jcogdell

I just spoke with the developer about the bookend corner issue, there is nothing in Spotlight and Braceworks that will restrict you from using bookend corners on a truss hung with a hanging angle or roll. I just tested this with the libraries and it looks like the TC VVB hinges are bugged as is the GT vertical hinge, all 3 are coming in as 2D/3D symbols not as truss objects. I'll get a bug report opened

Which library(s) has the vertical bookend symbols? This could do with being better documented, the difference between the hinge types is in the help manual under 'Adding hinges to an existing system' just above the link to the tutorial video but doesn't explain how this impacts on the insertion of a bookend hinge. I will make an enhancement request to have this better explained and to add a feedback dialogue to the insertion tool to say why the insertion failed.

If you can pm me the file I'll look it over, which trusses have you custom created?

I will have to ask the developer if your first issue is works as designed or a bug. I know that trusses do get hung this way in the real world but I am unsure if it is against the manufacturers usage guidelines, which we have to follow if we want the Braceworks calculations to be valid. Regarding your second issue, I think what is happening here is that Braceworks automatically assumes that because you have added a T corner that the system requires a 3rd motor to compensate for any torsional forces acting on the system. This is an edge case and I will bring it to the developers attention.

@Nathaniel.C The reset Braceworks ID's command is designed to update the unique name/ID (UID) of a braceworks enabled object, not user defined hoist ID's or lighting device channel numbers. This is to ensure that each object is correctly defined as a unique load for the Braceworks calculations, as duplicating an object can also duplicate the objects UID. Currently the only object types that automatically increment when duplicated (that I am aware of) are trusses and pipes. In both cases they have slightly different behavior when duplicated, a pipe will increment it's position id field and truss objects update the truss system field. Both of these object types were individually engineered to do this because the various duplication commands and tools are not specific to Spotlight but part of the core Vectorworks CAD package. We are planning to add automatic numbering to Hoists at insertion soon, but I am not sure if this will also affect duplicated hoists. I will make a enhancement request to add automatic incrementing of hoist ID's when they are duplicated. On a side note, the error message about Hoist ID's already being in use is a warning (yellow), not a danger (red) and will not prevent Braceworks correctly calculating the rigging system.

@MSLD What type of hinge corner are you trying to use, a bookend hinge or center point hinge? and what model/brand? The most likely reason for the problem is the difference in the way the 2 types of hinges behave in Spotlight. Bookend corners are assumed to be non-load bearing and center point hinges load bearing. This means that bookend hinges can only be used in the horizontal plane (X, Y axis) and can't have a hanging angle or roll. In most cases that I am aware of this follows the manufacturers usage guidelines. If you are using center point hinges and having this problem then it is definitely a bug.

I'll put in an enhancement request for this

If you are using a windows laptop it maybe that you need to tell/force the laptop to use the RTX card when running Vectorworks, this can be done in the Nvidia control panel 3D settings It could also be how the RTX card is connected to the laptops outputs. I had a similar problem with my newest laptop when I tried to run both of my secondary monitors using a thunderbolt dock instead of connecting directly to the HDMI output. In my case the thunderbolt port on my laptop is not physically connected with the RTX card, only with the integrated Intel GPU.

If this happens during the install process, you will need to contact MA as we don't control or maintain the plugin. If it is happening afterword you will need to reinstall Vision, you won't need to re install the plugin just Vision. This is a common problem with the plug-in, it often damages some of the Vision files that deal with DMX control protocols.

The error message is saying that you do not have a Vision dongle attached, which is required if you want to use MA2 on PC with Vision (in addition to the ESP Vision Driver from the MA website) No MA on PC will output any form of DMX without either MA hardware attached (a DMX node or command wing) or a Vision Dongle, this is a hard-coded limitation of all MA on PC versions (1,2 or 3) and we have no control over this! You can buy a dongle through your local VW distributor.

The only problems I have had using GDTF fixtures in Vision (for demo's and at trade shows) has been due to content errors in the GDTF's themselves! That being said I haven't tried to use both GDTF's and the older Vision lit fixtures together in the same file. As far as i am aware as long as the GDTF itself has no bugs in it you should be able to use both formats in the same file. Could you post the file you are having problems with so that I can test it? Also to confirm, which GDTF fixtures have you had problems with when merging into your file in Vision? Image 2 however is not a bug, check your haze settings. It looks like you have the 4D haze texture selected. This is designed to more accurately visualize the way haze and smoke works in real life, where you almost never have a perfectly uniform haze density. This is why beam is not visible for its whole length. if you adjust the haze intensity, the haze texture intensity and or the haze turbulence you will see a different effect. or you can select a different haze texture

Currently the only way to do this without a third party plug in/application is to use the the new MVR file type, which is only fully supported by the MA3 software at this point. As far as a I know Chamsys and Avolites (and others) are also working towards adding MVR to their software but I have idea how far along they are currently! There are several third party plugins you can use, but mostly they will only export out of Spotlight and not allow you to import from a console Lightwrite is the only application that can both export from spotlight and import into it, that I am currently aware of. It only works with ETC Eos consoles. I am not sure about how much Lightwrite costs as it is not a Vectorworks product. MA have a plugin for Spotlight available on their website, for export your design to an MA2. This was just updated! ETC have a plugin that will export your Spotlight file into the Augment3D software (no idea how well this works, as Augment is still beta testing) These are the only ones I am aware of but there may be others available

@matdogger I have just had a quick look through your file, from what I can see the the base problem is that almost all the truss used in this design has been custom created and the geometry is far to complex. Complex geometry has a huge performance impact in Spotlight, Vision and will affect the MVR export process as well. This often happens when a symbol is created by importing a DWG based symbol or 'block' from the manufacturers website. Most manufacturer provided DWG truss symbols have an insane level of detail in the geometry, for example the connecting plates at the ends of the trusses have the company logo etched into them. Which for Lighting design, pre-vis and technical planning is just not needed. Another issue is that instead of being a single object DWG blocks often import as nested groups of groups of objects, so a single truss symbol can consist of close to a 100 separate objects. There are a couple of solutions that you can do, The easiest is to swap the custom truss symbols out for symbols that are in our libraries, not ideal I know since we only have a limited James Thomas library, so you would have to use another brand and or model to represent the trusses A second option would be to use the older straight truss tool to create new symbols based on the James Thomas truss measurements The last would be to edit your truss symbols to simplify the geometry, delete any unnecessary geometry (the symbol i looked at for example had re-enforcing plates inside the truss chords), convert all geometry objects into generic solids (Modify-convert-convert to generic solids) and then combine the generic solids into a single object (model-add solids). You will probably also have to run the un-group command multiple times before you can access all of the geometry in the symbols

Thanks for the update, I'll get a bug report in the system and make sure the engineering team get your demo file

If you want to add images or hyperlinks to a device double click on it, to activate the edit device mode to insert images into the device , either drag and drop them from the resource browser, or directly add them by using the import image and import bitmap commands. You may need to resize them to fit (double click on the image to activate the resize handles) to insert a hyperlink into the device, to the manufacturers website or the user manual for example, use the hyperlink tool in the dims/notes tool-set