LenLindhout

Thanks guys! Replacing the box corner for a straight piece of truss did the trick! Now it smoothly calculates all 112tons of equipment in a heartbeat

Hi All, I have a problem with calculating some truss systems. All give the error message "The static system could not be calculated". In VW23 on some trusses I get "Virtual FEM support gets load" In VW24 on some trusses I get "The truss system is not properly balanced" 8 Trusses won't calculate, all other trusses and hoist calculate normal. Of those 8 trusses, some only give the note: "The static system could not be calculated" with no other warnings on that truss system. Any one any ideas? Thanks!

Think this was a type-o. I do use a TBB with linked textfields. We use multiple fields in the TBB from the default record style. I'm located in Europe. I thought I'd tried the different characters for separation. But I'll try again. The latter thing you write makes some sense, I haven't tried that so hopefully that will do the trick. Thanks!!

Hi all, For me both options don't work.. Can't seem to figure out what's going wrong.. When I Type: =FormatField('Title Block Project Data'.'Project Address') , the data request formula turns red. When I replace the period for a comma with a space, then the formula turns green. But I won't get output in the field... Same goes for Pat's method. First I thought is was the Title Block Style I made an error with. But also with the Title Block itself it will not display any data. Please help!

Hi All, I'm busy with a large production. As part of it we're collaborating with the design and operator team to get the pre-viz up and running. Pre-Viz is done in Depence 3. Drawings are made in VWX23sp5. To quickly exchange data between the two software packages we're using MVR without GDTF fixtures. In previous years this worked flawless. But now we get offsets in de MVR. Original drawing Y pos = 3169mm MVR import (black metric) Y pos = -32800 of the same fixture. X Pos is the same, Z pos is the same. This happens when I toggle "Use 3DS export" but also when I don't toggle "Use 3DS export". Please help! Regards, Lennart

Hi Mark, Thanks! Forgot about this option. The main problem is that I have to adjust class settings after creation and that updating focus points doesn't go to well with updating the color of the geometry inside the fixture when I just tested your file. What happens is when I change the focus point the color doesn't change.. But when I change it for the second time it changes to the previous focus point color.. Can you see if this also happens with you? There is also an other issue with this way of working. On all our productions we also assign fixtures to Positions and stick them in a class together for easy viewport handling. This is not possible with the way you describe unless we put all fixtures in a group. The next step is that I get issues with datatags in annotations as this feature will not work great when fixtures are grouped. Our setup is as follows: Fixture Class = Object name of the object the fixture is in Fixture Layer = Lighting Plot layer / Lighting Plot Floor layer Same goes for trussing/hoist/bridles etc. This way it's the fastest way to make-up your sheet layers as production drawings. So that's why I was hoping Data Visualisation was the way to go.. The other issue is that most of the designers are of age and have been using the 3rd party plug-in their whole career, from the time Vectorworks was MiniCAD. As Spotlight wasn't the tool compared to what it is today . A simple dropdown menu gives you the option to choose your Focus Set. This is pre-defined and not related to a focus point you can also draw an focus arrow to focus the lights to a certain 'focus point'. This easy way of setting up fixtures would be great to create via the Spotlight synergy. Doesn't need to be the exact workflow but automating the colouring of the fixtures+focuspoints is essential. Maybe clarifies a couple of things I wrote in my first post. Or maybe Vectorscript/python will be the way to go for this issue in automating the proces. They I can get my hands dirty with ChatGPT haha!

Hi All, I want to get the older crew of the company to step away from their trusted and reliable 3rd party plug-in set and start using spotlight. The main thing I get back as to why they are reluctant to switch is the fact that they can't easily color code Focus Point sets of fixtures. Case: For a TV broadcast there are multiple people around a table that need to be light. In the rig there are numerous amount of conventional fixtures all with their own dedicated purpose. Example: Focus Point A = Presenter = Red Focus Point B = Table Guest = Blue Focus Point C = Guest 1 = Green Focus Point D = Guest 2 = Cyan Focus Point E = Guest 3 = Orange It's easy to color the whole fixture but that also clutters the drawing as the rigs are very crowded most of the time. The 3rd party plug-In only changes the color of the barn-doors or lens-barrel, talking just conventionals. I don't mind editing large amounts of fixtures with a simple piece of geometry inside, assign to a class. But I can't seem to get that working with Data Visualization. There is a way to edit the color via attributes and the spotlight preferences menu, but that is not the way I believe. I've put that option to Modify lighting device color [v] -> Object attributes -> Modify Only Geometry in the Class: "Focus Point Color" I've just took a standard ETC Lustr2 Zoom 25-50 symbol, drawn a poliline over the barrel outline and assigned it to class: "Focus Point Color" I've tried the object criteria in Data Visualisation but no results Display Criteria are set as follows: Please help!

