Edward Joseph

Hey Bud, I've been trying to break things over here since I read your post. It does look like we're having an issue with focus - and engineering is aware of it so they should be working on a fix. - Prisms and animation wheels all sort of work the same way so on certain fixtures, the issue would affect those features. As for flat beams, this one is an easy fix! Just crank up Volumetric Quality. If you have it super low, beams will start to look like paper (for weaker GPUs) as you roll it up, the beam becomes more defined, and the particles in the beam become more fine, making it look much better. Adjust this value to where you want - balancing performance and quality, although I find in my main Vision rig I can just keep it at 100 - there isn't much of a hit really.

Ah, that's actually great news! What happened is, as soon as you made the connection, you must have been telling vision to turn on a bunch of lights, so it did it all at once. Vision will crash to desktop to save your GPU. Unlike video games, or something we can predict GPU load, we don't have any idea how many lights the user will turn on at once, so to save the GPU from overheating and well...melting, we crash out. Bring your lights to 0 and bring them up one at a time, and see if they respond. If you are crashing when just bringing up a normal amount of lights, you're probably running into a GPU limitation - our minimum is a GTX 580 or equivalent benchmark. More info here: Also, make sure you're not sending over any needlessly complex geometry. Vision is essentially running something between a fast and final quality renderworks 60 times per second, so avoid things like truss symbols (which model nuts and bolts for some reason), large amounts of soft goods (smooth = more polygons = more GPU load), and stage tool stages with the support posts rendered (you can't see them anyway). All of this is subjective, and I just trim what I need to depending on the show and my hardware.

Hey Robert, Exporting to Vision will definitely take longer if those circles are just extruded. Converting to generic solid changes them to straight line polygons (decagons I think?). Basically, Vision takes whatever is in vectorworks and converts to a mesh (vertices specifically) and re-creates it. If you're not seeing a performance impact in Vision, use extrudes. Since you are using 2018, you can also convert them to meshes, then go to Modify>Simplify mesh and simplify until you get the performance you want. Just eyeballing your scene, I don't see anything crazy like soft goods, truss symbols or anything like that. You should be good, but let me know.

That's a weird one. What happens when you export without changing 3d orientation, still pointing straight up? Also, are you able to select the fixture in Vision and change Rotate X? Does it rotate as expected? Lastly, is the fixture attached to a lighting position or is it floor-mounted?

No problemo! Nope, no specific IP address. They should be in the same subnet (i.e. Both 192.168.X or 10.0.0.X) but if you just leave everything to DHCP they will be by default. Luckily, most manufacturers seem to have done away with the specific IP addresses. But yeah, you've got it then, just tell the offline to send something and vision to listen for it (DMX>Change DMX Provider). If they're on the same computer, they just connect auto-magically.

Hey Mauro, I will write a new one, it looks like when we migrated to the new forums that article got lost somewhere. If you have an MA2 (or dot2) console, just plug it in, send artnet or sACN and change dmx provider in Vision to artnet or scan, that's it. If you are using ma2onPC, and are in a windows environment you can use MA-Net (ACT hasn't made a driver for mac). Download and install the MA driver from: http://www.actlighting.com/MA/software/utility/ESP%20Vision/gMA-ESPVision[3.100][6.800]-v1.220.zip Then go to Control Panel>Sort by icons> ESP – grandma driver. Change it to ma-net 2, and 127.0.0.1 if using ma on the same computer as vision, or the other option (it will be your computer’s Ip address) if sending across a network. Luckily the article that was lost is also the easiest one to explain. Give us a shout at tech@vectorworks.net if you have any trouble!

Hey Pat! To home fixtures in Vision, the fixtures need to be sent DMX to home (when you patch them in, the console automatically sends 50% to pan and tilt), Vision fixtures will act exactly like actual movers will when they aren't getting DMX - they will point down to their bases. To control lights (including turning them on, rolling in gobos, etc) you would need to either plug in a console, or you could use an offline editor. The current versions of the ETC offline software work just fine. Just set them to braodcast either artnet or sACN and you have full control. Just keep in mind, with most offline editors, if you don't have a wing, or a license for the software, you will get a quick blackout blink every minute or 2 (this is kind of a passive-agressive way of console manufacturers telling you to buy and use a console - it will happen with real lights too.) Now, for why we don't have a built-in console. There are no open source consoles. So basically, if we were to make a console, none of the changes you made could be imported by a real desk. It's possible to create some function to control moving heads - but I assume it would take a hefty amount of time to implement - for not a whole lot of usability. I'd totally recommend the etc offline editor though, you can import your showfile from it into your Ion when you're done too!

