michaelk

....as long as they are the same instrument type.

I had to go back and check... The diet edit pallet is a 2009 thing. 2010 lets you edit the angle falloff and distance falloff of multiple instruments. Tell your boss it's time to update! michaelk

au contraire... You can shift click or command click (on a mac) as many as you like, choose edit and change the settings for all of the selected lights at once. hth michaelk

Before you play with the fog renderworks background, you might want to look at the angle falloff and distance falloff settings. They make a huge differance.

Also make sure the viz palette is on the light tab, not the camera tab. Then below that select the "all" button (not "current scene") hth michaelk

Open the Visualization Palette. All the instruments will be listed there. The name will be Channel Purpose UID. If you don't have a channel or purpose you will only see the uid. You can turn the light on, add lit fog, etc from there. hth michaelk

Matt The extract tool produces a nurbs surface. It appears red because VW automatically creates a new class, Redsurfaces, and assigns the attributes by class. You can change the class or attributes to be whatever you want. To edit the surface, just double click on it and VW switches to the 3D reshape tool. That will allow you to edit the shape of the surface. hth michaelk

I'll attach a 2009 version. The only real trick is that I made VP #4 on a sheet layer, selected it, then View>Create Section Viewport..., and in Advanced Section Properties set the depth range to Finite, 10' - 0". Of course, there's no need to set the depth when creating the viewport, that can be done later. And I skip Robert's 3rd step, entering the annotation group of the viewport. It seems to figure out what I mean by just selecting the VP. hth michaelk

Yes. Sort of. (If I understand what your asking....) Create a SLVP in front view. Create a section SLVP from that. michaelk Edit: Forgot to turn on "save viewport cache". Update all the VPs and it will make sense.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2186 Doesn't look like that is recommended or even possible. You might try to buy a used MBP from just before the change to 10.6 - you should notice a boost in performance. But you will probably have to upgrade eventually...

Not sure what is on the website... VectorWorks Fundamentals is the basic program. You can think if the other versions as industry specific modules that provide additional tools and functionality. Architect has specific tools for architects, Landmark has specific tools for landscape architects, etc. I think there are some demo videos on the NNA site that may give you more information. Renderworks is an additional module for rendering. hth michaelk

Designer is Architect + Landmark + Spotlight + Mechanical.

Eric I probably should have pointed out that the old record format(s) were also called "Light Info Record". Depending on what version you were using before, the older record formats just have fewer data fields. In 2008 or 2009 fields were added for second beam and field angles for asymmetric beams (PARs), Number of Channels, and Fixture ID. "Light Info Record M" is new in 2010. It just has data fields for Frame Size and Weight. I'm guessing that M is for metric - and that's why 2010 no longer has separate symbols for imperial and metric. But that's a guess - I don't know that for sure. hth michaelk

In 2010, there are two record formats. Once called "Light Info Record" and one called "Light Info Record M". Open your "library" file (the one with your own symbols) in VW 2010 In the Resource Browser - browse a document to a "stock" instrument resource, like ETC. Those two record formats will be under the Record Formats heading. Select them both and import. hth michaelk

Dave Are you using the Spotlight Inst. Insertion Tool (in the Spotlight workspace)? The symbol (Halogen Par38 60w flood) has a light object imbedded in it. This is the same kind of light object you see in the Visualization Tools. In 2010, the "use Emitter" box is checked and the initial output, beam spreads, and Kelvin values are supplied. I suspect it is the same for 12 and 2008. You might want to try just inserting a light object in a simple drawing with some 3D geometry for the light to hit, just so you can play w/ the settings of the light object. Note that you can set the Dimmer (%) as high as you want. 100 need not be the brightest. If you insert the symbol (Halogen Par38 60w flood) into your drawing with the regular insertion tool - not the spotlight inst. insertion tool - the light object that is in the 3D part of the symbol will, of course, be in each instance of the symbol. To change the properties of the light, you must edit the light object in the symbol. This will change the value for all the symbols in the drawing. I would play around with turning "use Emitter" off. It will give you a little more control - at least that's the case w/ 2010. One trick that makes managing renderings a little easier is to create a class(es) for the light object(s). In the symbol 3D edit space assign just the light object to that class. You can now turn the lights on and off just by making that class visible or invisible. If you want to use the spotlight instrument insertion tool, then don't put a light object in the symbol. The spotlight tool will take care of that. Create the symbol you want to use. You can then attach the instrument record format and set the defaults or just insert the symbol w/ the spotlight inst instertion tool and set the values then. However - it's important to make sure that the 3D geometry of your symbol uses a texture that doesn't cast shadows - that's why all the spotlight symbols use the "default instrument texture". hth michaelk

