Rick Martin

Is there a way to rename the Lighting Device Objects? I would love to name the User Fields to something more useful. Thanks!

Interesting, and right you are. You do have to restart VW. The strange thing is that if you put them into the Applications>Plug-ins folder, they show up by simply exiting the plug-ins editor and reopenening it. Thanks Pat,

I just updated to 2008, and wanted to add that Pat's script above now works perfectly. Thanks again Pat!

Having just upgraded to 2008, I'm confused on where to put my custom scripts. When I create a script and save it, it is stored in Library>Application Support>Vectorworks>2008>Plug-ins. But if I put an existing script in that folder it will not show up in the script editor - instead I need to put it in Applications>Plug-ins. Any thoughts on this? Thanks! Rick

Sam Jones' AutoPlot tool for Spotlight does this: http://www.autoplotvw.com/

Well, you'll be happy to learn that I've confirmed this. The stock symbol is named 'Alt6 x 9 ' See the problem? No, I didn't either at first. LW strips out the trailing space that is added into the symbol name. The solution is easy - just right click on the symbol in the resource browser, select 'rename' and get rid of the trailing space. I would imagine that there aren't many users of 360Q's these days to report that the symbol library is wrong.

Hi Sam, Yes, perhaps the thread is veering, but this is still all the same subject. I wasn't confusing the AP Tools and AP Tools for SL. I'm at fault though for not being clear on them though. My beef above was of course with Tools, not Tools for SL. I went back though and confirmed though why I was having trouble with Tools for SL. The import and export routines are fixed, and so users have no control over what moves between the two programs, and how they are mapped. For example, you have label legends mapped to LW's 'text 5' field. I use that field as an additional color field. I'm not sure how you have the VW user fields mapped, but I'm unable to map them into LW 'number' fields because those fields will not handle letters. But the idea that you have is EXACTLY what I wish someone at Nemetschek would develop (or perhaps you???) with the following change: allow users to set up in VW an import and export routine - or indeed multiple routines - and make them available through drop down menus. Instead of the absolutely absurd number of steps that are currently required (and which you have nearly solved) to get a custom, user defined routine to share info back and forth between LW and VW. John Mckernon solved this years ago with the Automated Actions. This in a program that is less than 6 megs in size, and it works perfectly. Again I ask the programmers at Nemetschek why it is so difficult to implement (or why are they unwilling to) in Spotlight? By the way, many of your plugins are fantastic and I'm motivated to buy them again - just not for the data sharing.

Hey Steve, I haven't tried the most recent version of AP and maybe I should again. But in the past I wasn't happy with how clogged the symbol libraries became - every orientation, etc. I also do repertory plots and the nice feature that FINALLY (at least partially) arrived with version 12 is that there are enough user defined fields in Spotlight to have color information for five different shows, and using classes you can turn them on and off depending on which one you are working with. Now if Nemetschek would add enough to do patterns and focus, life would be happy. Rick Martin

Smatticus, first, download the most recent Lightwright - there was a problem in the past (I forget which version though) when LW would retain the CAD symbol information incorrectly. Then, make sure that you are mapping VW 'symbol name' to LW 'instrument type symbol' in both directions. It sounds to me like you added a new symbol in VW, but never mapped that data into LW. You can verify this by going into LW Maintenance>Instrument Type>CAD and make sure that every symbol on your VW plot has the Cad Symbol field filled. You can also manually enter the info in LW, but it has to be exact - that's why I'd recommend doing it in an import or merge. Haich, a fine partial solution, I agree. Or at least when you hit Browse it would always default to the same D***m folder. C'Mon Nemetschek! An entire software suite devoted to stage lighting and this is basic!

My point on the workflow is this: Here are the steps to import data INTO Vectorworks: File->Import->Import Instrument Data Browse Find Data File Open Load Find Mapping File - it doesn't work again. AutoLink Nope - fix all AutoLink mistakes Import Refresh Instruments Here's the workflow for importing or merging data into Lightwright: File->Merge See the difference? Lightwright is not a sophisticated program in the grand scheme of things; and yet it effortlessly and flawlessly works imports, exports and merges in the blink of an eye. And like it or not, it is industry standard. Spotlight should do it's part as easily as Lightwright does. Why can't Vectorworks save default custom import and export routines like Lightwright does?