Yep! LED instruments have their color set by DMX, you can't add a gel to an LED and Vision is aware of that. Well....I suppose you could tape one to the front of an LED fixture, but im not 100% sure how that would work out lol.

It should also be noted that changing the texture to x.cap from PC: C:/Program Files/Common Files/Vectorworks 2018/textures/app/ or /MacHD/Library/Application Support/Vectorworks 2017/textures/app/ on mac, initiates the capture device dialog - for those who are intending to use capture devices.

Hey Gaspar, if somehow you were using identical hardware, it wouldn't matter which OS you were using. I haven't really seen a difference in the two when dual booting.

Hey Tobias, here are direct links to the 2018 installers: http://release.vectorworks.net/nnapub/all/2018/SP0/391023/Vision2018-391023-installer1-win.exe http://release.vectorworks.net/nnapub/all/2018/SP0/391023/Vision2018-391023-installer1-osx.dmg For those who are viewing this, keep in mind: if your Vision subscription expired before the release for Vision 2018, you will not have access to Vision 2018.

I cant comment too much on the internal architecture, but I will add my two cents on external GPUs. First, I'd say overall, not worth the money. As Daniel aptly pointed out, often a custom built PC will be cheaper, and far outperform the mac (external aside, due to limited GPU options and....limited mobo performance). Mac Mobos are made by foxconn, and err....not made well. We're talking PCIe x4 slots, shoddy, non-modular PSUs, etc. But the question of the day is really, how does the external stack up? The problem we run into is the connection first and foremost. Thunderbolt 1 has a transfer rate of 10Gbps, T2: 20Gbps, T3:40Gbps. While this sounds great on paper, and is DEFINITELY great for storage devices (HDD, SSD, etc) A PCIe 3.0 x8 slot offers 63.01Gbps transfer rates. An x16 slot offers 126.03Gbps, if my math is right ((8GTs x lanes) x (128b/130b) = Transfer rate in Gbps where 128b/130b accounts for encoding. Double check that, my math is a little rusty lol. (Sorry Mr. Oswald, you were right, I would use it.) This leaves us with the connection itself bottlenecking, Vision aside. Now, Vision looks for the first GPU, or the primary, on both mac and windows. This can cause some issues with auto GPU switching on some laptops (windows and mac) as well, as Vision will initialize while being bound to the card it sees first. Maybe @bbudzonknows something about the logistics of identifying a switch, but that's a bit above me so I won't comment. For the easy, and less expensive solution, if anyone needs any tips on building a custom rig, tuned for Vision let me know, I can totally help with keeping costs down and maximizing performance.

That's weird, usually if one works the other should. Have you updated to High Sierra? Can you send us over a system report to tech@vectorworks.net? (Apple>About this Mac> System Report, then file>save) Please also send over your dongleID if you have it along with the name and info your license is registered to.

Hey Anthony, the workflow is pretty simple for getting a screen into Vision, it essentially consists of: Create an extrude the size of your screen Create a renderworks texture, change the color field to "image", use ANY image. Apply the texture to your extrude and size to fit using the render tab in the object info palette. With the object selected, go to Spotlight>Visualization>Select Vision Video Source> Select either file (and browse for a video file) or Capture Device, then click OK. Now when you open that file in Vision, your video will play, or a window will pop up asking which capture device you want to use. Now to address your other questions: CITP is not currently supported, but we are looking into it. Also, the posts you are referring to are in relation to some capture cards not working on Windows. Currently there doesn't SEEM to be an issue on mac (the facetime camera populates and works) but I don't have any other devices to test with.

Hey there! Grab the Vision 2017 sp3 installer from here: the Vision updater only updates Vision's internal library currently. If you run that installer with Vision and Vectorworks both closed, it should fix your missing fixture mode issue.

That is one beautiful build! Remember to buy a case and a cpu cooler! For air, I fancy the hyper 212 evo coolers, I've used them extensively, and for liquid I like the 240/280mm corsair all in one coolers for ease of installation. I'd also recommend looking at the corsair modular power supplies, way cheaper and a better rating. Price check this stuff on newegg as well, I'm seeing 1080Ti's run about $800 as opposed to the 1200 you have above. That ram seems a bit steep in price as well (plus, that benefit you'll see in VW but I personally haven't seen anything that I needed more than my 32gb for). But you should be able to find some awesome G.SKILL kits of 64gb for....600-700-ish? And I LOVE gskill ram, it works great, you'll probably get a faster speed too. In fact, price check all of your stuff, I found that same ASrock board on newegg for way less: https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157776&cm_re=x299-_-13-157-776-_-Product On that note, i'm not 100% sure about asrock stuff yet, they haven't been around that long. I usually go with ASUS or MSI boards, but thats just my opinion. Hope that all helps!

