andru

Thanks for your help, Kevin; The good news is that I came up with a workaround. I created a new position that happened to be empty, reassigned the instruments to the new position, and deleted the old one. The custom selection trick did not select the mystery object, though it did end up pointing me to where it was hiding in the RB. Turned out to be an old Kliegl 3.5 ERS, buried in a symbol folder. I had simply missed it before, since I wasn't using symbols from that folder, but the imported file was. The next question I'd have about the Position Summaries is, how do I make them useful? I can drag them about, in a limited fashion, but frequently, the Instrument Summary's graphic doesn't fit its text, and both often end up in the way of the name of the position. Or vice versa. Edit Group generates an error message, telling me to use the Object Info Palette. Well and good, but the OIP has no controls that apply to those attributes. The manual tells me to adjust the size of the text with the Text menu, which certainly adjusts the size, but not the dogpile itself. Suggestions about this are welcome, thanks again for your help best andrew

using SL 12.0 on Mac OS 10.3.9 2x2 G5, 4.5G RAM I am drafting a plot and working from converted dxfs, and the occasional old .mcd file. While I may not have drawn the underlying document, I am drawing the positions and their lights. I draw a truss. I convert same to a lighting position, and give it a name. I add some instruments. Assuming that the instruments figure out that they are associated with the position (never a sure thing, so far), I often end up with a bonus instrument that I did not place, do not recognize, and cannot see. I discovered them by checking the Position Summary and Sum Insts checkboxes in the Object Info palette. Sometimes the instruments that I have placed on a given position show up. Sometimes the phantom does. Sometimes both do. Type of object (truss, polygon, what have you) that the position is based on does not seem to influence this. Quitting the app and relaunching does not seem to make them go away. Haven't yet found a symbol that calls itself 3.5Q-6 in the Resource Browser. So far, there is always only one of them on a given position. So far, they always call themselves 3.5Q-6. They show up on the position summaries. But they seem to be invisible, as I cannot see them on the position. 1.) What are these? 2.) How do I find them? 3.) How do I kill them? 4.) How do I keep them from coming back? thanks! andrew

David- Thanks very much. Your instructions also led me to the correct section of the manual which expanded a bit on what you described. Though your description was basically accurate. Interestingly, after doing this, I find that I no longer get a dotted outline preview of the symbol, when I add it to a position. Though it does seem to add successfully, and with its data fields for weight and wattage properly filled in. I can work around this easily enough by rotating the symbol after the fact. Can't have everything, I suppose. Thank you again for your help. best regards -andrew

Using SL 12.0 on Mac 10.3.9. 2x2G5 4.5Gb RAM I have used VW off and on for some years. Normally, I am doing scenery, and mostly model in formZ, draft in VW. A friend has asked me to do a light plot for an industrial show, so I am actually having to use SL for its intended purpose. So please forgive what may seem to be newbie questions. Yes, I have been R'ing TFM. Just haven't made as much progress as I need to make. First, I insert a truss, give it a Z height, and convert it to a Lighting Position. Well and good. Then I insert Instruments onto that position, in Top/Plan View. They show up on the summary, so the position knows about them. If I switch to a front view, all my instruments are sitting on the floor, not hanging from the truss, 25' above them. Why not? Is this expected behavior? Second, if I move the truss, the instruments do not come along for the ride if I haven't selected them along with the position. Is this as expected? Second, there are lots of MLs in this plot. Some hanging, some in the air. Some of my ML instruments, pulled from the SL libraries, orient themselves as hanging (VL3000) from the truss. Others (VL2500) are inverted, as though they were placed on the floor. I need both types of placement, but I need them to be sensitive to their location. Or, I would settle for 'hung' versions vs. 'floor mounted' How do I achieve this? Last, I'll say that 12.0 has been very stable so far (far stabler than most incarnations of formZ), and overall seems to be a high quality product. Any help is appreciated here, as I am playing beat the deadline, of course! thanks andrew

Kevin thank you for your speedy reply. I moved the truss and then converted it to a position, which was my mistake, it seems. It makes sense to me that the instruments, once assigned to a position, would stay with it if it moves. What is the reason for this behavior, do you know? After a bit of fooling around, I seem to have gotten the duplicate symbols to stick with their intended orientation. Thank you. This leads to my next issue. I have created a whole new symbol for an LED fixture from scratch. 2D and 3D components. It inserts as expected. I converted it to an instrument. All continues to be well. I cannot seem to find a way to edit its characteristics. I want to enter a type, wattage, and weight for this -i.e., constants that do not change. Anything that I edit in the info palette either doesn't stick, or only sticks to an instance of the instrument. The moment that I place another instance of the instrument, its fields clear. Dragging a copy of the instrument to a new position keeps the info intact, but the new instrument remains affiliated with the old position. Editing the symbol for the instrument only allows me to alter the look of the symbol, not the data. I am betting that this is something simple. Right now, this is about all that is currently standing between me and drawing the first pass of this plot. Suggestions? thanks! andrew