michaelk

Andrew I think it's a matter of personal taste. I used to share your opinion because it makes it easy to switch to other views if all or most of the drawing is in one layer. But now I enjoy having a few more layers and a lot of classes. You can't set the stacking order of classes. If I go back and add a new piece of scenery or masking I don't want it to float above the lights in plan view. And I don't want to spent time sending objects backwards and forwards. Layers allows you to control what gets drawn on top of what in plan view. The Stack Layers command makes it easy to keep all the layers in the same view. That being said, I also use a lot of classes, for pretty much the same reasons you state. I do a variation of your loci class trick. And for shows that have moving scenery, I like to put each move in a different class. -But I have scenery on it's own layer so I can control it's stacking order in the drawing. I find having symbols with elements made of multiple classes a very powerful tool. That's probably only $.01's worth... Michael

Thanks. I've sent a .mcd with only the level with the problem. The NURBS option was unchecked. Michael

Scott I find that renderings (Open GL, RenderWorks, and Radiosity) look better after I turn off all the ambient light and switch the background to black. MK

Do you still have 9.5 on the same machine? Is it possible that 11.5 is trying to use a 9.5.1 tool? You might need to reinstall... MK

I have two Seating Layout requests: 1. I would like to be able to have the focus point of a seating layout snap to an object (like a locus or center of an arc.) 2. (and this one makes my brain hurt...) (And maybe someone already has a good work around for this) I would like to be able to create a seating layout with seating symbols that have only one arm, and then add the missing arm to one end of each row. Currently, you have to use symbols with two arms (in real life, of course, there is only one arm between seats and you get to fight with your neighbor over arm real estate in theatres and coach seats on airplanes) because there isn't an elegant way to use a one-armed symbol and then add an arm symbol just for the end seat on one end of the row. Thanks Michael

Greg Nice work. I second (or third) this motion. You can already create a fixture and render it using the IES data from the fixture's manufacturer, and the results are beautiful. I would like to add another light level calculation request: The ability to calculate daylight levels in interior spaces. You can already use VW to render daylight penetration into a building. It would be nice to be able to take the next step... Michael

Check your Set Grid options. (I don't remember how to get to it in 11. Try double clicking the snap grid button....) Make sure Show Grid Lines is unchecked. MK

Craig Try this: 1: Set both layer ambient light levels to "off" 2: Turn on one SL. Try the first FOH and put a focus point way downstage. (so the focus point is almost straight down) 3: Turn the instrument the wrong way. ie have it face the house 4: In Preferences/Display set "Display Light Objects" to "Always" 5: Zoom in on the instrument. 6: You will see the light object (in the C-Clamp) 7: Render with Final Quality RenderWorks. You should see the light hit the C-clamp, the yolk, and the body of the instrument (that's the reason for turning it the wrong way) But the C-clamp shouldn't cast a shadow on the yolk and neither will cast a shadow on the body... If you don't see that, there is a problem with the symbol or your position object is blocking the light and needs a texture that doesn't cast a shadow. If do see it, try putting a 3d solid with a color fill right below the light and make sure you see it on that object. I'm willing to bet that one of those tests will fail and you will find some geometry blocking the light or a corrupt symbol. Good luck Michael

Craig Just to make sure I'm not crazy, I looked at some old drawings and confirmed that it works. Is it possible that your instrument doesn't have photometric data? Or that the texture of the instrument has been changed? (Maybe try using a "fresh" stock ETC S4 Ellipsoidal symbol?) Or maybe you have a FOH object that is getting in the way. Try moving the FOH ceiling or clouds or whatever objects you have to a temporary layer and see if that solves it. HTH Michael

Does the bolt have a texture? MK

Craig Have you tried turning off the ambient light in both layers? It will make the instrument beam easier to see. Michael

Craig I disagree. You can render the light beam with onto an object in another layer. You can't do it in Open GL. You need Final Quality RenderWorks or one of the Radiosity rendering modes. I usually like to use Custom Radiosity and select "Don't Use Ambient Light". Also, you don't need to move the light off the position to get it to render. Just give the position a texture that doesn't cast a shadow. The default instrument texture works nicely. HTH Michael

Bradley Nice work. Have you tried 12.5? I have the same issue of resetting origins in 12.5, but I can't duplicate the behavior with your process. Michael

I have the same field-getting-locked-in-place-after-relocating issue with the label legend. The Channel or Color field will just lock in place and refuse to move. The only solution I've found is to delete the instrument and reinsert. Michael

islandmon, Do you mean just edit the profile of the extrude and remove the vertex(es) you suspect are causing the problem until it goes away? Or do you mean clip the ends of the extrude?

Ray Hey you're right! I've been doing the same keystrokes since version 9 or 10. Never noticed that Fit to Object works without an object selected. Now I've got to retrain my fingers...

Charlie Thanks for your thoughts. I've also had that experience, with 3D objects of complicated history. So I actually went back and remade this one (before my first post). It's a pretty simple polygon extruded along an arc. And I split it off from the rest of the object so the front of the balcony is a separate object from the rest of the drawing. This is interesting: (to me at least) the same issue shows up in a hidden line rendering. So whatever is going on, it isn't confined to Open GL. Michael

Try File>Select All Then Fit to Objects Fit to Objects needs to have one or more objects selected for it to work. (unless it's different in 2008) MK

Jeff Is this what you're asking?: Preferences>3D Tab 3D conversion res: Very High Michael

Thanks, Scott. That was it.

I've got a simple extrude along path that renders fine in Final Quality RenderWorks, but in open GL it acts very strangely. I'll attach the images. Anyone know what's going on? Thanks Michael

This hasn't happened since V9..... I opened a drawing from a few months ago, and some of the callouts (both in design layers and sheet layers) decide to turn their text upside down. They still point to the correct spot on the drawing and the text is still in the correct place - just upside down. In Version 9 this used to happen to me all the time and I remember knowing how to quickly fix it. Now all that I remember is that I used to know... Anybody else seen this and remember how to fix it? Michael

Kevin, I'm interested to know what's going on, too. I tried inserting a bunch of dummy lighting instruments and symbols that had NO data, including no Device Type. Nothing bad happened. What does VW do after a lighting instrument insertion that is different from a regular symbol insertion? Michael

no, no... It was one of mine! One that I've been using for years. In the data the device type changed from accessory to blank. (And it only happened in this one drawing. I went back and checked the source in my symbol library. It was fine.) I don't know why that would matter, but it seems to matter a lot. As soon as I deleted all instances of it, the speed went back to normal. Then I edited the symbol and reinserted. Everybody was happy. Took most of the day to figure that one out. It must try to do something with the data in the record with each instrument every time you insert a new lighting symbol. (Inserting as a symbol didn't bother it.) Whatever it does with that data, having a lighting symbol with a corrupt device type already in the drawing made it want to change it to Light every time I inserted a new symbol. And apparently that takes 10 minutes. Thanks for checking, but you're off the hook. Michael

I wondered the same thing. I just tried converting 6 Pars and a line to a MultiCircuit, and 6 Pars and a Lighting Position to a MultiCircuit. In both cases, VW ignored the non instrument objects and just converted the instruments. I can only get the same error message if I insert 2 instrument symbols using the 2D insertion tool, and then try to convert to MultiCircuit. I think one of your pars isn't an instrument. MK