Hi Stefan, I use datavis a lot as I prep productions. And I think it's one of the easiest ways of making drawings readable for the people on the floor. In my case I get a lot of truss symbols via DWG and redrawing them is not possible time wise and simply the library is not even remotely complete. Not to mention the issues you get when I convert symbols to Truss Plug-In Objects. The amount of redraws and updates is also immense. Offer starts with drawing version 14 and by the time production took off we were at version 27. Updating everything all the time is not what we want. So the way I do it is as follows: - Create Data Viz Plan per Truss Type and Color - Set criteria to All Objects and make sure to also check Plug-In Objects - Colors: Objects using Function Symbol Name - Then just select all trusses that are EuroTruss HD34 Black for instance and color them the way I want For the next truss type I repeat the same steps, and so on. Make sure to name everything, so you don't get confused (my first mistake when I tried haha) Then I made my viewports and selected the types of truss in the drawing and put that particular Dataviz on. Some objects needed more Datavizes to be on and the way to do that is, click on the DataViz Icon on the top right hand side of the drawing field and click "Select Multiple Data Visualisations". Check the needed DataVizes and you're his good to go. This way I could keep my lists short so the legends wouldn't get to big. Hopefully this helps.

GDTF is pain indeed. How ever Wysiwyg implemented it in one update. To bad Vectorworks, one of the original founders of the format isn't able to do that. I'm not using GDTF as it is not that important. The main thing is MVR that I use for most shows. You don't need GDTF for that. On topic: More information in LIR = no.. Sorry but the tech specs at the manufacturers website specs it all. Do your research before you start drawing. This will speed up all the processes of production a lot more. I understand more info but then attach another record with all the fixture information. And call it like that. LFI, Light Fixture Information.

Hey Gijs, Just tried your file. Did connect with me. Dragged (Top/Plan view) your topplate to the truss totem and it snapped in place correctly. Also keeping the 2d information. I just opened your file and it worked. Vwx 2022 sp1.1.

Hi guys, When trying to calculate a truss structure VW crashes.. When I do 'System Check All Objects', BW gives messages for all layher connected fixtures that they are not supported. The message says, solvable system. But when I try 'Calculate Visible' VW crashes. Have tried tearing the set apart that seems to be the only sollution. But is not desirable. This is the message I get.. This is the rig.. I took the circles that are underhung away from the grid because it gave a lot of errors of Fixtures being 'connected to two truss systems' Hope someone knows how to fix this issue.. Thanks, Len

Also having the same problem. Pan tool not working with space bar. Have tried restarting machine and only start VW. This doesn't solve the problem. VW - 2021 SP4 (B602791) 64bit MacOS - 11.5 Big Sur

Thanks for the answer, that is unfortunate. Hope this can be changed in future releases? I will submit a feature request for it or is this changing option never gonna happen? Will ask the distributor for now if it's possible to change it.

Hi all, I want to change the page size of my braceworks reports. Currently it's formatting in letter size. But I would like to change it to ISO-A4 size as standard. Can't find it in the BW prefs or any other prefs.. Hope someone can help me! Working with VWX2021 SP3.1 Thanks!

ha that's a good one. Following this one!

Mmm the fact that you can't convert to Hanging Position is a bummer.. As I always convert for auto naming fixture position. And making labels fast and so.. There are some other issues as well but that's for an other topic.

Hi there, I needed to export a A0 papersize drawing with rendering fast. So I turned to Cloud Services. But I got a major error on the exported file. I think this has something to do with the difference how lighting symbol rotation is handled between vwx19 and vwx20. This rearranged all my Label Legends. So a lot is unreadable or confusing now. But when I render the same viewport on my computer it gives the correct output. Having read some of the other articles about the 2d/3d label legend differences between vwx19 and vwx20. I came to the conclusion that this may be related. Below are 2 examples. A screen capture of the output from cloud render A screen capture of the output from my laptop. I understand that you want people to switch as fast as possible so you don't have to service multiple platforms but this is just anoying. @klinzey @BSeigel can you guys shed some light on this?

Hello, Wondering if this feature is somewhere on the list of additions to VWX. Would be a great feature. Now I have to do double work a lot of the time. @klinzey@Yordan Kostadinov can you maybe give a comment on that? Hope to hear something! Thanks! Len

As sebastiaan said! Sliders would be lovely!

Fourth bump!

Class out would be good and/or maybe a checkbox to switch it on/off?

Hi there, is someone looking at this? This would be a small but great improvement for v2020 SP1.. Hope this will be implemented soon!

That would definatly be a great update! That would also work for dmx adressesing I presume??

This would be great to have as tools in Vectorworks Spotlight! Great work of explaining Sebastiaan!