2010 has a new record format for lighting instruments. You will want to make sure your library files have the new format and delete the old format. hth michaelk

I see what's happening. (at least w/ Jeff - maybe Dave, too) It's a combination of things: 1. The symbol's insertion point is not centered on the symbol. 2. Using the spotlight insertion tool is confusing the matter. It's creating another beam of light. In both of the attached pictures, the lower recessed light was inserted w/ the regular symbol insertion tool. The higher light was inserted w/ the spotlight inst insertion tool. In the attached pictures, the symbol's light is blue, and the little white "pin spot" is the spotlight light. The spotlight tool creates it's own light, starting from the insertion point (or, w/ 2009 and above, a 3D locus in the symbol) And, for reasons unknown, the center of the 2D geometry, 3d geometry, and light object in the symbol LFxt Rec DnLight are all 12 1/8" right and 12 1/8" above the insertion point. So when the spotlight inst insertion tool is used, the light from the spotlight tool comes from a point 1 foot left and 1 foot "down" from the apparent position of the fixture. BUT there is still a light object built into the fixture. It renders correctly. However the only way to edit that light object is to go into the 3D edit space of the symbol. 3 Suggestions: 1: Create your own recessed light fixtures. Use a light object that is created w/ the IES data or use a regular light object that is close enough for your needs. If you need it, create and attach a record format and link text to data to help create schedules for the electrical contractor... Insert w/ the regular insertion tool. 2. If you like the spotlight insertion tool and all the LLM benefits that go along with it, then create a new symbol, attach the inst record format(s) and set the default data for beam angles, field angles, and candlepower, etc. Insert w/ the spotlight inst insertion tool. 3. If you just want the beam you are seeing to line up w/ the fixture, then edit the symbol LFxt Rec DnLight in both 2D and 3D so that everything is centered on the insertion point. That will move all the recessed lights in your drawing 12 1/8" left and 12 1/8" down. So you will have to adjust that.... And you will still have two beams of light for every fixture - the regular light object and the spotlight light. So you may want to delete the light object from the fixture.... hth michaelk

Jeff What symbol did you use, or did you create your own? Can you post a file w/ just a misbehaving symbol? michaelk

Dave That is odd. Sounds like you're using VW12 (?) If you can post a file, I'm sure someone can figure it out. I just inserted that symbol in a v12 document and it rendered as expected. Just in case your symbol as some crazy corruption, try opening this file and see if it renders correctly... If you're using v12 w/ Snow Leopard, I wonder if that's the problem... michaelk

Jeff Something worth checking... My memory isn't perfect on this, but I believe some/many/all of the stock instrument symbols in 2008 spotlight use the insertion point of the instrument as the source of the light. So if you are also rendering the pipe or truss the unit is hanging on, it will block most or all of the light. The solution is to move the light just below the truss or give the truss a texture that doesn't cast shadows. hth michaelk

I assume you mean the new 2010 Sht-# feature? I'm enjoying the automatic drawing title references for section viewports, but treating the numbers as text is unfortunate when it comes to sorting. Peter, it appears as though putting an x in front of the number, as in Sht-x## also puts the X in the drawing titles. It might be better to put a space in front of the number in Sht- 1 thru 9. That would make the alpha sort of the sheet numbers also work numerically and not introduce mystery x in the drawing labels in all the sheets above 9. michaelk

That may be a version 12 thing. In 2010 the offset of an oval is always an oval. michaelk

Is it possible that the configuration is set to "cased opening" or the 3D open angle is set to 0? (I've made both those mistakes...)

Setting aside the when-is-it-an-oval-and-when-is-it-an-ellipse discussion for a second... And ignoring the rotation issue... I have noticed (in VW 2010) that the offset tool, when applied to the inside of an oval/ellipse, shrinks the semi-major axis slightly more than the offset value. The major axis shrinks the expected amount. When applied to the outside of the oval, both the semi-major and major axes have the expected values. That may be what you are seeing... This might be one way to overcome: Temporarily rotate the oval horizontal, duplicate, enter the new height and width values in the OIP, rotate back... michaelk

Alas, no. Viewports have gotten better since 2008, but you still can't put a section VP on a design layer or create a non-section VP from a sheet layer to another sheet layer. You can, in 2010, create a section VP from a sheet layer to any sheet layer and create a non section VP from one or more design layers to another. And you can't yet create an external reference to a sheet layer... So duplicating and moving is probably the answer. hth michaelk