Jon Harper

Unfortunately I can't change the Instrument type field. Any editing of the field just resets itself to "Light" when the instruments are refreshed.

Hey, thank you thank you thank you for updating spotlight such that instruments automatically change the position field when dragged to that position! And the Z value too?! Awesome! When did that happen? I just installed 2008 SP2, but was it in a previous release and I just didn't notice?

So for some reason when I refresh the instruments in a particular plot it replaces all of the Instrument Type fields with "Light", and the find and replace function doesn't have any fields to select from. I can try to search for MFL PAR 64 for example in the "Instrument Type" field, or MFL PAR64 in the "Symbol Name" field, but neither of those is an option in the dropdown list. In fact, there are NO options in either of those fields, when there are in fact hundreds of instruments on the plot. Any ideas?

Actually the reason this usually happens is that you've moved lights from another position. Highlight all the lights on that position and type in "2e" or "2nd Electric" or whatever the position name is, making sure that it's the same as the position that you're hanging lights on. It could also be that the position is trying to number from top to bottom instead of right to left, or whatever you want it to be. To check that, select the position and look at the object info pane.

I would really love it if I could use whatever font I wanted to use, and not have to double check that the master electrician who is receiving my light plot has the same font. Is there a way for a vectorworks file to take the fonts along with it?

So could you maybe get rid of the warning? Also, what in the world inside VW are you using QT for?

I would love it if I didn't have to make 30 Label Legends for each situation where I need channels and dimmers, or channels and circuits, or all three things, or just channels, etc. in a 0?, 90?, or -90? orientation. Is there a way to have an option where the containers for fields only turn on if there is information in them?

So, why is it that sometimes when I select "refresh instruments" it takes 30-60 seconds and actually refreshes everything, and other times it takes 2 and doesn't refresh anything? Usually I can try exporting/importing to/from LW to try to fool VW into doing the real refresh, but no dice this time. Any thoughts?

right, I get all of that, but I'd rather not have to shift into show/snap/modify just to figure out what layer something is in.

Hey, Wouldn't it be great if VW had something similar to Photoshop where you can right click on something in your drawing and it tells you what layer, class, etc. that thing is sitting in. It seems that lots of time could be saved if I didn't have to search for what layer things are on in monster drawings

I know this is a picky graphical thing, but could we please have actual circles for focus points, instead of the octagons? This was something that was solved circa AutoCAD 3 or something, but still remains in VW.

Instead of mirroring the instrument, use the "Rot:" field in the object info palette and type "+180" after the degree that is there, or just manually enter the angle of the direction you want the light to be pointing in.

Is there a way to "flatten" an image to save disk space? I have a somewhat complex 3d model of a theater, but want to be able to email a 2d plan version to designers easier, i.e. with a smaller file. Is there any way to do this without redrafting over everything?