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Right. For some reason it didn't take when i did that. Okay, that works... and the shadow from the focus point is gone if I switch it to locus only in OIP. The one issue that's still there though is this frame-type symbol in front of the fixture which seems to be casting a shadow (jpeg is attached). It's present in the file I sent you as well. I can't select it by itself and it's not visible when I edit the instrument. Thanks for the help

Is that the locus point for the emitter? What about the hinge/connection point for the yoke-fixture rotation? I tried changing the texture with the CB12 and still couldn't get an image. Attached is the file.

Hi all. I'm creating a bunch of lighting instruments that aren't included with VW. I'm learning a lot about how NOT to do it but have successfully created some. The problem I seem to be having is the point at which the light is emitted. When building some units, the symbol is just a rough extrude so I've learned that I need to put the 3d locus outside of that extrude in order for the light to project. I'm using the original Colorblast 12(Color kinetics) symbol and can't seem to get any visible output. It looks like the locus is set for the hinge of yoke and is therefore blocking the beam. I know that you have to set the 3d locus point as the emitter point but I assume when you're creating a yoke, you need to set the 3d locus for the rotation point. How does that work? Any body else having this problem? Thanks. Dave VW2011

I'm using VW 2011 Spotlight w/renderworks and am noticing that my viewport will sometimes go completely blank (just the drawing, not the icons and menus) when I'm scrolling across the screen. It seems to be associated with item selection but even if I turn off all the different selection options, it still happens. I don't have to have an item selected for this to happen, just moving across items causes the issue. As this doesn't happen on my desktop, I'm thinking there might be something that is incompatible with the video card on my laptop. Any ideas would help. My system specs (yes, it's on older unit): Intel Core2Duo T7200 4.0gb RAM Windows 7 - 32 bit ATI Mobility Radeon X1400 (driver v8.561.0.0) Thanks.

Okay, has anybody seen this... I'm running VW 2011 but when I try to export a drawing to version 2009, it exports it to 2008. When I try to export it to 2010, it exports to 2009 and when I try to export to 2008, it exports it to v12 (old system). Is the File menu gummed up or is my installation faulty?

Hey Josh. I tried the search option but when I checked the "plug-in objects" box, a whole bunch of other things came up as well so it's not really useful. Opinions (for all), do most people just draw the truss and not worry about counting it but just do it by hand afterwards or is there a trick that I'm not seeing?

Thanks Josh. I'll give that a try. I was flipping back through past topics and found the "hold ALT while creating bounding box" which is keeping me sane for now. Dave

Well, here I am demo-ing Spotlight 2011 and haven't yet found any great new features (okay, the unified view is kinda cool). In fact, the basic fixes don't appear to have been done. I'm a supported of VW for over 10 years but I'm starting to wonder how they're supporting the lighting designer these days... Nudging takes forever... still... I can't select truss by drawing a marquee around it. I can't select a bunch of long fixtures (ie: Colorblaze 72) either. I want to create single pieces of truss in a line (so it gets counted out in Reports) as lighting symbols then convert the full truss to a light position and use it appropriately. If i do this, I lose the truss count. Am I doing something wrong here? Is this just operator error?

Hi all, So I just built my new computer, Windows 7 64-bit, Core i7 3.0, Nvidia GTX560ti 1gb, 12gb RAM, etc, etc. I just downloaded the evaluation version of 2011 and yet... It still takes the same amount of time to nudge a fixture as it did on my old Pentium 4... What am I doing wrong? I shouldn't be able to go refill a coffee when I select a couple of lighting fixture and then nudge them a couple of times. I put together the new system hoping to alleviate this frustrating time lag.

Thanks for the replies! I'm adding my own, more-informed, two cents now: VW is built using the more "consumer-grade" drivers for the GTX cards rather than the Quadro. The Quadro drivers are more based for the AutoCAD architecture and will generally NOT help with any performance on VectorWorks. Also, Nvidia regularly updates the GTX series of drivers whereas the Quadro drivers are not updated as much because the core graphics architecture of AutoCAD-based products doesn't change as often. So the formal recommendation to me has been to go with the GTX series of cards. I building the new box today and will post reviews as soon as I can. Dave

Hi all, Yes, I know this is a tough question but I'm building a new system from scratch and am still flipping between video cards. I don't want to spend $1000 on a video card but in reading through all the posts and the knowledge base, the Nvidia Quadro FX is recommended. Saying that, the GeForce appears better (faster) but I don't really know how the Quadro series differs from the GeForce or how it interfaces with VW (Spotlight). So... opinions... Nvidia Quadro FX 580: 512mb GDDR3 128-bit 25.6 GB/sec PCI-E 2.0 32 x CUDA cores Open GL 3.0 DirectX 10 VERSUS Nvidia GeForce GTX 560: 1gb GDDR5 256-bit 128 GB/sec PCI-E 2.0 336 x CUDA cores Open GL 4.2 DirectX 11 Thanks, Dave

Thanks MK!

I must be missing something here... I'm using VW2009 with RW and am trying to render a drawing. I've created my venue and inserted many lights (CK Colorblast-6) for wall washing. I realized, after I placed all the fixtures, that the maximum brightness (dim=100%) is not rendering bright enough so I want to switch to "emitter mode" and set a lumen level. I try to edit the light in the visualization palette and I have full access to all parameters. However if I try to choose more than one light (same type) and edit it the same way, I only have access to basic parameters. Is there a way to select all of them and apply the change globally? Thanks.

