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michaelk

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Posts posted by michaelk

    Lighting the Ceiling

    in Rendering

    Posted

    domer1322

    Dan Jansenson has a killer trick for this. I was waiting to see if he would post it.

    With apologies and thanks to Dan, this is what I remember of it. I'm sure I'll butcher it, and miss some of the fine points, but this will get you started.

    It's a great trick to make a white ceiling really look white.

    1. GIve the ceiling a white texture and set Reflectivity to Constant. (no acustical grid on this ceiling.)

    2. Make another ceiling. Move it down a few pixels in the Z dimension.

    3. Give it a white texture (or acustical tile texture), but give the texture a transparancy (Plain? I think)

    4. Add the acustical grid.

    You have to play with the level of transparancy, but it will make the ceiling really white and you can bounce one uplight per lighting fixture into the ceiling. Set the beam angle much smaller than the field angle, play with the fall off, and you got it.

    Now that 2008 is out, will we ever get Dan to write another book?

    HTH

    Michael K

    custom lighting position problem

    in Entertainment

    Posted

    Is your light position a 2D/3D hybrid?

    You may have created the 2D part of the symbol in the drapes class. If so, you should be able to edit that from the resource browser.

    But to solve your problem, if you delete the lighting position from the resource browser or rename the one in the resource browser, you can use that name again. I think that will also solve your reverting to the previous dissapearing light position problem.

    BTW, creating a curved lighting position is no different from creating a non-curved lighting position. What would a curved position tool do?

    HTH

    Michael K

    Channel wierdness.....

    in Entertainment

    Posted

    Chris

    Great idea....

    I tried it and got different, but still wierd results.

    It seemed to get the channels correct, (I didn't check them all carefully) but the lines indicating a new channel are erratic. Sometimes a group of 3 to 10 channels will be missing the lines, then if I scroll them off the screen and back or an auto save happens, they reappear.

    My question is, what happened to the original file and how can I get Report functions back?

    It seems to be related to another problem I had earlier posted in this forum. I don't know how to put a link to it here, but it is called Lable Legend Manager Wierdness and it is post #69927.

    The reason I think they may be related to a single bug is the way the editable worksheet behaves.

    Any Report gurus out there?

    Thanks

    Michael K

    Channel wierdness.....

    in Entertainment

    Posted

    I need some help!

    I have a plot that has suffered multiple revisions. 2 designers on opposite coasts trying to do a rep plot.....

    Along the way the channels started misbehaving on the Tool/Report/Generate Paperwork/Hook Up schedule.

    It assigns 20 or so units to one random channel one or more times in the Hook Up

    When I click on the unit, all the info in the PIO is correct.

    When I create an editable worksheet, all the info is correct. Although it likes to not show the first column.

    When the other designer exported to LW, all the info was correct. (I don't have LW. Sorry, John)

    I've tried deleting all the reports and report formats from the Resource Browser, but that doesn't help.

    Any ideas how I can get the Paperwork Generator to work again?

    Thanks

    Michael K

    OS 10.4.9

    PowerBook G4

    VW 12.5.2

    Editable worksheet question

    in Entertainment

    Posted

    Editable worksheet sorts everything alphabeticaly.

    I'm not sure it will let you use 01, 02, etc for channel or unit numbers. I know previous versions (10?) didn't.

    Look at the bottom of the list of fields to include in the worksheet. If you include alt-chan in the editable worksheet as well as channel, and then tell it to sort by alt-chan, all will be well.

    What it can't do is sort by two fields. ie You can't sort by both position and unit number.

    HTH

    Michael K

    Where has the Align Layers option gone

    in Entertainment

    Posted

    I don't know the answer to why Align Layer Views isn't in Fundimentals.....

    I used to use it all the time until I found Stack Layers, which is not normally in Spotlight.

    It does the same thing that Align Layer Views does, but faster and with a couple of differences:

    1. It doesn't leave all the non active layers stranded in a side view when you put the active layer back to plan.

    2. When Stack Layers is on, some tools are disabled.

    HTH

    Michael K

    3D light postions dissapear in plan

    in Entertainment

    Posted

    Chris

    You're right, of course.

    Although sometimes, like with battens, I like to create a batten as a 2D/3D hybrid symbol, but not a lighting position. And then use the lighting position tool to place a batten as an electric while using the symbol itself to be a batten...

    But that's usually the only time I use the lighting position tool.

    Michael K

    3D light postions dissapear in plan

    in Entertainment

    Posted

    Actually, you can skip a couple of steps.

