MrTemplate

Hello Justin; Steve Shelley here. i'm not familiar enough with your terminology. what's an H-stand? if you can, send me a jpg or something off-list? all the best, Steve Shelley MrTemplate@earthlink.net

Hi John; while the import is certainly a learning experience, the best favor you can do for yourself is to NOT import the dwg directly into your plot drawing. once the dwg import is complete, copy and paste what you need into your plot. keep the origin unchanged, and if you need anything else after the first copy/paste sequence, you can simply copy & paste special any future needs. hth, shelley

Hi Kevin: Thanks for the info! Great to know. Steve

Hi Kevin; Thanks for your note. good to see where the Focus Points live. when i examined the Focus Points file, though, i couldn't find the octagon shape for the "standard hybrid" focus point. is that in a different location? and is that created in 1:1 scale too? thanks, shelley

Hi acdeslx; historically i've found that nudging lighting devices always takes a lot longer than nudging the same thing when it's merely a hybrid symbol. nudging a plug-in object just always takes longer to process. because of that, i quickly became a fan of the move tool. command-m [or alt-m on a pc, right?]. i'm sure there are other assists, and inevitably nudging will be involved, but using the invisible grid, and using some of Sam Jones' autoplot tools for spotlight both help to reduce the instinctive Need for Nudge. hth, Shelley

Hi Matthew; This **sounds** like a problem i had for a long time. that is, when moving a lighting device and any accessory, the rule of thumb was to select ONLY the light device. if you select both, the accessory "senses" the move command twice, and therefore moves twice as far. i found this to be the case with scrollers, and i **think** at one point with iris's as well. hth, shelley

mk; can you send me an example? i'd be thrilled to see what you're talking about.... Shelley

Mike: i fiddled with the Colortran 3-cell and you're right. The 3D rotation is funky. In my rough examination, there are two problems: 1) the 3D locus in **each** of the three cyc parts needs to be zeroed on both the X and Y axes, and 2) the 3D component of the "Far Cyc 3 Cell" has an additional 3D locus. Once i removed this fourth 3D locus, and centered the other three, the Far Cyc 3 Cell behaved more correctly. until i change the 3D Y rotation. when i set that to 90 degrees, all three 3D components "sat on their elbows". I'm still trying to figure this 3D stuff out, but i know these two changes will help. i know i spent weeks trying to suss out the selador striplights in the ETC Combo Pack. Good luck, Shelley

Hi Andy; This is an intriguing notion. When i started drafting, sometime after Pangaea broke up, it had already been established that fixtures stacked on top of one another warranted two views; the groundplan view showed where the stack was located, while the separate front/side elevation showed the actual fixtures, their hanging locations, and [in this case] their label legends. Drawing this and still showing scaled accurate beams in 3D is still [iMO] a Gordian Knot. you hypothesis is interesting. what would be great is if you could quickly draw out something like what you would want to see. this could potentially be a new aspect to drafting, as far as i can tell. If you have a chance, send me a simple example off-list. i'd be very interested to see it. good luck, Shelley MrTemplate@earthlink.net

