MrTemplate

Greetings Lec; if you have a moment, please take a look at my symbol library for the James Thomas line of instruments: http://www.fieldtemplate.com/soft/softcopy.html, and scroll down to the "James Thomas" highlighted text. There's a 3 light, 4 light, 6 light, and 8 light PAR bar shown on the 4th page. As i look at them now, they appear to all be multicircuit devices. hth, Shelley

hi searching; sounds like you've got too many things too close to one another. if you have changed data fields in the label legend manager, have you then exited the edit label legend window, deselected all objects (click somewhere in a blank part of the drawing), and then invoked the "refresh instruments" command? if that has no effect, if you wish, email the file to me offlist and i'll take a whack at it. mrtemplate@earthlink.net also, when you get a moment, edit your profile; at the bottom of the list of information, you can include information about your setup in your signature: vw version, machine, speed, Ram, etc. this helps everyone to understand which version you're working in and more quickly assess the environment that you're working within. hth, shelley

Hi PowerPC [and hi Ray]: Steve Shelley here. The title blocks in the FT-2D Drafting Elements object library are 2d symbols, but they contain no info record. there's no data or anything fancy like that. paste it into the drawing, double click to edit, or command-K [on a mac] a selected title block to convert it back to a group. then you can ungroup and move stuff around to your heart's content. at the time, i figured that trying to attach data records might be more troublesome. i have to revisit this file in the near future. as for your statement "use them as a title block, or would i have to create a 'custom title block'; i'm uncertain as the process you're talking about--i just haven't done that. i've just used these symbols or variations of them. once one of the title blocks is reverted to being a group, it could then be selected and it's scale could be changed to suit the drawing size. i'm not certain how to respond to your inquiry about the print boundary, sorry. if you have other questions that i can help you with feel free to contact me offlist; mrtemplate@earthlink.net. thanks, shelley

hello Geoff; it sounds as if your instrument symbols are comprised of multiple classes. when you're inserting them, not all of the 2d components of each symbol are acquiring the active class upon insertion. have you considered inserting each set of symbols on a different layer instead? each layer can have any number of classes on it. would that be an option? hth, shelley

hi jim; do you have to be careful to not stretch the plastic tape? over repeated usings (like a tour) i'd be a little nervous that stretching might shift an entire section of an electric farther offstage. any tricks to prevent that? do you hang the plastic from the batten when you're using it? or just lay it on the floor? shelley

Hi folks; while the thought of making the wattage data numeric, sam's note about mix & match with alphabetic extends through almost all of the data fields. colors, gobos, etc. at one point i tried to change the wattage to numeric, make it flush right, and then add a custom data field adjacent to it, make it alpha, and make it flush left. then i needed to change all the wattage data to strip the w or kw. yikes. it just got nutty. i also remember those days of excel computation for power. inevitably still needed to go through and remove the k or kw from any symbol imports. ahhhh, the humanity. (or the huge manatee--rim shot). anyway, as soon as i started working with lightwright i was able to put that spreadsheet to rest. lightwright, (at least in version 4, probably also in earlier versions knowing mckernon) has worksheets that does all this computation for you. it's also possible to segregate racks from one another and work on balancing loads in one rack. of course, after a point, it's all a crapshoot as far as i can tell until you get the rig up and snap an amprobe on each leg in "the bright cue". my last lesson was a couple of years ago when i discovered that you need to recalibrate your fluke every once in a while or the readings can be a little wonky. <*su-prise*>! anyway, i digress. at the present time i'm not aware that any worksheet in vw can deal with this electrical power computation, but i know that exporting the file, cleaning up wattage information, and balancing loads is easier in excel, and (for my money) even easier in lightwright. and i can say from experience that my attempts to make wattage make more sense in vw changing data identities or adding custom fields are hopefully harbored in files i no longer need to import from again. hth, shelley

hey sam; the cable tools look fab. i'll use them on my next rig and pass on anything that might be useful. for those of you who don't know about all of sam's great products, his web site is: www.autoplotvw.com. it's all shareware, so if you use it and like it, send your money in and keep him writing. shelley

