clamp accessory? This would allow the possibility of the overhung/underhung fixtures on the same sidearm and not include them in the counting as part of the light fixture. I discovered during my search yesterday that there are now many different versions beyond the traditional Altman "tee" available as well (from LightSource and City Theatrical as well as the brace component of the CTI Safer Sidearm). If these were added to the VW library as accessories it might go a long way to making it easier to draw (or at least to wrap my brain around if nothing else!) Thanks

I often use Rosco I-Cues and Image Pros for various plots. Anyone have good symbols for these two accessories?

Has anyone had any success exporting Spotlight files to LW4 and having the accessories appear in the new accessory column? LW4 recognizes the device type label but can not put it in the correct column. Are there plans for this to be addressed in a future version of SL?

After upgrading to VWA 9.5 yesterday whenever I edit a ETC ERS (Ellipsoidal) fixture it turns into a rectangle and all label legend info disappears. The properties seem to be there, though. The ETC S4 Pars don't appear to do this or the 6x9's in the plot. Any ideas? This is frustrating to have to replace symbol with current after every edit. TIA

Is there any way to exclude accessories from the Instrument and color summaries?