michaelk

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

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

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

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

There is a way. But you have to create a new symbol. Duplicate the current symbol. Right click on the new symbol/Edit/3D Component Flip the instrument upside down. (Flip it around a point at the bottom so the insertion point stays the same) HTH Michael

Stacy Re: And honestly, once you link layers, is there any way to un-link them? You can delete the layer with the links to make it go away. (and then start over) Or you can select the linked part you don't want, unlock it and delete it. Michael

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

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

I've found that if you make the holds much longer than the fades, it behaves better. Something like a 2 second fade and a 6 second hold.

Matt How many scenes? What are the fade and hold times? Michael

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.

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

Thanks Kevin I've always wondered about that. Just curious: Why doesn't that data show up outside the edit mode? Like in the Object Info Pallet? Michael

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

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

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

Thanks Andrew. That is going to save me HOURS. Michael

This is probably really stupid and obvious, but... Is there a way to set the viewports so they don't need to be updated every time I close and reopen a document? The rendering time is no fun. Thanks Michael 12.5 Designer Mac PowerBook G4, 10.4.9

Chris I just got it to work. How did you build your cyc? Michael

You can't shoot sideways or up with an instrument. You can work around it if you use the light tool to create a directional light with the same beam and field angles as the instrument you want to use. The directional light will focus in any direction. You can approximate a color, but it won't take a gel color.

Ken I can tell you how I've done it in the past. It sounds weird, but I put everything on one layer. (Or create a new layer that will have all the perment elements like stage, seats, masking, etc. linked to it.) I make everything, including the flats, 3D or hybrid symbols. (make the hinges of the flats be the insertion point. They can have the same xy coorinate position and you can easily change the rotation) Then I make a class for every scene. I always use numbers first ie 01 Pre Show 02 Act 1 Scn 1 etc. It's easy to keep them in order that way, and easier to insert scenes later. Then set all the scene classes to invisible. I keep the stage, theatre, seats, whatever else in a class that is set to visible. (Like None. This is almost the only time I use a lot of different classes.) Then I got to the first scene class, ie. 01 Pre Show, place the furniture and scenery symbols. I select all the pieces that don't move in the next scene, dupilcate them into the next class, go to that class, add the elements that have moved, etc, etc. It makes it easy to move the views around because there is only one layer to deal with. And you can flip through the scenes really quickly by using the keyboard shortcut to go to the next class. It does mean that you will have the same chair drawn as many times as you have scenes, but if the chair is a symbol it's easy to modify it, and the files don't get that huge. Hope that makes sense. MK

Still stuck in the same airport........ Maybe it's not the label legend manager: I duplicated the document and, on the copy, tried the following: 1. deleted the lable legend 2. created a new lable legend 3. assigned it to all the instruments They refreshed without any prompting or encouragement, and the dimmer field appeared as it should in the units where I had entered dimmer numbers. Still had the same problem in the editable worksheet, however. I tried to create a new editable worksheet by moving all the fields out except for the channel. It wouldn't let me creat the worksheet with only the channel field. I had to move another field (position) into the worksheet, tell it to sort by position, move the position out, tell it to sort by channel and then it created a work sheet with only the channel field. Channel 1 didn't appear first, it thought it was channel 117. The rest of the channels seemed to appear in that crazy alphabetical order. Then I deleted that worksheet, and created another, more useful, worksheet. And presto.... all seems right in the world. I seem to recall having this problem off and on since forever, or Version 9, whichever came last. Any ideas? michaelk VW 12.5, PowerBook G4

I've had this problem before, but today I'm stuck in an airport and I have time write about it. The show is open, I'm updating the plot to make it an "As Hung" document. I would like to add Dimmer to the Label Legend. It previously was not included in the lable legend. It won't appear. I've tried: refreshing the instrument, giving the dimmer text field a color, making the font size 36, quitting and restarting.... nothing. I get a handle where I placed the dimmer field in the lable legend manager, but no information appears. In the past I've deleted the lable, made a new one and assigned it to all the instruments. For some reason, this time I decided to create an editable worksheet first and enter the dimmer numbers before going back to fix the lable legend. And this is where I noticed the wierdness: In the editable worksheed, the CHANNEL column doesn't appear. In the column headed DIMMER are all the channel numbers EXCEPT for the units where I had entered a dimmer number. In those units the dimmer number appears, but in the correct alt-chan order. So the first column in the editable work sheet listed the channels in their alt-chan order under the DIMMER column (It did not list a CHANNEL column) as 117 2 3 4 etc 117 is the dimmer in channel 1 that I entered while trying to fix the lable legend. In the drawing, that unit still has "1" in the channel field and a blank space with a handle in the dimmer field. In the object info pallet, all the information is correct and in the correct field. Is this a bug? Is there something about the lable legend manager that I'm messing up? Thanks michaelk VW12.5 Designer, Powerbook G4

Very cool. How and when does the background get generated? My Renderworks Background folder had 6 unnamed lit fogs. Is there a way to control which fog is assigned to which instrument (or drawing level)?

I can't find it in Help or in the manual.... Is it a type of background?