BScott

I'm an idiot. Thanks for the reminder Kevin! I just hadn't done it in a while and missed a step.

Hi, When prepping for pre-viz, or rendering, I typically add colors and gobo information to lighting devices in the Lighting Device menu. I tried to do this on a new file but the "Select Image File" option for gobos was greyed out as were all of the Color Wheel slots. I went back to a file I created last year and the functionality is still there. If I copy and paste a symbol from the old file to the new, I am able to change the gobo and color wheels for that light. If I place an instance of the copied light in the new file, the functionality is missing again. All of these files are VW 2023. I've tried using my own symbols and the default VW symbols with the same result. Any thoughts about what is causing this? Thanks!

Hello and thanks for your response! The lights I'm using are incandescent striplights so they wouldn't have DMX color mixing in real life. The fixture modes I am using are "L&E MiniStrip/MS 3-Circuit" and "Altman Sky-Cyc_03". Warmly, Scott

Hi, I'm trying to export a file using conventional striplights to Vision. When I go into the edit menu, however, the color wheel options are all greyed out so I can't add a color. Is there some workaround? I'm using the latest symbol library on VW 2022. Thanks! Scott

The upload keeps failing, but here's a DropBox Link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/plydt5mbdjhg7g0/TEMP Spring Dance 2023 REP PLOT v2022.vwx?dl=0 There's also a lot of strangeness with label legends appearing differently on different instruments in the schematic view. This feels like a recent problem since I used essentially this same plot last fall and the spring before without experiencing these issues. I had tried working with this plot in v2023 for a bit before I got tired of the bugginess and crashing and went back to VW2022. Maybe something happened in that transition?

Has there been any movement on this? I'm on VW 2022 and still can't the per object override to work, two years after these posts. Thanks! Scott

Hello! I am drafting a lighting position in VW2022 with lights top hung and bottom hung. I am using a schematic view to represent them in plan view. The symbols look fine at the hanging point but when I offset them, part of the symbol information disappears. Is there a way to fix this? I'm attaching an image here, showing the WFL PARs at both the hanging poitn and the offset position.

I think the ladder tool is great and would love to get some additional functionality by adding additional verticals. Some ladders have additional pipes in the middle rather than just outside rungs and it would be great to be able to draw those. I also really like using the ladder tool for drawing American-style booms but it is only possible to have "sidearms" go in one direction. If there were a center rung and no outside rungs, you could have a boom with lights "sidearmed" in both directions. I've attached a picture of the booms I'm talking about. The double boom is made with two ladders overlapped so it doesn't function as a single position unfortunately. I've also attached a picture of a set of lighting ladders with four vertical members. Currently I just have to overlay some vertical extrudes to get the structure correct.

I found my own answer - I was working with someone else's drawing which apparently used older lighting symbols. When I updated to current VW lighting symbols the schematic views started working again.

Lately, every time I try to make a schematic view with the Spotlight tools Vectorworks crashes immediately. I've tried restarting my computer as well as restarting Vectorworks. I've tried closing all other programs and hiding all other layers. I've tried updating to the most current version of Vectorworks and also rolling back to an earlier version. Nevertheless, trying to do even a simple schematic view causes an instant CTD. LEAR Plot.vwx

Hello! I'm having a weird quirk where Vision won't render a dark blue for any fixture. Attached is a screenshot of every light in the rig set to Rosco 80, Primary Blue. Mostly I just get a steel blue or medium lavender. It is the same if I select a gel color or use the color picker. Other colors work fine but no matter what I select, I can't get a dark blue. I'm on the most updated versions of Vision and EOS. I've triple-checked the fixture types in Vision and the EOS Patch. Colors are fine in every other program on my computer and I've double-checked all my graphics card settings. I've been looking for some kind of color balance setting in Vision but I don't see anything. How do I fix this? Thanks! Scott

I never want to use Drop shadow but it keeps sneaking into my drawings because there are so many places it can be applied. I'm looking at a 2D object right now that is showing a shadow even though I have turned off Drop shadow in every class and layer and also every object that I can find. There is an option in Preferences to disable Drop shadows but all it does is disable your ability to adjust Drop shadows. It doesn't disable the shadows themselves. It would be so much more helpful if you could just disable them globally with this checkbox!

