Benjamin Weill

I had some issues when I first starting using 2015. When I'd "draw beam" on a light, I'd only get a line - as if it were a 2d thing. I had to go through a lot of my symbols and update the beam spread info in them, after that things were back to normal.

There used to be a series of Plug-Ins for VectorWorks called VWPro. The best of those tools was one called "Edit Text in Dialoge." What it did was allow you to click on and text field - or even better, a group that contains text - and it would pop up a dialogue box where you could fill in the content for the text field. It was a very quick an easy way to edit the text in multiple groups throughout the drawing. For example, I have symbols in my template file that I use for notes and for position labels and these symbols all convert to groups upon dropping. This tool was great, because I could click on the newly made group, edit the text in the dialogue box, hit enter, and move on to the next one. It is much faster and smoother than having to double click on the group to open it, THEN double click on the text to edit it, THEN edit the text, THEN click to exit the group. Well, as best I as can tell, this plug-in tool is finally no longer supported in VW2015, and it makes me very sad. Does anyone know of some similar tool that does still work to quickly edit text in groups? Thanks

THANK YOU!!!!!!!

a way to do this with classes instead of layers is to take your platform/furniture symbols and drop them all on scene classes. So you'd have a class for scene 1, scene 2, scene 3...etc. To quickly move between them, I'd create a Saved View for each scene.

It sounds like you have the tool set in "Refrence Point Mode." When you click on the tool, there are three mode options that are at the top left of the drawing (just under the Classes pull down menu) that change how the tool works. Make sure you've got "Move Mode" - the left-most option - selected. I hope that helps

Is anyone else finding Spotlight's Focus Point Tool to be unbearably slow in 2015? Anything that I have to do with a focus point - placing/renaming/moving around - causes the program to stop and think about it for about 15-25 seconds before completing the task. And this time is Increased is I'm trying to do anything to more than one focus point at a time, like trying to grid-nudge 5 points upstage 2 feet. I can initiate the move, then go get a drink, and hopefully it's complete when I return. Everything else in the program is as quick and responsive as it's ever been. Anyone have any thoughts? Thanks

When using Spotlight’s “Modify Lighting Instrument Color,” set by “lighting Instrument” is it possible to set it so it ONLY will modify the pen color? I tour with a small company and I do a lot of work where I’m modifying an existing lighting hang, so whenever I add/move/change a unit from it's rep, I give the changed unit a thicker, red outline. This works just fine, but I run into problems when using 750w source 4s. When I turn on the Spotlight "Modify Lighting Instrument Color" toggle, it paints the whole unit with a single fill, thus nullifying the 750 Black Cap and making all of the lights look the same. This makes is very difficult to: A) Distinguish 750w units from the standard 575w units. B) It makes the units on the drawing not match the units drawn in the Key. I'm including two images that should help explain what I mean: The first is with the Modify Lighting Instrument Color toggle turned OFF. The units are normal and it's easy to distinguish which units are 750w vs standard 575w. The second is with the Modify Lighting Instrument Color toggle turned ON. It is now clear which units have been added, but their fills are all the same, so it is visually impossible to discern which are the higher powered units. I'm aware that I can only modify the Pen if I chose to use the unit's gel color, but that is not what I want to do. If anyone has any thoughts on this, they would be much appreciated. Thanks

I use the "Where"(Design Layers)/"What"(Classes) convention described in the video. Where: Either specific performance spaces or, if I am using Design Layer ViewPorts, hanging locations or structural elements (like a truss pod). This means that, if I'm not using DLVPs and am working in a single space, I'm working in one Design Layer. What: Lighting (conventional, intelligent, notes, dimensions, etc.), audio (PA, monitors, notes, etc.), video (projection, LED, confidence monitors, etc.), staging, scenic, truss, rigging, venue (walls, steel, safety perimeters, etc.), etc. I end up with a TON of Classes but, with Saved Views, no big deal at all. I use Classes and Layers similarly to this. I use layers to broadly categorize my drawings by discipline (one for Theatre Architecture, one for the set, and one for lighting) I use classes to more specifically organize the file. (lights, positions, labels, dimensions...etc.) As said above, a lot of classes, but Saved views make it a snap.