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Rick Martin

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Everything posted by Rick Martin

  1. O.K. Many more questions. I found the plug-in: Lighting Device.vso. By editing parameters you are able to give alternate names to all the fields and when you do this with fields that are displayed in the OIP, the name of the field changes. Presumably it is better to fill in an alternate name rather than the actual parameter name because of how scripts refer to the plug-in? Indeed, I changed the "Unit Number" parameter to "Unit Number New" and lost all unit number information from a file. But, one question is this: If I use this changed plug-in on a new lighting plot drawn from scratch, then I'd be able to start filling out "Unit Number New" from the beginning and the information would be retained. I'd have to also re-do Label Legends, my Import/Export routines, and give everyone that I want to share the plot with my changed plug-in. Is this right? BUT, if I only filled in the text "Unit Number New" into the alternate text field, then everything would work as is and I'd have my OIP label changed. When I shared the file with somebody else who didn't have my changed plug-in, they would just have the default name in the OIP? Now, back to using other fields for other uses: Many of the parameters are listed as "text" so I presume that they handle entered information the same - the same as, for example, "user field 1". I gave alternate names to "System", "Mark", "Frame Size", "User Field 1" and "User Field 2" and they all perfectly changed in the OIP. Then I made a Lable Legend that had all of these fields in it, assigned it to some lights, and then entered data into all the fields in the OIP. Excellent! Everything showed up as expected. Then I did an export to Lightwright - no clicking of the Lightwright Lozenge though, I selected everything including my new names, exported, imported to LW and everything worked perfectly. BUT: If I were to give an alternate name to say, "Use Legend" and entered info other than Lable Legend names into that field, then I would lose the functionality of the Lable Legends. So, some or many of the fields in the "Lighting Device.vso" plug-in are referred to in some way or another by other scripts. I chose "Mark" and "System" in my test because these are I think specific Lightwright fields that Nemetschek added to help with data sharing, so I presume that there isn't any deep referencing to them within VW. Is there a list though of which fields in the Lighting Device plug-in are used by scripts and other routines within VW? 6 user fields is great in VW12, but ideally I'd use ten because of the way that I'm setting up a specific site's needs. Thanks to Katie and Kevin in advance on this very long question.
  2. Good to know Simon, thanks. I'll be upgrading to 12 next month. Did you by any chance get a list of the purposes of all of the other fields and how VW uses them? Also, which plug-in do you edit? I'll try mousing around to see if I can find it. Presumably if you shared the edited plug-in with another person running VW, then the file would be completely compatible.
  3. If all of the positions are identical - then you only do it once. You can rename each position in the OIP, give them different heights, etc. even though they're all created from one symbol. It doesn't make sense for this to be automatic, Jim - all pipes aren't the same diameter and everybody draws pipes differently (a line for you - two lines for others) as examples. Another would be if someone were drawing unistrut.
  4. Spotlight only has two "user fields" in the OIP (for lighting instruments) to add data to, and I need more, so that I can move more Lightwright info into the drawing. When you export instrument data, and export every single field possible (for example Label1-Label8) there are many fields that are blank (in my files at least). Can I use any other fields to move data over and then map it into a label legend? And if so, which ones can I use without screwing up the file? I presume that the field labeled "do not edit" is a big no, but how about the others? Is there any documentation on how Spotlight uses each of these fields? And - how about a way to change the OIP labels or to add to them? Lightwright has a whopping twelve user fields - ideally these could all be mapped into Spotlight and the OIP would have available lines that could be customized to the user's needs - including re-naming them. Is there any way to edit the OIP interface? Thanks!
  5. Jim - Here is the order of steps. Try this in a fresh, layerless, classless file. 1) draw a line 2) select the line and copy it 3) create symbol... - make sure that you select "leave instance in place" 4) right click on the newly made symbol in the resource browser and select "edit... 3D" 5) select "edit - paste in place". The line that you copied in #2) should paste in place. 6) extrude that line. 7) exit the symbol. 8) reselect the symbol on the page. 9) convert it into a lighting position. 10) now everytime you add the symbol as a position - you will be able to give it a z value. Note that if you are extruding a line for the 3D portion you get nothing but a vertical plane. In order to get a "pipe", you need to draw a circle, extrude it into a pipe, and then reorient it into the proper position - all while working in the 3D part of the symbol's resource.
  6. Gillian, you need to turn on the "template" column in LW - the actual specs for each one will show up there. As for scrollers, you need to make sure that the scroller symbol is a "accessory" and not a "static accessory". Scrollers can be added then with the accessory tool in VW and you'll be able to set a channel to it. Another option is to add the scroller in VW with the lights insertion tool. If you're dealing with multiple channels for a scroller, first do what is above so that you get one channel, and then in LW you need to set up an attributes list for that unit.
  7. It is important that you make a change in Lightwright preferences: In Lightwright go to Setup > Vocabulary and change the ?Separate accessories from instrument types with:? field to a plus sign ( just a + and nothing more). This should solve it for you - as long as all accessories that you have are assigned as either "accessory" or "static acccessory" in Vectorworks.
  8. Hey Steve, I'd say that is the easiest solution: copy the actual vectorworks file and inside the copy change all the symbols, and the wattage data. You'll have to re-name all of the the symbols of course, as well as the folder that they all reside in. Then in the original vectorworks file, open the new file as a favorite, go to the folder with your new symbols and then you can import the entire folder in one fell swoop.
  9. I had a similar problem when I was putting viewports onto a multiple sheet layout. If a viewport was too close to one page's edge, then I would get strange output. Try moving the viewports towards the center of the page(s) a bit.
  10. Solved, the bounding box of a viewport from a different page overlapped that pages margins. For some reason, this then expanded the viewports boundry outside of it's boundry and into the neighbor page. It doesn't show up when you view the viewports, only when you print. A bug?
  11. I'm printing (with Adobe Acrobat 7.0 to a PDF) multiple pages from a viewport, and one of them has lines on it that are not in the viewport itself. I have no idea where it is coming from. Thanks! Rick VWorks 10.5 Mac Tiger.
  12. The problem markdd is not with channel, it is with the other fields: dimmer or circuit being the obvious examples. Once you two fer two units, the two fer combines the two channels into one along the path of the two fer symbol, but the dimmer label, and other fields that would be common to both units, stays stranded on both units. My solution is to have a label legend that omits the other fields (again, dimmer or circuit are best examples) and then apply it to one of the two two fer'd units.
  13. Zenmasterj, When I'm working in version 11, I discovered that all lighting instruments in VW need to be deselected after a LW import. Otherwise, all that gets refreshed are the units or unit that is currently selected in VW. I presume that this is also the case when not doing an import - just deselect everything before you refresh.
  14. I have a lable legend named "two fer" that removes the fields that I don't want to see in ganged intstruments.
  15. Each legend field is automatically assigned to a class with the same name. Go to classes and turn off the offending class.
  16. Thanks Jeff! This works like a charm.
  17. Hi Mike, Yes, but I'm trying to avoid going to a saved view by using the mouse. I'd like to, for example, assign command+option+P to a saved view script that would take me to the saved view "Plan" (with all it's specified layers, sheets, zoom, etc.) Any ideas? Thanks,
  18. I'm looking for help in writing a script that will recall a saved view. I want to save it as a command plug-in so that I can use a shortcut to return to a specific saved view. Thanks in advance from a newbie,
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