Nevermind - I discovered the problem was a result of overlapping DMX ranges. Though perhaps there's a better way to handle overlapping DMX ranges than to flood the scene with random DMX that makes everything strobe and overwhelms the computer's processor?

Hello! I'm working on a project in Vision. Everything was fine earlier this morning but now it believes it is receiving DMX from somewhere even though there is no DMX source. I've tried restarting Vision and EOS, tried restarting my entire computer. Even when Vision is the only program running, it still somehow believes it is receiving DMX. Is there any way to fix this? Thanks! Scott

Thanks Sam! I had already placed the accessories before numbering but this is good to know for the future.

Hi Kevin, Yes, that does seem to be the issue, which is strange as I'm using symbols from VW2020. How do I replace the light info record? When I try to import a more recent one it says I can't replace the one in the current document. When I try to import a symbol with a current light info record it only allows me to use the existing record. Thanks! Scott

Got it - thanks for the clarification!

I'm drafting a plot in VW2021 with quite a lot of accessories. When I insert the accessory, the channel number and unit number are left blank. My first question is whether there is a way to have the accessories automatically use the same unit and channel number as the light they are attached to when they insert. This is really what I want to do 90% of the time. My second question is whether there is a way to number a lot of accessories quickly. At the moment, the only way I can see to change their info is to edit them one accessory at a time, which is rather slow if you have 40+ accessories. I can't even do it in Lightwright because without unit and channel numbers there is no way to know which accessory is which. Any suggestions?

When I insert symbols, they are inserting with incorrect information in the "Beam Angle 2" and "Field Angle 2" fields. For example, a Source-4 26 degree inserts with a "Field Angle 1" of 25° and a "Field Angle 2" of 17°. I can update this instance of course but I would like to be able to fix the symbol itself. When I go to edit the symbol, though, it only has a single field for "Beam Angle" and a single field for "Field Angle". The listed degrees are correct but I don't know how to edit "Beam Angle 2"and "Field Angle 2" within the symbol itself. Any suggestions?

Thanks Mark! I'll give that a try. Scott

Hi Mark, I'm returning to my question in a more specific way. I was trying to offset within a position, which doesn't seem to work. When I tried to offset outside a position, then the function worked. I'm trying to draw both over and underhung units on the middle of a ladder. I'm guessing the only way to do this is to make each rung of the ladder it's own separate hanging object so that I can use offset. Do you know of an easier solution or do I need to re-draft all of these ladders? I'm attaching an image of what I am talking about. Ladder 1R is what shows up in the default schematic. Ladder 2R is what I want it to look like. Ladder 3R was just me discovering that offset works only if used externally to the position. Thanks! Scott

Hi Michael- You are correct! If I add 3D geometry to the lights, they become snappable again. Thanks so much for looking into this oddity! And thanks to Pat for his investigations as well! Scott

Hi Pat, Thanks for investigating! I'm in VW 2015. I've restarted both my computer and VW and have tried saving a copy. The result is always the same. I can snap to the insertion point and the label legend but not to any corners or any other normally snappable points. Cheers, Scott

I have some lights in a Spotlight 2015 document that I can't snap to. I can snap to most of the objects in the document, including other lights. I can even snap to a label legend if I assign it to these lights but I still can't snap to the light itself. I've turned on show/snap all layers and show/snap all classes and have also checked my snap settings. Any thoughts about why this might happen? And how it could be corrected. The problem document is attached and some of the problem objects are circled in red. Thanks! Scott Constellations_Plot.vwx