Ah, I see what's going on now. Setting your ip address jumped you off your university network. Are you using a Vectorworks network license with the dongle? Or is this a standard edu license? if you don't have a network dongle/ license server (usually for a whole lab) then the easiest way is to write your network info down (IP address/ subnet mask/default gateway) that you set up with the tutorial for the PC. Then switch your IPv4 settings back to obtain an IP address automatically. Then activate Vectorworks, then switch it back to "use the following IP address" and enter in your info you wrote down. Once activated, VW should stay activated without any issues. NOTE: I am assuming your educational institution is doing what every other one I've worked with is in that they are using your network as a training network, which is why you have things like IP-locked services (can't access the internet without being on a certain IP address, etc). I would find the nearest IT person, and show them my reply here, or the whole thread, and save yourself a ton of headache. Without directly accessing your school's network, I don't know how it's set up, and very rarely, do instructors either haha.

Pat, I'll address your questions one at a time. 1. This would be utilizing a network switch or "hub" if you will. I would direct this question to your IT department, as the last time I was teaching a university course, everything was permanently wired to a switch hidden in some mystery room somewhere. 2. We have a great number of users that have Ion consoles, mostly universities. The DMX connectivity article is verbose, erring on the side of too long, so we could cover every possible step. Essentially the process simplified is this: plug your console and all computers into a network switch. make sure your console and computer ip addresses are in the same subnet (the first 3 numbers are the same). Then send artnet or sACN from the console. From Vision, select DMX>Change DMX provider>Artnet/sACN(whichever you are sending). 3. I definitely can't speak to the marketing efforts. I Have my hands a bit full on the support and development side of things but I will forward your concerns to the marketing team.

Oh I see what you mean now, "Looked At" is that cool little widget that shows you the scene orientation, (blue green and red lines in the center of the scene)

We are looking into prisms, there seems to be a bug with some prism fixtures which may be due to our control channel fix. (things like the vl4k, PRG Bad Boy, etc should be working as intended now.)

Hey Robert, Glad to hear you like the new features! As for the negatives, Render Still improvements are on the list but right now capture devices take priority. DMX Xforms are currently in Vision 2018, in the properties window, we just haven't added the node system back in. We are currently exploring other options for this feature that are more user-friendly. Object to RGB light conversion is still in the works, it was much easier to implement in the old rendering system of Vision 2.3, but we are looking into it.

Hey Daniel, Vision 2.3 was built initially back in....2006? So it's using a pretty old version of DirectX (7 I believe) which caused a few issues, like not being able to properly produce black. If you are still using Vision 2.3 try lowering exposure as well, as that is also attached to geometry. For the record, 2018 was just released and the installers can be found here: http://release.vectorworks.net/nnapub/all/2018/SP0/391023/Vision2018-391023-installer1-win.exe http://release.vectorworks.net/nnapub/all/2018/SP0/391023/Vision2018-391023-installer1-osx.dmg We've added bloom, performance improvements, better beams, animated haze, all sorts! We've also fixed that pesky control channel issue with things like the VL4k's. Capture devices are #1 on my list, and I make sure the dev team knows it, it would be great if you guys could let us know how it works out for your respective capture devices.

Hey Gaspar, it looks like we just jumped to 2018 for public release. SP4 was a test build, but 2018 is a much, much better version. Here are the installers for those who need them: http://release.vectorworks.net/nnapub/all/2018/SP0/391023/Vision2018-391023-installer1-win.exe http://release.vectorworks.net/nnapub/all/2018/SP0/391023/Vision2018-391023-installer1-osx.dmg Check out the new environmental features, animated haze, buttery smoothness, and improved rendering quality!

Hiccups I expect, especially out of offline editors, but it's great to hear that 2.6.1 is working. With the Design Summit and 2018 release, testing time has been limited. For those who haven't been notified, here are the installers: http://release.vectorworks.net/nnapub/all/2018/SP0/391023/Vision2018-391023-installer1-win.exe http://release.vectorworks.net/nnapub/all/2018/SP0/391023/Vision2018-391023-installer1-osx.dmg Check out the new environmental features, animated haze, buttery smoothness, and improved rendering quality!