Eric Chenault

Kacey, I have a question based on your earlier statement: "Unfortunatley, SpotLight is not yet clairvoyant so it can't know where your positions are ..." Doesn't SPOTLIGHT know where the hanging positions are since the positions are objects and have XYZ coordinates? AutoPlotVW has been doing this for a long time (puts unit #2a precicely between #2 and #3 and flags the new unit that requires attention). Unfortunately the user must decide whether to use SPOTLIGHT or AutoPlotVW when beginning a project as the two are not compatible with each other. Maybe we can add this to the wish list? Thanks, Eric Chenault

Kacey, can we add this to the wish list? It is extremely common to perform symmetrical drawing tasks or duplicate a position upstage of a previous position to save tons of time. Until SPOTLIGHT I almost always drew the lights for stage left and then "Mirror & Duplicate" the position over to stage right using the Centerline as the axis for reflection. In SPOTLIGHT this doesn't seem to be a good tool to use for the job since the end result causes some trouble with the rotation angle of the SPOTLIGHT objects, and the need to update all the record information manually for the new lights and position. It also wrecks the position of the ganging if ganging is created with the ganging tool. So a "clone" command and a "reverse and repeat" tool would be very popular I bet. Thanks for your hard work, Eric Chenault

Kevin, In Spotlight 8.5 the Position Summary doesn't keep itself up to date. The only workaround I have found is to select the position, turn off the summary, and then turn it back on. Once it appears it has the latest count information. There seems to be a major problem with Spotlight constantly trying to update everything (makes working very frustrating) while at the same time not updating information affected by a change. A screen regen shouldn't be necessary when trying to fill out the Find & Replace form until after the form is executed. The only thing that should be updating is the TOTAL ITEMS count at the bottome of the Find & Replace window. The Spotlight add-on (in my humble opinion) is utterly useless because it quadruples the amount of time it take for me to get around the drawing, make changes, and move on to the next task. I have created two plots using Spotlight and have promised myself to never try it again until the next version is made available. It's just too darn frustrating and time consuming. I hope the workflow and interface improves in Spotlight 9 the same way major strides have been made since the Theatrical Lighting Toolkit when Spotlight 8.5 was made available. Regards, Eric Chenault

After trading-up to Spotlight and working in Spotlight (VW) 8.5.2 with a few different shows I keep experiencing the main VectorWorks preferences resetting to factory defaults. Is there a file that is corrupt? I really would hate to have to reinstall the software. Is this a bug in Spotlight? I never had this problem with VW 8.5 until after the Spotlight add-ins were installed on top of the old VW 8.5 installation. Regards, Eric Chenault

After trading up recently to SPOTLIGHT 8.5 and anxiously awaiting the release of version 9, I have to say so far I am impressed at how far VW has come since the Theatrical Lighting Toolkit. However, I have a few issues with some of the new features not working quite right. Is this really the best place to post those (there haven't been many messages here), or is there an email contact directly to the SPOTLIGHT developers at Nemetschek? I am excited Nemetschek is directly developing a high-quality package for lighting designers, and hope to see even greater improvements in the future. Regards, Eric Chenault

It would be even greater if the two lines which compose a leader line were a new kind of object (instead of a group of two lines). This would allow you to draw the leader line in three clicks ... then if you grabbed the leader line at any of the three points (arrowhead, elbow, text end) it would be adjustable! Also ... being able to draw the leader line from the object to the text would be a great mode option. And even greater ... if you are drawing a leader line, you probably would love the text to be part of the leader line "object" as well! Then everything would work and move together (but not limited like a group is). I looked at Leader Line v3 Demo, but its too clumsy and unintuitive.

I don't mean to overwhelm the message boards with "me too!" or "i agree!" but this really is an important function that has not been implemented. I have heard this wish from several coleagues who are frustrated by not knowing what has been selected in a detailed drawing. I have heard of a macro that will do the counting, but it really should be incorporated into the OI palette.

Another wish for the Workspace Editor is a way to copy a menu or a palette from another workspace into the workspace being edited. I have wasted so much time writing out how a palette looks or a menu is arranged in one workspace or add-on package so that I could use it in my personal workspace.