Hello Najmy; like michael said, when you have a chance, please update your signature so we can see which version of vw you're using. i **think** you're using at least vw08, since you refer to two sets of beam and field angles. short answer, the ETC S4-26 cut sheet series B states you want both beams to be 17 degrees, and both fields to be 25 degrees. this will produce a circular pair of light cones originating from the 2D locus, one inside the other. long answer; in vw08 two additional beam and field data panes were added to the light info record. this was done so that ellipses could be projected as such, rather than cones of light. for whatever reason, it sounds like you've got (at least) two S4-26 resources that each contain slightly different default data. in your position, i would do a custom select of the instrument type, then reselect and re-assign one symbol to all the instances in the plot. then i would delete the second resource. if that didn't seem pruduent, i would edit both resources so that the default data matches. the "right" way to do this is to click on each resource in the RB, then click on the black triangle on the right hand side of the "resource" text, scroll & release on "edit", edit 2d component, then while inside each symbol, **making sure nothing is selected**, update the data panes in the data tab in the OIP for the beam and field. exiting the symbol should then update both resources to matching beam & field. the "alternate" way is to insert instances of each of the resources as symbols using the 2d symbol insertion tool (not the spotlight instrument insertion tool). double click on one, edit 2d component, etc, exit, done. rinse and repeat. delete the instances; the resources are updated. hth, shelley

hi matt; yes, it's part of SS v3, but the 3D is probably not as detailed as you would like. carl, the TW1 is a martin moving light fixture. it's relatively quiet but has a 1.2kw phillips bulb. www.martinpro.com shelley

hello tim; i don't know about printing tapes direct out of vw. i usually export data from Lightwright into word and then print onto avery labels. then i can control font size and style as needed, BIG when needed. then paste that onto register tape for one-offs, drywall tape for tours. hth, shelley

hi guys; actually, depending on the manufacturer, not all of that information may be included in the symbols provided with spotlight. for that matter, not every data pane is filled in on every SoftSymbol either. Sometimes it's not easy to coax basic information out about fixtures from manufacturers, and the cut sheets are byzantine. fwiw, you can edit the symbol data in either the 2d or 3d component of a hybrid symbol. once you click in the data fields of the OIP for any symbol, you can tab through them to quickly fill in data. and what michael says; make sure you have deselected everything in the edit symbol window before typing in data. and i always deselect again before exiting the edit symbol window. hth, shelley

hello clay; if you're still looking for the wybron line of fixtures there are quite of few of them included in my wybron library. the jpg on my website is out of date, but you can see the basic shapes at http://www.fieldtemplate.com/soft/softcopy.html. hth, shelley

Hi Kit; i have constructed the entire chroma Q series as of two years ago. it is one of the object libraries in my SoftSymbol collection. sadly i've not had the chance to update all of the pages in order for you to look at the 2d or 3d components of the symbols. you can download a list of all of the symbols included with the package; go to www.fieldtemplate.com, click on softsymbols, and then on the left hand ruler, click on "softsymbol list" and you should download a pdf of the current crop of symbols included with version 3. hth, shelley

[*sputter*] Hi guys; sorry, pounding on the book and not paying enough attention.... No, i don't have L&E strips in the ob libs. Three years ago at LDI i asked them for real drawings instead of their quaint isometric view drawings that weren't in any scale. Sometime after that i spoke to them and their people were working on them, any time now... i said that if they gave me copies of the drawings i could have the entire range done in less than two weeks. and that's the last i heard. bottom line: i'll try again once the book is out of my hair (scalp?) but until then best i can offer is the altman strip symbols. which i admit are not very fab. the 2d is ok, but the 3d is a leftover and kind of klunky. oh, but we did finally get our shipment of 1/2" Field Template Dog Tags!! we'll have them at SETC! i'll go sit back down now.... shelley

Sam, That's not a U Dimmer. That's a my dimmer. (hey, someone had to do it....) Shelley

Greetings; how about placing the lighting positions on different layers? i did the "move to back" on lighting positions for one show until it drove me batty. placing them on their own layer seemed to work for me. fwiw, i didn't have to do any visualization on that plot. with the little i know now, i would separate layers with different z heights very carefully. hth, shelley