Guess what Kevin? Spotlight is software designed to be USED by a lighting designer. Both the autolink and the mapping files have nothing but a disaster from the beginning - especially for the Mac users. Ethan's problem is as common as the failure of autolink to work. And the workflow is absurdly time consuming. Why Spotlight cannot work as simply as Lightwright does on it's end is beyond me, and it seems beyond Nemetschek's programmers.

Hi Pat, First off, thank you so much for the help - your script works like a dream... to a point. All but three fonts in a test file changed to the default system font. It made it a bit easier to find the general location of the other fonts and what I found was that the three that did not change all relate to Spotlight. One font is imbedded somewhere inside a plug-in object which is a Lighting Device, and the other two are inside one or more Lable Legends. I can keep deleting objects, resetting the font mapping, etc. and will sooner or later find it, but if you find that as a puzzle, taking another look is interesting, I'd of course be grateful! Thanks again! Warmly,

Well, I'm smart enough to see that this is a perfect hint for someone half in-the-know, but sadly not smart enough to get it. Hm. I was thinking that I could just open the file in a text editor and replace anything that looks like a font with 'arial', but figure that the chances of that working to be about nil. One single font is actually my goal - ideally I'd be able to choose what it would be.

It's good to know that there would be a solution - my scripting abilities are way to crude to do it I'm pretty sure. The script could identify each font, and then ask for a substitution, one by one... Well, I don't want to push you Petri to publish such a script somewhere else ; ), but if there are any other ideas out there, I'm open to them.

I have some files that are used regularly over the years by many users - they are updated over and over again. So now, there are many fonts embedded into the file, and I am having trouble finding the location of them. Some are specified inside symbols, etc. etc. Font mapping of course solves this, but what I'm wondering is if there is an easy way to change every single font specification in a file to a single font, thus rendering font mapping unnecessary. Thanks!

I also don't have any problems with 12.5.2 on a Mac. Check out this thread: http://tinyurl.com/2wwpgm It may help out.

Solution: exported to Illustrator and used the "Make with Top Object" command. This is the only way I could find that would proportionally stretch complex polyline objects into a trapezoid. And it works in fact for any drawn shape - you could stretch a square peg into a round hole.

Huh, The version 11.5 won't show up in my workspace editor, so I figured that it was incompatible. The 2D Reshape and Move commands move all selected vertices the same distance. What I'm trying to do is move them proportionally. Say for example I had a simple grid of squares in a group, and then I wanted to stretch that group to fit into a trapezoid - with every line proportionally moving so that every square is now a trapeziod evenly spaced inside the shape that I stretched it to. But in my case, the 'grid of squares' is a complex repeating pattern of arcs, lines, circles and ellipses. So it's not really feasible to individually reshape each vertex, especially because each 'square' inside the pattern will actually be a different shape depending on how close to the stretched edge it is.

Sadly, it doesn't work in 12.5. Thanks anyway!

Islandmon, maybe you can help me again - the shear tool will only distort items as parallelograms - which is what I wanted. But now I'm trying to distort a group of polylines into an irregular trapezium, which the shear tool won't do. Thanks again,

Oh for Pete's sake - there it is, right under the Duplicate Along Path tool. Thanks!

Is there a way to skew a polyline in the same way that you can skew an image in Photoshop? I have a complex, repeating pattern that is based on a rectangular grid, and now I want to change it so that it is based on a parallelogram. Thanks!

Pat, You solved this clearly and perfectly for me, thanks! I limited the rows by layer, but had them include all types in the drawing (which included rectangle as well as all that you mentioned). And I see that I can move things around in my drawing and recalculate - so I'll be able to try out some different layouts and see which will have the shortest laser cut length and time. Thanks again!

Is there a way to calculate the total length of all of the lines in a drawing? Including circles, polylines, arcs, etc.? I'm trying to calculate the cutting distance of a laser in a project.

Hi Jean-Yves, This is covered here: http://techboard.nemetschek.net/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=62641&site_id=1#import basically you create an instrument for each cell of your Far Cyc. Add one of each into your drawing (as SYMBOLS, NOT instruments) and align them as needed. Then, select all three and create a symbol out of the three symbols. Don't convert this to an instrument - just use the instrument insertion tool to add the three symbol symbol into your drawing.