Ryan Lilly

I have entered my most commonly used DMX footprint in the Light Info Record(since most of them are wrong by default anyway), but that still does no fix the issue of needing to open another software or open a reference manual to check each other fixture mode when I need something different, so I can manually enter the footprint. With fixtures having MANY DMX modes and channel counts, its really cumbersome when an LD says put those in "Extended", or "Tour" mode, not to be able to bring those up by name and channel count. Using GDTF could remedy this somewhat, but if we should be able to associate GDTF modes that are only applicable to a particular lighting device. It makes no sense to patch a Marin Mac Viper Profile, and have to sort through 20 other manufacture and fixture types, it should just show modes available to a Mac Viper Profile. Thanks anyway, and I hope to see some refinement of these features in the future.

A LOT of fixtures in the library do not have fixture modes included in the dropdown menu. Is there a particular spot where I can edit the record or database to include the proper modes? Really, I just want the DMX footprint to be populated correctly, without having to double check each fixture footprint from the manual, or from its MA console profile. Someone on Facebook had mentioned that the Fixture mode is used for export to Vision, and that's is fine, but I DO NOT care about the fixtures' function in VISION, as I do not and will never use Vision. I just need it to populate the DMX footprint field so I can patch easily. As a side note, if this is true, Vision must have a terribly lacking fixture library. Someone on Facebook recommended using GDTF instead. While I would have to make files for a lot of fixtures, I am not opposed to doing it, however it Vectorworks does not keep the proper modes for each fixture in the dropdown menu. Instead, you must click "other" and then navigate a separate menu. Is there a way to keep just the modes for each symbol in the GDTF dropdown? Is there a way to select a default GDTF or Fixture mode when I add the fixture to my document? (I have reset the record for default DMX footprint to my most commonly used mode, but this seems like a legacy issue, that should be replaced with fixture mode or GDTF).

@awlightingdesigns I have not used blender for anything in quite a while. For some reason most of my .3DS and .STL exports have worked fine recently(mostly simple objects made from extrudes and solid additions/subtractions). In Blender, I think there was a plugin made for 3d printing, that had a very quick way to reverse normal. Basically it puts a bunch of tiny arrows around your model to indicate the face, but I'm pretty sure it was a separate add on/plugin, that streamlined the process, though I'm sure you can do it anyway, I'm just not sure how. Learning Blender was on my to do list during quarantine, and the closet I got was planing some video games that could have been made with Blender.

I know this is a month old, but... Look at Shadow Cloud Gaming. I have one friend running Vectorworks on it. Basically at this point you are remotely accessing an 8-core/12gig/GTX1080 computer. Your local machine is basically a KVM switch. It will run on almost any Windows 10, Mac, Android, or iOS device. You are limited to one screen though.

I did have to edit the 2D component of the Breakout label, as the text boxes were too small to fit the multiple circuit numbers when you have two-fers, but Its working perfect now.

Thanks Jesse. That's where I started and I the labels were still not populating for some reason, opened a new document and it worked fine. Who knows.It was an old file I started with, so there could have been something funky going on in there.

I have had this problem occasionally. Even though people have always insisted that all objects in vectorworks have double faced normals, an nobody had a way to check normals in Vectorworks. I think maybe they are correct, but the reversed normals are an artifact of the export. I have inadvertently printed a solid block of PLA, because Vectorworks reversed the normals on one of my models. The solution I use is to open the object in Blender and check and fix all the normals before importing it into MA3D. I don't remember the exact process, but Blender is free and with a bit of Googling, I figured it out pretty quick. One other suggestion, If you don't need to see the legs or construction of the stage decks, set your deck style to "simple". This will basically just export it as a solid box. This is a lot less for MA3D to render.

Using VW 2020. This probably comes down to my lack of understanding on creating and editing records, but any help would be appreciated. I cannot seem to find a tutorial that explains these tools in depth. When using the multi cable tool, and circuiting fixtures using "assign multicable circuits" tool, shouldn't the circuit 1-6 fields in the breakout label be able to auto fill with the channel numbers? If so, how do I change what field those are linked to? Also, using the using "assign multicable circuits" by default, it sets 2 fields, circuit name and circuit number, how do I make both of those go into just the number field? So the Circuit number would be "A1" rather than "A" being in the name field, and "1" being in the number field. Third, is there a way to have the "assign multicable circuit" tool only assign circuits and not draw the cable paths? Or maybe just have the paths in a separate class that stays hidden?