jcogdell

From your image it looks like you have the simplified class turned on. All the Spotlight default trusses have a simplified view mode which is a bounding box, like in the above images. The idea is you can turn off the regular truss geometry and just use the simplified version to help with performance. Look in the Navigation palette in the classes tab for Rigging>Truss>Simplified and check its visibility

I've had a quick look at your file, The main issue is that the bounding box of the symbol is interfering with auto connect detecting the pipes inside it Instead there are 2 options that may work for you depending on your final objective remove the pipes from inside the symbol, insert the symbol on a design layer, then reposition the pipes correctly, run the create symbol command and use the convert to group option. This will save the symbol as a group which can be inserted in the same way as a symbol but after insertion you can ungroup it to access the pipes. Another option is to use the workflow that Mark Doubleday demonstrates in this webinar. Although it is primarily focused on setting up objects and positions for use with schematic views it provides an excellent workflow for creating custom catwalk lighting positions, since everything is relevant whether you plan on using schematic views or not

I'll put them on the content list, for the generic dimmers do you have a phasing wish? Yes you can change the existing connection options but there are a couple of things to be aware of. To change the connector, right click on the symbol definition in the resource manager and select the edit 3D component option. select the input or output component that is inside the symbol and in the object properties you can use the connector drop down to select a new connector type. If you change the connector type to one that uses a different pin layout (going from single phase to a 3 phase connector for example) you will need to reconnect them before the distributor will work correctly. Make sure to rename the input and output connector component names, this will display in both the power information section of the object properties and in the power info connection drop-downs (along with the relevant object ID) If you add or remove components pay attention to the 2D stacking order as this dictates the order the components will display in the object properties of a distributor (first to last). The pin connections between the components are used for calculating the phase loading's of distributor and supply objects in the Power Planning palette (which is a work in progress at the moment) So in your above examples changing from 125a 3ph CEE to Powerlock will not require the pins to be remapped as they are both effectively 5 pin 3- phase connectors (I know in the real world Powerlock would be actually 5 single cables but the way the connectors are currently set up we treat Powerlock sets as a single cable). However changing from the Han-16 to socapex-19 connectors will require remapping the pin connections as the connector have both a different number of pins and different pin layout/phasing. User or workgroup folders are a way to save your custom symbol libraries and other custom resources like styles outside of the Vectorworks application file structure. This makes sure that the custom libraries will not get over written whenever an update to the default libraries is released (potentially whenever a new service pack or or years version is released) and for the workgroup option allows multiple users to have access to the same custom resources if the file is stored on a accessible network drive or company server. The link below is for the Vectorworks help page and goes into more detail about setting up user and workgroup folders https://app-help.vectorworks.net/2022/eng/VW2022_Guide/Preferences/Preferences.htm?rhmapid=d_VW_Preferences#CSH_92 I am working on a detailed set of skill videos for the new cable tools and power planning suite. The videos will start being added to the Vectorworks university soon.