FIELD TEMPLATE is pleased to announce the addition of the ETC 3.5 COMBO PACK to the SOFTSYMBOLS? series of Vectorworks? symbol libraries. The ETC 3.5 COMBO PACK is a complete overhaul and upgrade for the entire Electronic Theatre Controls product line, including all conventional fixtures and the entire array of Selador LED products. The ETC conventional symbol library includes the new Source Four Fresnel and XT Zoom Ellipsoidal, as well as all wattage variations for the HPL and HID series. Ellipsoidals and PARs are also included in two styles with numeric/text or old-school slashes in the lens to indicate beam spread. The Selador object library includes all variations of the Desire D40, D40XT, and D60 fixtures, and all lengths of Lustr+, Paletta, Pearl, Fire, Ice, and Vivd-R striplights. All striplights can be inserted as either single or multi-circuit symbols. TopView? symbols show 2D and 3D representations of vertically mounted striplights. Additional 3D components allow any striplight to be rendered either "hung" or "sitting on the deck" The hybrid symbols provided in both libraries are constructed to act "wysiwyg-y" in the Vw2011 or Vw2012 environment; when a Spotlight device is assigned to a focus point, the 3D components tilt and rotate so the beam emerges from the front lens of the 3D fixture. Like the rest of the SoftSymbols downloads, the ETC 3.5 Combo Pack includes graphic SoftMaps? and SoftData? in pdf format, allowing for hard-copy navigation and comparison. The download also includes Sam Jones' fabulous Data Conversion macros, which can be used at any time to convert data for all lighting elements from Imperial to Metric and back again in a single click. The download is offered in two versions; the Legacy Version is designed for the Vectorworks 2008, 2009, and 2010 environment. The Vw2011 Version is designed for the Vectorworks 2011 and 2012 environment--this is the version where 3D components articulate "wysiwyg-like" when Spotlight lighting devices are assigned to a focus point. Images of the libraries can be viewed at http://www.fieldtemplate.com/soft/down_etc_frame.html. Either version of the combo pack is available as a $30 download. Contact the manufacturer for site licenses.

Hello Jack; Steve Shelley here. Welcome to the Forum. When you have a moment, update your profile with your vw version and machine info; that way, when you have questions, folks will already know your "attributes". The ETC symbols that ship with Vectorworks Spotlight are quite helpful. but there are a lot of other lighting symbols out there. a google search for "theatrical lighting symbols" will get you on your way. That said, I've just released a pair of libraries which many consider an symbol library enhancement. The SoftSymbols ETC 3.5 Combo Pack includes a more extensive selection and diversity of symbols for both the ETC and ETC-Selador product lines. The ETC object library includes complete sets of the conventional fixtures with both numbers/text in the lens, or old-school slashes. there are complete sets, distinguishing between 575w and 750w. There's a second set of 70w HID fixtures. The SoftSymbols ETC object library also includes filled 14 degree Source Four ellipsoidals, and the popular Revolution fixture. The ETC-Selador object library includes several additional product lines: The complete product lines of Pearl, Fire, Ice, Desire 40, Desire 40XT, and Desire 60 fixtures. Additional 3D symbols allow fixtures to be drawn in "top view" [mounted vertically] as well as "sitting on the deck". All SoftSymbols are designed with a consistent line weight, and include SoftMap pdf's as graphic reference guides, along with Softdata excel pdf's showing filtered Light Info Record data [exported directly from the resources]. For more information, please examine the post in the "3rd Party Services" Forum. pitch> Contact me off-list should you require any other information. Shelley

Hi folks; FIELD TEMPLATE is pleased to announce the release of the ETC 3.5 COMBO PACK, symbol libraries that overhaul and upgrade the entire Electronic Theatre Controls product line, including all conventional fixtures and the entire array of Selador LED products. New ETC symbols: The Fresnel and the XT Outdoor Zoom Ellipsoidal. New Selador symbols: Desire D40, D40XT, and D60 fixtures, and all lengths of Lustr+, Paletta, Pearl, Fire, Ice, and Vivd-R striplights. Comes with graphic and data pdfs, along with Sam Jones' Data Conversion macros. Available in Vectorworks versions 2008-2011. Vw2011 3D "wysiwygy-ness"; assigned to a focus point, the Spotlight 3D component articulates to it. For more information, consult the "3rd party services and add-on's" in this Community Board Forum or contact the manufacturer directly. FIELD TEMPLATE 310.832.4700 fieldtemplate.com

Hi folks; I've just realized that i need to plunge into working with Vectorscript and i'm completely in the weeds. within an open object library, i wish to: sequentially select each resource in the RB Edit each resource Edit the 3D component of each resource Select the 3D symbol named "c-clamp*" select c-clamp* and convert to group Exit the Edit Symbol window Select the next sequential resource in the RB and continue to do this through the end of the RB. Then search the entire document and perform the same action for every inserted symbol in the object library. I've looked through the knowledgebase. i downloaded some examples and scratched my head. i think what i need is a primer or a "vectorscript for dummies" and i can't seem to find it within this website. can someone direct me to a location that shows a basic list of functions in vs code and explains what each does? or is there another way for me to take these baby steps? thanks in advance, Shelley

