jcogdell
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Posts posted by jcogdell
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Hi Peter
It sounds like your license details haven't updated correctly. You best bet is to contact Design Express, they will be able to sort the issue out -
Another option is the create hoist report command from the Rigging/Braceworks section of the Spotlight menu
This is a specialised command that will generate a list like above with a number of sort options, including hoist id's, y- position, straight path and the specialised antways. Antways calculates the most efficient path for the onsite riggers to use when hanging the hoists and will order list accordingly. -
Other than the document settings the only restriction should be the hardware you are running Vectorworks on, but I would expect this to cause performance issues and not restrict the number of lights being actively rendered.
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We are currently testing the fix for the document units not converting correctly. It should be in the next update as long as no issues are found with the fix
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Do you have automatic classing enabled for trusses?
You can check this in the Spotlight document settings
go to File > Document Setting >Spotlight preferences and look in the loads and rigging section.- 1
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Have you tried using the Align and Distribute tool from the lighting tool set?
It should maintain the spacing correctly using Align mode, the only thing to watch is you may need to change your point of view slightly to be able to draw the reference line along the correct truss chord.
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you can DM me the file if that works, it will be kept confidential and only used to check the issue
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Are you using a template file, lighting device auto classing or possibly working with someone using a different language localisation?
Any of these could affect the classing.
Otherwise without seeing the file I can't really say what is happening, if you can post the file I can have a look. -
Another option is to set up the automatic classing for Lights so each fixture type is assigned to its own class, you can then use the select similar tool set to class to select all the fixtures of the same type.
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It may be a graphics caching related issue.
Try turning off the VGM cache in the document settings and/or the vector caching in the Vectorworks preferences, then change view and re-enable. This force Vectorowkrs to recreate the cache and may fix the issue.
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@Ross Harris
Thanks for clearly explaining, Iwas having trouble working out how to explain the differences since I'm not a hardware expert- 2
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I'm not 100% sure, I'll see if I can find out and let you know
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Ahh this is standard behavior,
The issue is that if you drag and drop a symbol from the resource manager into your design you are only inserting it as a dumb symbol, instead double click on the symbol in the resource manager and it will activate the relavent insertion tool.
I got a demo of the L-Acoustics plugin a couple of weeks back and its looking really good. We're actively working with several other audio companies as well to add more options for working with audio planning software.
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Instead of turning the class off turn off the lights themselves, unless you need them for rendering purposes this is the best option with Spotlight lighting devices.
You can either do this in the lighting devices properties or using the right click context menu (make sure to group select the lights first).
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Even after your upgrade, you are well below the minimum basic systems for running 2024. I'm sorry to say but your system is simply to old to be upgraded to the recommended minimum system specs.
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Is this a seating section or simple symbols for the tabels?
If its a seating section then you will need to change the table symbol choice in the seating section settings, you can access them from the OIP -
@Peter Telleman
Can you post the file so I can take a lookAlso there is good news for anyone using L-Acoustics Sound Vision for audio calculations, they announced thheir Spotlight plug in at ISE last week. This will enable you to send your Spotlight file directly to Sound Vision, since this is the first version it goes from Spotlight to Sound Vision but they are planning to make it possible to send data back to Spotlight in the future.
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@Wood
I know there's not anything from the Ent side but there may well be something by the architect team on the university.
I'll add it to the ent teams list of potential webinar and coffe break subjects
Otherwise there have been a number of fairly detailed discussions here on the forums about the best practices for DWG importing. -
There are a couple of ways to accomplish this
- use the load tool to add point loads to the supporting truss or pipe structure where the screen will be suspended from.
- add an invisible pipe or truss that the screen is hung from (class it seperately to control visibility), and is in turn connected to the actual supporting truss or structure above with drops or hoists, effectively this is suimulating the structural part of the screen (or in the case of a LED wall the flying bars) where the rigging would be attached.
- If you are hregularly hanging LED walls and have the symbols for the flying bars you can go a step further and convert them into truss objects to roughly approimate the behaviour of the bars for Braceworks and to be able to reuse them in the future.
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Easiest way to do this is to set the outrigger up as a single chord truss object.
This will enable it to connect correctly to a truss, allow lights to be hung from it and enable it to be part of a braceworks calculation.
There are 2 way to convert the geometry into a truss object,- add the truss record to it
- use the convert to truss Braceworks command
In both cases the first time you insert the truss you will be prompted to fill its properties in the truss properties dialogue. Afterwords you'll need to adjust the 3D geometry of the new truss symbol to have it correctly align with the internal origin.
I've done a very quick a dirty conversion for you so you have an example of a finished version.
One thing the clamp and truss symbols you are using look to be direct DWG imports and have a much higher level of detail than you really need for Spotlight (bolt threads, hollow geometry and so on), if possible you should try to simplfy the geometry as this level of detail can have a performance impct when a lot of it is in a file. -
A couple of things that may help in regards to the points that @Wood raises
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Use a shuttle file to test and configure the DWG import before adding the DWG into a design file.
This is the process of importing the DWG into an empty file, were you can check how its coming into Spotlight and then make any necessary changes to the import settings, the origin point, delete un-needed resources in the resource manager or in extreme case explode (breaking all the blocks into basic geometry) the DWG to help maintain performance in Spotlight. - As mentioned above reference the venue geometry, a shuttle file provides an ideal source for this.
- Learn and take advantage of the advanced DWG import settings, in recent years several really powerful options like class and layer mapping, adding prefixs to DWG related classes and being able to control what layers of the DWG are going to be imported have been added.
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Use a shuttle file to test and configure the DWG import before adding the DWG into a design file.
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You should be able to use the data manager to do this but its a feature that I'm not really up to speed on myself currently. I'll make some inquiries with my coleagues and see if I can find out more info for you. This may take some time due to my current travel schedule though
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Hi @Tomas Lohin
Can you post the files so I can have a look at them? (DM them to me if they're confidential)
Also what build of Spotlight and MA3 software are you using?- 1
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not currently, but you can use the automatic classing to hide them.
the auto classing is in the loads and rigging section of the Spotlight docuemtn preferences- 1
Christie Truss Type B 60º Link bars
in Entertainment
Posted
This won't work with autoconnect or Braceworks. The issue is that the 60° bar is set up as a standard 2 way corner, not as a 3 way T-corner.
You could in theory create a new symbol defintion to do this but I'm not sure whetehr it would deliver valid braceworks results.