There will be dimmers added to the default content, do you have any particular brand/models that are a priority? The new cable tools doesn't distinguish between breakouts, plugboxes, dimmers, distro's and switch packs. All are classed as distributor objects as they split/distribute power. Anything that requires power and or signal like a lighting device is classed as a consumer. In the 2022 cable tools, Distributor objects are not defined by a data record but by the electrical component objects that are inside the symbol definition. These components are designed to behave in a similar fashion to how their real world equivalents behave and provide the information the power planning palette needs to accurately model the electrical behavior of the device. There are 5 types of components, Power source- documents the electrical behavior of a power source (output connector, voltage per phase and current per phase), can be used to create a mobile generator, venue power supply cabinet and so on Input- which defines the input connector and pin hook up Over current protector- MCB or circuit breaker, normally every live pin/phase on an output connector should have a fuse connected between it and the pin/phase of the input connector, just like in the real world. Output- defines the type of output connector and pin hook up Consumer- which can be used to document the electrical behavior (input connector, power consumption, power factor and voltage range) of any device for power planning. this can be added to any symbol. A couple of important things to note, is at this time Spotlight doesn't model the behavior of the earth fault protectors(RCD's etc..) and most importantly the components have to be connected together in the same format that they would be wired in the real world. The pin drop-downs in the object properties are used to connect the pins together. One thing to watch is that if you duplicate an already connected input or output component and then change the connector type it can cause the pin connection to get out of sync with the existing components. Did you edit your active show file or the application cable library file? The cable parts manager dialogue is designed primarily to edit and manage the application library files rather than your active show file. There are 4 cable library files (data, jumper, feeder and multi cables) located in your application folder Vectorworks 2022>Libraries>default>Cable Tools Open the file for the type of cable you wish to customize and use the cable parts manager to edit its data, save the library file as a user or work-group library (this will avoid it accidentally getting reset when ever a new service library update is released). after saving the library file, either re-open your active show file (or a new empty file) and use the update button in the cable parts manager dialogue to import the changes into your application (if you are using a user or work-group library you may also need to refresh your libraries in the resource manager). This has to be done manually, so that the new parts do not accidentally force a recalculation of any exiting cable objects in your file. If you need a completely new cable part the easiest method is to open the corresponding library file and duplicate a part in the file resources that is similar to the type of cable you wish to create (make sure the new part has a unique symbol name) . Update its 2D geometry, you could for example import an image of the cable you are creating to use as a the thumbnail. Once you are happy with the symbol or symbols open the cable parts manager and search for the symbol name (use the text filter in the upper right corner) and update the part data as required. one useful thing to note is that the manager can access the part data in 2 ways for editing, direct list editing of a field in the manager itself or by double clicking to access the dedicated edit dialogue. Once you are happy with the new parts save them and update cable tools to use the new parts, the same as way as above. This is because the cable parts manager is primarily designed to control the background library file not the active show file. If you untick a part while in the library file and then save the file, that part will now be unavailable to the cable tools in future design files, without needing to create a separate template file. However there is an easier way to control what cables are available in your design files, the Cable Preferences (located in the Spotlight > Cables and power planning menu) allow you to define which cable set you want to use when drawing cables by default, at the file level, and the Cable Area tool allows you to further assign different cable sets to specific parts or layers of your file. At the moment the default sets are imperial, imperial adapters, metric and metric adapters. This is already possible, you can create new cable sets by editing a cable parts 'set name' parameter, which will both create the new set and assign the part to it (make sure to pay attention to the spelling of the set name including any spaces, it very easy to accidentally create duplicate set names because a part has an extra space at the end of the set name) You can use this to create sets for specific company cable stocks, departments (Audio vs Lighting) or for different types of cables, for example 1.5mm² socapex vs 2.5mm² socapex cable sets. The cable parts manager will automatically register any new cable sets based on the parts libraries once they have been created and the application updated as described above. If you decide to create custom sets its a good idea to group the parts in each set into their own folder in each library file. Another point is that you may need the same part in multiple sets, in this case you will need to duplicate the part and give it a sightly different symbol name, since at this point in time each part cna only be linked to a single set.

can you post your file? your description doesn't provide enough detail to give you an accurate answer. The only point that is definitely wrong is you have attached the wrong data record, for Spotlight to recognize that the symbol is a truss object you have to attach the 'Truss Record' data record to the symbol.

Have you tried turning off the VGM graphics cache in the document display settings?

The problem you have run into is that currently Spotlight and Braceworks will not calculate structural beams and the related panel/connection points between structural beams. The Structural member tool from the rigging tool set is primarily a design tool that was originally developed for the architectural side of Vectorworks and had the ability to connect with bridle added later. However I am encountering more and more users here in Europe, that like yourself would like to be able do this. We are discussing this internally but I have no idea when or if it will progress onto the roadmap for development. The only partial solution I can offer at the moment is to layout hanging points to represent the specific panel points on the structural beams and then use the load overview dialogue form the braceworks menu to get an overview of how much total weight is in the roof or areas of the roof (you'll need to use layer and classing for this) On the subject of tutorials have you looked at the Vectorworks University?

please DM me the file and I'll see if I can figure out the problems

sorry misunderstood the question please ignore my first answer.

Also forgot to ask what mac OS are you currently running? If you are using an OSX older than 10.15 Catalina that may be part of the reason for the problems since 2022 requires OSX 10.15 or 11

@Fergy I followed your work flow as described in the previous post, the only thing I noticed was that I had to turn on the event-scenic-curtains class in sheet 1's viewport, before the drape was visible there Please let me know if you are still having problems

Additionally the Braceworks System check commands can be added to your workspace without needing a Braceworks license. Although they don't do a full calculation (they just check for physical errors that would prevent a calculation) you can add these menu commands into your workspace and use them to get a feel for the Braceworks calculation overview dialogue

@JMiller that is the designed behavior, a flexible/pliable truss cross is designed to represent fixing the pipe with a steel rope or some other form of non rigid (movable) attachment method (which in the case of an out-rig pipe would be dangerous), where as the fixed definition is to model a rigid or hard connection like when using doughty clamps or burgers. I not 100% sure whether this is bug, as I can kind of see why it might get triggered. I'll contact the developer and ask about it. Not all warning/error messages will prevent a truss system from calculating, typically as long as the issue will not physically prevent the calculation then Braceworks will calculate the system. The issue highlighted may for example just refer to a potential documentation problem like having several hoists with the same ID.

Check that you don't have enable vertical offset toggled on in the insert connection tool mode bar (its the green tick icon to the right of the tool preferences)

another option is to use the insert load tool from the rigging tool set, once the load object has been inserted go to the OIP and tick the Show symbol box then hit the select symbol button to convert the default geometry into a symbol of your choice