Hello Iamawookie: in your situation i would check to see what the five lights have in common. if they are the same symbol, they may have incorrect default information already entered in the resource (in this case, 162 in the channel data pane). i would also check to see what label legend the five lights were using. if it is the same label, i would check that label, or replace that label with a reconstructed one. but it sounds like there is a similarity between the five in some regard. hth, shelley

hi pscbimmer; is the initial object a hybrid symbol? hmph. never mind. i just drew a line in vw11.5, select line, invoke the "convert to light position", it asked for position name, i filled in "silly" and the OIP then shows me that a lighting position named "silly" is selected. so that apparently isn't the problem. on the other hand, when i opened vw11.5 on my macbook pro, the entire vw screen looked like a fabric herringbone pattern. so i didn't have a completely clear screen to look at for this test. sorry not to be more helpful. shelley

hi michelk; wow, was i tired... when i opened the document, **neither** red-circle-surrounded unit showed a unit number. but before that, i first had to change the font from "archie" (i think), then i got the following alert box: Do you want to manually locate the broken reference? the referenced file "Macintosh HD:Usedrs"michaelklaers:Documents:OPUS:NR Nov1:1 opus plan revised oct 28.pdf" was not found. do you want to manually locate it? i unchecked the "look for subsequent broken references in all of the folders manually located" box and then clicked on the "no to all" button since i figured clicking on "yes" would result in who-knows how many of this same alert box. maybe this is part of the mystery? hth, shelley

hi michaelk; i opened your doc in vw08. i selected the 6" fres from RB. i selected inst insertion tool from SL palette. inserted on elec 7. showed as "lighting device" auto assigned Z to 12'-11 1/4" like the rest of the units. ran "refresh units" macro. it took and displayed unit number. seleted chroma-Q in RB. selected accessory insertion tool from SL palette. clicked on nose of new 6" fres, then clicked to assign to same new 6" fres. shows it automatically as same unit number. does not seem to be displaying to me what it is to you. appears to be working as designed here. right? it's late and i'm toast. i'll check this again tomorrow. shelley

hi michaelk; as i'm sure you know, you can send label legend elements to the front or back. but it sounds like this is not the case here. and the fact that it's accessory-sensitive makes it an even better mystery. i duplicated as best i could what you described in vw2008. pasting a spotlight altman 6" fresnel into a document, and then assigning it a label legend. i could not make the unit number become 'hidden' either with or without an accessory or a device. i can only suggest at this point that you consider submitting this to tech support. sadly, i can't remember the actual email address. apologies. good luck, shelley

hello emily; is this for **any** label legends, or just one? if one, then make another; this one sounds corrupted. if **all**, then try importing the LL into a new doc. if **new doc**, then try creating new LL. and if that doesn't work, time to sound the alarm and call tech support (?). hth, shelley

hello iamawookie; i've made a quick "1 electric", added five lighting devices, and assigned them to the 1 electric. when i turn the position summary box on, it correctly shows the 5 source 4-50?. i too cannot edit the onscreen position summary box adjacent to the lighting position in the drawing. i can only affect change (delete a unit), and then invoke 'refresh instruments' and the position summary is updated. what info are you trying to change? i think the position summary window in the document itself is only a report reflection. as to the channel/dimmer situation, sounds like it may be a singular label legend assigned to only two lighting devices. check the LL name in the bottom of the OIP. if it is the same for the two fixtures, edit that LL, or replace, or reassign a different one to the two problem children. but they are Label Legends i think, not pipe labels. hth, shelley

hello jim; Yikes! i've not experienced what you're seeing (knocking madly on anything resembling wood). this sounds like a job for tech support. good luck, shelley

Hello G: you need to have a lighting device selected before you can invoke the "assign Legend to Inst". are you certain that you are selecting lighting devices and not just 2d symbols? regardless, it sounds like you need to get to someone else who knows spotlight and watch them on the screen. or send your file to tech support? good luck, shelley