    1. Draw a line.

    2. Duplicate line

    3. Extrude duplicate.

    4. Select both

    5. Group

    6. Convert to Light position.

    You don't need to create a symbol unless you will be using similar positions again (like battens)

    In that case:

    5.5 Create symbol. (Leave instance in place as necessary.)

    6. Place symbol as a light position.

    HTH

    Michael K

    12.5.1 update lost ability to stack layers

    in Entertainment

    Posted

    Stacy

    I just tried to stack layers in the latest update, 12.5.2 and it worked. I have no idea about the error message.

    As for layer links: It doesn't work that way. Linking layers gives you an updated view of the model with the selected layers. To make changes you have to go back to the orignal layer, make the change and then return to the linked layer to view the results with the other layers.

    It made a lot more sense in the days before viewports. I still use linked layers to look at lights with their "draw beam" option checked to see what the beam is doing in relation to the masking, proscenium, and scenery. But layer link isn't as necessary to build a finished drawing as it used to be.

    If you want, you can move things around on linked layer. All linked layer objects are locked by default. Click on an object (an object will be everything in the original layer) and unlock it (Modify menu pulldown). Then you can move the entire layer's worth of objects around as one object.

    In the days before viewports, that was cool.

    Michael

    selecon pacific symbols

    in Entertainment

    Posted

    Mike

    The Pacific Symbols are in the standard Spotlight resourse library. No need to download them from Selecon.

    The "symbols" on the Selecon website in .dwg format are 2d drawings only with no photometric data attached.

    Great instruments, though.

    Cheers

    Michael

    Truss Labels

    in Entertainment

    Posted

    Buzz

    I see. Cool idea.

    I usually break trusses down so I can specifiy that a unit is to be hung on the upstage or downstage side of a truss. (Or top or bottom of a truss)

    1. Don't change it to a Lighting Position.

    a. Draw a 2d line and a 3d pipe or extruded line for each of the truss' "pipes". (4 for a box trus, 3 for a triangular truss)

    b. Group each set of 2d/3d objects.

    c. Make that group a lighting position.

    d. Give each one a height. Each one will live "inside the truss tube".

    e. So each box truss will have 4 hanging positions. Each triangular truss will have 3 hanging positions.

    Now you can leave the truss as a truss object and still have lighting positions that can be labeled as that truss.

    2. I've never tried making a spreadsheet from a truss OIP. Good luck.

    Truss Labels

    in Entertainment

    Posted

    The truss and the hanging position don't need to be the same object.

    You can create a 2d/3d hybrd object for hanging positions on each truss run and use those to help generate paper work. For example you can have a lower downstage, lower upstage, high downstage and high upstage hanging position for each truss. Then the truss can stay a truss.

    Does that make any sense?

    Michael K

    Photometric Data

    in Entertainment

    Posted

    Kevin

    This is something I've never understood.

    Where is actual record for a particular instrument?

    I can find the record format, but not the actual data that Eric was looking for.

    Thanks

    Michael

    Photometric Data

    in Entertainment

    Posted

    Very interesting. If you look in the data tab of the OIP, the only data in any of the fields is

    Device Type: Light

    Beam Angle: 0.0?

    Field Angle: 0.0?

    All others are blank. Even though the correct wattage, frame size, beam angle, and field angle appear in the Shape Tab.

    I think Eric is looking for the "Candlepower" (same as peak candela?) of an instrument. If I remember, the formula is footcandles = Candlepower/distance squared. So you could figure it out the old fashioned way.

    But I seem to remember that on symbols I created myself all the correct information stays in the Data Tab. Am I just dreaming that?

    I just tried to compare the photometric performance of an instrument in Spotlight against the information in in my very dog-eared copy of Mumm's Photometric Handbook. (Found an old Field Template in the book!)

    I compared a S4 36?. The field angles agreed to within 5/8" (for a 10" throw distance), but the footcandles at a given distance are way off. For any given distance they show a value only 81% what Mumm says it should be.

    But the Altman 360Q was dead on. So was the Altman Shakespeare.

    Could be the vagueries of which flavor of HPL 575 was used for the calculations.

    Hope that helps.

    But I also wonder where the data went.

    Michael

    Label Legends

    in Entertainment

    Posted

    Gary

    I often have a problem with Lable Legend fields locking up and not repositioning.

    I especially have problems if I go back to edit the plot and add a field to the Lable Legend, say after the show has been circuited and I want to add patch information. Somewhere between the Lable Legend and the Editible Worksheet very bad things happen.

    The only way out that I've found is to delete the Lable Legend, create a new Lable Legend, and assign it to all the instruments.

    btw: There has been a really wild discussion about Lable Legend problems on the VW Theatre Discussion List.

    MK

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