Okay... I agree about the messy plot. Too bad on the truss. Regarding the fixture 3D Orientation... well, I'll be... guess I should stop talking and start clicking more checkboxes. Thanks! Dave

Okay, so as per suggestions, I have downloaded the trial version of 2011. I do like the fact that the 3d fixtures point to focus points -- it's a shame the 2d view doesn't follow suit. It seems that fixture manipulation is still the same. If I create 10 fixtures on a pipe, it works and looks great. If I place 10 fixtures on the stage as shin-busters or backlight, I'm still stuck with upright hanging fixtures with no way to rotate them (A-because they're hybrids and B-well, there's no option). I seem to recall that a couple of years back VW added the "hanging angle" option to the truss tool OIP. Wouldn't it be great to add that to fixture placement as well? Speaking of the truss tool... there still seems to be issues of selected an individual piece of truss if the "hanging angle" is set to anything other than zero. You can't make a window around it to select because in the PLAN view (2D) you need to extend the window to cover the supposed horizontal length which really isn't there. Anybody have any comments on the above? And of course, having said all this, I still love VW and it's my fav program after using almost all the others out there. Thanks. Dave

I'm using Spotlight 2009 right now and before upgrading to 2011, I'm just wondering if the fixture "manipulating" has been changed. If I place a fixture on the drawing and want to rotate it (in 3D views) can I do it and keep it as the same symbol or do I need to create a different symbol for each angle due to the hybrid nature? Just asking for inventory tracking so I don't have to make symbols for 19d vertical, 19d horizontal, 19d outhung, etc. Thanks and apologies if this has already been answered. Cheers and Seasons Greetings!

Can anybody rotate text clockwise using the rotate commands? No matter how I rotate text in the plan view, the only options I have are either correct to me or counterclockwise. I can't do upside down or 90deg clockwise. This is only using the rotate commands under the MODIFY menu. The rotate tool works fine. Just wondering...

One more question... I create truss symbols and then insert them as lighting symbols so I can get an accurate truss count in the "inventory report". However, if I create a design that does not use truss at the same angle (ie: vertical, diagonal NON-horizontal) I need to create a new symbol since I can't rotate the truss (hybrid) once I convert it into a symbol. So, now my inventory looks like: 8' x 12"x12" truss 8' x 12"x12" truss - vert 8' x 12"x12" truss - 20d which is just silly... Has 2010 made any improvements on this? Thanks, Dave

I'm currently using vw 2009 and am thinking about doing the upgrade. I read in the release that there are upgrades to the photometric area and starting thinking... Does vw2010 adjust its photometric calculations based on colour (ie: gel transmission percentages) if you use a lighting symbol with a colour value? Also, can you use two gels (ie: diffusion and colour)? Thanks, Dave

I'm sure there's an easy way to do this but I can't find it. I'm putting together a show in rep. and for budgeting/ordering issues I need to get accurate symbol counts per show I've drawn it so that show #1's fixture are on Layer "A" and show #2's are on Layer "B". If I do an inventory count, both layers are counted whether they're visible or not. Is there a way to block one layer from being counted or is this going to turn into a scripting solution? Any thanks would be appreciated. Dave

Arrghh... still no luck The label on the DVD says Vectorworks 2009 Series A149 It still fails under XP Pro install (Version 2002 SP3) Also fails under Windows 7 Professional 64bit Both machines have their own drives... The disk used to work fine (obviously). Any other ideas or should I just called my distributor? Thanks.

I don't have the SP5 DVD. The message I'm now getting is "The logfile 'G:\InstallVectorworks.exe.log" could not be opened: [Errno 13] Permission denied: 'G:\\InstallVectorworks.exe.log' This is now happening on Windows 7 and XP (had to re-install this weekend). Trying to "Run as Administratot" doesn't help. This is on two different computers and two different drives. I've also tried copying the DVD to a folder on the HD and running it from there with the same error. The G drive is the DVD drive so of course it can't create a logfile... Any other ideas?

Has anybody had any difficulty installing VW 2009 Spotlight onto Windows 7-64bit? Using the DVD, I tried but it errors out when it tries to write the log file to the DVD. I copied the DVD to the HD then tried to install and it comes up with an error log with the line "ImportError: MemoryLoadLibrary failed loading wx\_core_.pyd" The disc (and HD install) works fine in XP. Ideas? Thanks.

If I extrude a 2d object and place it on the drawing, it places it at -1600'. I managed to work around that problem by copying the AutoCad layer and pasting it to a new drawing. That seems to have fixed that bizarre Z issue. I'm also using your suggestion of placing positions in the truss chords. The new problem I'm having is that if I create a rectangle, extrude it, convert it to a lighting position, the actual rectangle disappears and leaves only the label to represent the position. The bigger problem is that there is no longer a place to "place" the fixtures. Any ideas on this one? Sorry for the questions but I've finally decided to use the Spotlight features of VW instead of just using it as a CAD program.

I'm going crazy with some speed issues as well. It is now taking forever to "nudge" large objects or zoom or do any movement. Did changing your video card help with these types of basic tasks as well? I have 4gb of RAM on my windows XP box and am using an ATI Radeon 9800 w/128mb RAM -- VW 2009 sp2 Thanks, Dave