jcogdell

Hi Allan These features are in Spotlight 2019. You can find the hoist legend function in Spotlight-reports-crate hoist symbol key will put a hoist legend on your plan Hoist reports are created in the same place and can placed on your plan the same as any other report or worksheet. Go to Spotlight-Rigging-Replace truss and use the export function and it will create a truss report with what is needed for each truss system. In the same interface you can access the truss inventory where you can export your truss inventory totals (use vs in stock) as a .csv file You can also use the worksheets to prepare truss lists, there was a recent forum thread related to this, I've linked it below for you to look at.

Hi Alan If you need actual lessons I would suggest getting into contact with Peter Neufield at OzCAD. He is very experienced and can provide both support and training. gruße Jesse

When you run your on pc console and Vision on the same computer they should connect automatically, as long as both are configured for the same control protocol (Artnet, SACN, MA NET), also MA Net 2 will work without a security dongle in this scenario as well ( dongle is only required for physical consoles, as far as I remember). Regarding the 2nd monitor if you are using one computer for both Vision and your on PC, it makes life a lot easier.

Hi Suni Another tip is to use a second monitor if you can, so Vision is on one and your on pc console software is on the other, makes it much easier. Regarding Artnet or any of the other protocols the make sure that both vision and the console software are set to use the same protocol, it should then connect automatically. hope this helps Jesse

Just to clarify you set the basic position of the 3d label legend elements when that legend is first created. This is done in the label legend manager in a similar way to the old 2D label legend workflow ie pick what you want to display (for 2D and/or 3D) and then position the labels round your fixture in 2D and in 3D. The drag and drop is for when you have the legend obscured by another fixture or object. Unless your plan is very crowded (fixture counts in the 1000s +) you should only have to edit a few in any given model as long as the label legend was properly prepared.

@Gabriel Chan Spotlight label legends received an overhaul in 2019. The 3D label legends can now be orientated in any direction and re positioned by selecting and dragging to where ever you would like them in relation to the fixture. A leader line has been included to show which fixture the legend is associated with. see below

Is it just that you are receiving the warning about the symbol containing 3D info only? if so just go ahead with the conversion, the only thing that will not be displayed is the simplified view of the truss objects, the hanging position will function as normal. If that is not the issue please upload a copy of your save file and I will take a look, as currently it seems to be working fine for me (2019 sp2). gruße Jesse

Hi Hayden You are doing nothing wrong! Scott is correct that the blue symbol is part of Braceworks. It is called a Truss Cross connection and represents where 2 structural objects, such as trusses or pipes, are connected to allow the transmission of forces for Braceworks calculations, you can define the connection as solid or flexible. 2 real world examples of this would be using scaff clamps/cheeseboroughs to attach an out-rig pipe to a truss (rigid connection) or hanging a perpendicular 3 chord truss directly under a 4 chord truss using a steelflex (flexible connection). There is a problem that your example picture highlights.The problem is that spigoted corner blocks should not be able to connect together flush without space for the female side of the connection or an adapter. The truss cross connection is the correct behavior for the vertical connection but it should not be possible create the horizontal connection between the 2 corner blocks shown in the picture. I will open a bug report, thanks for bringing this to my attention gruße Jesse

Hi Cam Thanks for the bug reports, I have put both into our system. gruße Jesse

Hi Scot Nice catch. I tried this with Peters own file earlier and also again just now with yours Scot and I think I know what is going on. In Peters original file he has used the old straight truss tool to create his truss, where as Scot you used the new insert truss tool with a section of Thomas truss. The truss created by the old create truss tool does not seem to allow the connection from pipe down to truss. I just tested it again by starting from scratch using the old create truss tool and it is definitely causing the problem. I'll start a bug report Cheers Jesse

It was fairly common when I first started here in Europe in the mid 90's as well. If I am remembering correctly there were a couple of nasty accidents where Aluminum pipes got used instead of steal this and led to the current standards. However as you say there are a lot of venues around the world that use the fixed grid scenario and I agree that we must be able to provide a solution for this with Braceworks. I'll start a feature enhancement request to add this. Gruße Jesse

One of my previous employers ran into a really special example in China. He was doing site visits looking for a venue for a client and visited a venue in southern China. The venue was a theater style venue, in a rural area and from the front of house side looked pretty good. It had a huge parcan rig which being as it was around 2013 or so he thought, not ideal but it's china and this is better than I expected. He then made the mistake of looking at the at the lighting console and found out it was self built by the venue's 'electrician', it consisted of a table covered in rubber matting with 2 strips of wood holding a series of bare wires a few centimeters above it and a pair of hammer style 'drum sticks' with cables attached. the bare wires were the live wires and 'drums sticks' had the neutrals attached. The house 'electrician' very proudly gave a demonstration complete with sparks flying everywhere, apparently there was more light coming from the console back stage than came out of the parcans. Needless to say my ex employer rapidly made his excuses and left as fast as he could. Some of what happens in China and the ex soviet republics has to be seen to be believed.

Hi Peter I'm pretty sure this was specifically designed not to allow drops from pipes to trusses due to German / EU rigging standards. Moritz could confirm one way or the other. Gruße Jesse

Hi ubybc The Source 4 14deg is already in our fixture library, look in the Ent Lighting Instruments-ETC-Source 4 or ETC-Source 4 750w folders in the resource manager I'll pass the other fixtures on my colleagues.

Hi Tom From your description you are trying to hang the upper (or pre-rig) truss using the 'insert connection' tool, this will not work as it is designed only to connect between trusses and/or pipes. To hang your pre-rig truss correctly (for braceworks calculations) there are a number of possible methods, The quickest is to use the 'insert hoist tool', attach the motors to the truss and then adjust the high hook field in the OIP to match the height of your house rigging point The next is to right click on the 'insert hoist tool' and select 'insert deadhang' option, attach the deadhangs to your truss and adjust the chain length and shorten field in the OIP to the desired heights. In both the above methods it is not necessary to attach the hoist or deadhang to a house rigging point and the newton loads will be displayed both in the OIP and on the hoist or deadhang label A third way is to use the 'insert bridle tool', for this you have to first either insert house rigging points or structural members using the appropriate tool and then go into the bridle preferences in the spotlight rigging menu to tell the tool which it should attach to. Next select the 'insert bridle tool' and select the type of bridle you want to insert (single/ deadhang, 2 leg, 3leg, etc) then insert your bridles. The advantage of this last method is that the bridle tool will generate diagrams of the bridles and associated material lists for your rigging team, both saving time on the get in day and helping with the pack list planning. If you need any further help give me a shout using Slack or by email and we can share a screen, I am based in Berlin so the time difference is not a big problem. gruße Jesse