Stage63

Thanks for the suggestion. I have the lights configured that way. It helps me turn on/off the big categories quickly. The downside is there are lots of combinations of smaller categories of lights I'd like to save as a queues/looks, depending on the scene. I can theoretically make a separate class (or layer) for every queue/look I want, and duplicate the lights that are used in multiple queues/looks, because then if I decide to adjust the position of one light, I'd have to adjust it for every class that same light is used in. Basically, a plugin to simulate a lightboard would be awesome.

It's getting tiresome to click on and off different combinations of lights via the Visualization pallet each time I want to view a different look (warm back lights + cool stage-right lights, etc.). Is there a way to save these combinations of on/off statuses so I can toggle thru them quickly, like one can on a lightboard by recording and toggling thru queues? If not, is there an animation plugin compatible with Vectorworks Spotlight? If I can keyframe just the on/off status of each light, then I could record each queue on a different frame in the timeline, and use forward-frame back-frame commands to toggle thru them.

Thank you both. That helps. I still think it would be nice to have a way rename them in the Label Legend Manager also, since that's the pallet/window I have open when I'm working with them.

In the label legend manager, when I click on a given label legend I have the options "Add...", "Remove...", "Edit Fields...", and "Edit Layout...", but no apparent way to rename it. What am I missing? If there is NO way to rename, then I'd like a "Rename..." button added to wish-list requests.

After changing EVERY maeterial of and every color property at every level of the symbol, and then UNDOING those changes, and saving and closing and opening and repeating ad nauseam, I FINALLY got the lights to appear, with their photometric properties restored. (So I don't have to loose everything I did this week.) I copied and pasted the VISIBLE, RENDERABLE lights into a blank document to analyze, and they promptly disappeared (except the yoke & clamp of course). Here's a hypothesis: Does VectorWorks have a symbol/group-nesting limit (symbol within a group within a symbol within a symbol), beyond which alterations made will not update all the way through to the top level? Am I pushing the nesting limit beyond what it's designed to handle?

Here's more evidence that vectorworks has trouble updating light symbols. Screenshots taken of THE SAME SYMBOL just 5 seconds apart show the same thing with different render properties. I've refreshed this symbol many times using "command /" with no result. [Edit: I meant to clip the document name in those shots ... my bad]

I had a light symbol that was working. Then I made a minor geometric change to the base object "Nexera Base", and now the system is bugging out and won't show the body of the light in the world space, or render the beam. The theater file was too big, so I copy&pasted 2 lights to a new file. The bodies appear in wireframe and disappear in open GL or fast render. "Default Instrument Texture" is assigned to every shape in the body. All classes & layers are turned on. When I edit the top symbol "Nexera Profile" the body appears. When I inspect the intermediate symbol called "Nexera DON'T EDIT OR DELETE", it has a 3d locus at the right place, an object assigned as base=true, one with yoke=true, and a group with body=true. The light beam itself will not render in any mode. When you open the file, do you see these problems, or are they phantasms of my machine in particular?

That's the puzzling thing: The textures from both the source and the destination were non-shaddow-casting. So I don't know where the alteration happened or how. And just today I made a miniscule geometric alteration to the symbol for the body, and now the instruments refuse to show the body or the light beam all together, even thought it shows them in wireframe and the correct texture is assigned ... go figure. I'll post that as a new topic if the problem persists.

THANK YOU! This is bizarre and perplexing: I saved the theater versions just before and after I imported the symbol. After importing the symbol it ALTERED the shadow casting properties of THREE separate instrument textures to thwart them all. I don't know how THAT happened. I didn't even touch a texture edit pallet until after I read your suggestion. That detail you caught just saved me the previous day's work.

Thanks! I think this attachment should work.

I'm new(ish) to the forum. How do I upload a file here?

I designed a lighting symbol in a separate document that behaves exactly as I want and renders correctly when turned on. I imported it into my theater document and spent hours placing and focussing them, only to realize they DO NOT RENDER WHEN TURNED ON (via the resource browser or via edit light). Why do VectorWorks lighting symbols do this??? I have 2 files to send to anyone willing to inspect this. One is the lights WORKING, and one is a blank document with the exact same lighting symbols copied and pasted but no lights rendering, even though they have all the data filled in for photometric properties and are turned on. HELP!

I have a system of focus points that I changed from a lettered naming system to a numbered naming system. I had to reassign every light after I had renamed the focus points, which was redundant and cumbersome. They should update and re-link the lights automatically each time I rename a focus point, or at least open up a window asking if I want to re-link the lights assigned to that focus point so I can click YES. The light position objects update the lights when I rename them and it's much easier that way.

VectorWorks 2013 (educational) for Mac OSX