Hi Matt; I know that this has been submitted as a bug for some time. i don't know it's current status. in my rough tests i've found the problem seems to be confined to symbols that have been transformed to spotlight devices. and while Tamsin's workaround is effective, i inevitably [and accidentally] select several extraneous objects when i use the alt [option] key. for that reason, i just stick with shift-click and call it done. hth, shelley

Hi folks; Steve Shelley here. And that's what you get when you don't pay attention to those "renew domain" notices.... We're back up and running, with the assist notification from Mr. Linzey. I'm about to finish a series of spring commitments and plan to start in on upgrades, updates, and web page improvements. Sorry Chad for the interruption. Let me know if there's anything i can do for you. All the best, Shelley

Hi Preston; Steve Shelley here. i just got back online from a week in purgatory. and no internet. sorry to hear your woes. if you can, send me a copy of your latest efforts and i'll see if i can deduce the problem. it sounds like there may be more than one issue at hand here. send it to shelley@fieldtemplate.com and i'll try to get to the bottom of it as quickly as possible. shelley

Hi aaron; you raise many good points and ideas. offhand, i **think** you would be stuck with two separate label legends. one for red dot, one for blue. and yes, i **think** you could make whatever polygon you wanted to be the container, as long as you placed it in the container RB folder. but i can't think of an alternate to two separate label legends in order to change the two colors. and i **think** you would need to have two different fields in order to have the two different colors. even considering classes still seems to imply two different legends. as for changing between the legends, though, just create the two legends with a different letter at the end of it [either "B" or "R", for example.] then, when you need to change the instrument's identity, scroll to the bottom of the OIP and change the final letter in the legend data box, and the color would change. bada-boom. hth, shelley

hi jackalope; there's also some nexera fixtures in the symbol toolkit SoftSymbols. www.fieldtemplate.com shelley

Hi folks; i remember this being somewhat of an issue for me back on vw2008. i never found a good workaround other than using the move command. i also used sam jone's "move to closest unit" macro, and for some time changed the grid to 9" horizontal. yeah, nudging lighting devices can be as sludgy as the reviews of "phantom; the paint never dries".... shelley

hi michael, for whatever reason i can't get the quicktime to load on my mac. i'm saddened; i was ready to take notes and everything. is there a special memory requirement in order to view the video? thanks in advance, shelley

Hi Lec; sadly SoftSymbols doesn't include self-climbing truss towers. which manufacturer would that be? i'm not saying i'm going to make the suckers, but i would like to know which towers you're referring to. thanks and good luck, shelley

hi folks; once again, late to the party. might i also suggest sam jones' macros in AutoPlot Tools for Spotlight. he has had this macro in the collection for years. back to the road, shelley

hi macjm2; if you're still looking please examine the wybron library at www.fieldtemplate.com. and welcome to the forum. when you have a moment, include your vw version number and your machine data in your signature so that everyone can identify your parameters when you post with other questions. all the best, shelley

Hi Ozminkowski; if you've changed any of the containers (i always increase the size of my circle as a channel container), you'll want to import that folder as well. otherwise, when you insert your imported label legend (with a circle as a channel container, for example) it will create the default version instead of your modified one. hth, shelley

Greetings Lec; i haven't checked the J. Thomas Pixelline series for a year or so, so my offerings may be somewhat out of date. if you go to http://www.fieldtemplate.com/soft/softcopy.html and scroll down to the J. Thomas Engineering link, you'll see the Pixelline 1044 series, the 100ec, 522, 96, pixelpar 24, 90, the pixel eight RGB, the pixel brick 22, and the pixel 87 series. hth, Shelley