michaelk

I saw somebody have a similar problem once. It turned out he was option-clicking accidently. He set his preferences to offset duplicates so that it was immediately obvious when it happened. I do all my plots in 3d and I've never had a problem with refresh instruments. Do you have instruments on more than one layer or class? Michael

Matt Somebody correct me if I wrong... 1 candlepower is equal to 12.57 lumens. (Lumens are a metric measurement of intensity at the source...) (unless you're talking about digital projectors - that's all voodoo.) 1 footcandle is almost 11 lux. 10.7 something. HTH Michael

I've had that happen several times. Especially in 12.5. In 12.5 mirroring units caused this behavior. There's probably a better way to do it, but I always delete the fixture and insert a new one. Michael

Is it possible you have a horizontal position that is numbering top to bottom? Michael

I don't think so. The only work around I can think of is to edit all your lighting symbols by rotating them 90?. Michael

Are you hoping to end up with a 3d disc, a 3d "washer" or a 3d profile? Michael

Bob It is tricky to get any object to render as white. The best solution I know is to create a new texture: Color>Plain Color>(set to white) Reflectivity>Constant Then apply that texture to the object. HTH Michael

Shift+Command+arrow will nudge by the user-defined grid snap distance. Much more useful than nudging one pixel. Michael

Actually not a thread here. It was in the NNA Theatre Discussion list. Michael

When you are in the "Edit Light" dialogue box with multiple units selected there are 3 buttons in the bottom left. I think it's Previous, Apply to All, and Next. If you move the dialogue box off to the side you can see which instrument is current. If you can't find it use Previous and Next to bop around until you get the unit you want. There doesn't seem to be a "Ping" button to highlight the current instrument like there is in the OIP... HTH Michael

Bob Are you trying to render it or make a symbol? Or both? For rendering I would use an area light and have fun with the color. For a symbol it gets more complicated (63 Channel Operation Mode!!??) I often do a trick where I give the symbol of a multichannel unit the first channel and make up accessories to be the other channels. There was a long thread about it a while ago... HTH Michael Michael

Klinzey In some rendering modes, RW adds a light directly behind the "camera". Right? But not all rendering modes? Michael

Mike How are you rendering? (RenderWorks, Final Quality RenderWorks, Open GL, one of the Radiosity flavors?) Some rendering modes add light and there is an option to control the ambient light... I have to remind myself which does what on a regular basis. You might be seeing the added or ambient light drop out when you add a "real" light source. Try turning up the ambient light. View>Lighting>Set Layer Lighting Options. The black of the instruments is the default instrument texture. HTH Michael

You can attach a record format and link text in the symbol to the record format. Is that what you're looking for? Michael

Check out VideoScreen 3 by Andrew Dunning at Landru Design. It's a great tool. http://www.landrudesign.com/DefaultFrameSet.htm?VWPlugIns.htm~LandruMnFrm HTH Michael

Russel You can change change any 3d object into an "area light" source. Or any NURB surface extracted from a 3d object. Select the object. Modify>Convert>Convert to Area Light... You can set a light level or use an IES distribution file, set the color temperature... Hope you have a lot of time for rendering. Michael

You want to be able to read the Focus Point Object's name in a front view? Michael

J?rgen It looks like the light beam is behaving like it should. What were you hoping for? Michael

J?rgen Are you using VW 12.5 or 2008? Is the intended focus point of the fixture one of the FPs in the row about head height? Are you trying to get the drawn beam to end at the focus point? Michael

Nick Yeah - that deselect to edit thing is a little counterintuitive. Old symbols appearing in the Key: Somebody back me up on this, but I think the Key to Instrumentation command uses all the lighting symbols on the active layer. So you must have a stray someplace. Try doing a custom select for the symbol you are trying to get rid of. Or create a new key with inventory counts to see how many of them there are. You may have an instrument in a class that is turned off. More often than I like to admit, I find that I have two instruments stacked on top of each other. Master electricians love that. Also the Key does not update itself. You have to keep running it every time you want it to update. But if you have an instrument (and it has to be inserted as a Lighting Instrument with the Inst Insertion Tool or Converted to Inst. and not just a 2D/3D symbol that LOOKS like an instrument... -happens to me all the time) on the active layer, the Key to Instrumentation Command should find it. That order thing is a big hassle. I believe (somebody let me know if I'm wrong) that the top unit in the Key to Inst. is the first unit you insert into the drawing. The second unit on the Key is the second unit you insert, and so on. I always end up having to edit the Key (when I don't just create my own). It's grouped, so you have to either ungroup it or double click it to edit. Then you can reorder the units in a way that makes more sense and format the text, etc. BTW - all the symbols in the key are just symbols - not Light Instruments. (that way the key symbols don't show up in the inventory) But they are 2D/3D hybrid symbols. So they WILL show up in your section. I usually place the key WAY off to the top and right of the plot and give it its own viewport, just for that reason. I think you'll enjoy VW a lot more than Maclux. HTH Michael

Shelley I'll have to check them out. You're the perfect person to ask: How accurate do you try to make the 3D portion? How closely do you relate the 2D symbol to the 3D? Do you draw moving fixtures with the base up or down? What do you like to use as the tilt of the 3D part of the fixture? How much text is acceptable/useful? What size text? What do you do with really small fixtures? (inkies, birdies?) Do you always use the same default instrument texture? Michael

Matt I agree. We don't have an elegant solution yet for productions that use multi cables. I'm not sure I understand what you're attempting. Do you have a symbol for each kind of break out or fan out? Or do you have a symbol for a X Light with a multi connector and a different symbol for a X Light with stage pin connectors? And when you change symbols you loose some data??? Have you tried not having different symbols for each connector, but using one lighting instrument symbol and attaching an accessory for the connector type? Michael

Nick If I understand correctly, you are creating your own symbols and converting them to Light Instrument Objects? You right that you need to edit the information in the light info record. To edit record: 1. Create a symbol. 2. Edit the symbol (2d) 3. Change to 2d selection tool. click on empty space (so nothing is selected) 4. Go to the data tab on the Object Info Pallet. 5. Click on the box next to Light Info Record. The second box will have all the fields you are looking for. 6. Click on the field in the second box you want to edit. Enter the information in the 3rd box. Hitting Return will advance to the next field. HTH Michael

This should probably be another thread, but is there a standard for moving light fixtures symbols? I create my own as I need them. But I only ever need a couple of different moving light symbols per design. They need to be different enough so that electricians can tell the difference between a MAC700 and a VL3000 (or whatever the case may be). This works fine for me, but if I was running a rental shop with a dozen different moving lights, I might really need graphic standards. Any thoughts????? Michael