LightGuy145

I am using Lightwright 4.1.8 and VectorWorks 12.5.1. Here is the problem; I built a new light plot in VectorWorks by opening two existing plots (A and B). I deleted some of the instruments in plot A and copied some new instruments over from plot B. Now my finished plot is the edited plot A. I made sure that all of the Lightwright ID fields were blank, started a new Lightwright file, and successfully brought all the instrument data into Lightwright. When I attempt to bring the instrument data back into VectorWorks only about half of the instruments are successfully updated. I have no idea why this is happening. The problem instruments are of various types, some with accessories, some without accessories, and they are in multiple positions. Does anyone have any idea why this might be happening? Could it have something to do with building the light plot in the way that I did? Or am I just cursed? Every time I start a new show file and do an initial import/export there seem to be all kinds of weird problems. See the attached screen shot.

I finally had a chance to go back and look into this problem. Looks like you were right Steve B. It seems the auto numbering for that position was turned on. I didn't even think to check this since I never use the auto numbering feature. I turned it off and refreshed and the problem went away.

VectorWorks seems determined to be a pain today, I'm having a problem with all of my instruments on one particular electric. All of the unit numbers on the electric are mixed up, so I select them all and renumber them from right to left. If I export my instrument data at this point the unit numbers appear in the exported file in the newly renumbered order. I then deselect all instruments and go to refresh instruments. When the refresh takes place all of the unit numbers on that one electric snap back to the same exact mixed up order that they were in before I renumbered. This snap back only takes place if I do a refresh when I don't have any instruments are selected. Does anyone have any idea why this would happen?

Thank you! That did the trick, I wonder why I haven't had this problem before. You're right about the 360Q's, unfortunately the primary ERS we have in the community theater I run is all 360Q's. The design I'm working on now is for a college theater but they still have a pretty significant inventory of 360Q 4.5x6's and 6x9's. Thanks again for the correction!

RPMDesign, I downloaded the bug fixes for LW and double checked the mapping. The mapping is definitely correct, the symbol name field is mapped with the instrument type symbol field going both ways. When I go to my list of instrument types in LW all of the symbols are matched up with the correct instruments, there are no empty fields. But still when I import my instrument data and refresh all of the instruments with the Alt6 x 9 symbol just turn into boxes (but the symbol field in the object info pallet still has the correct symbol listed). Doesn't make any sense to me and I have no idea how it started occurring. Maybe I'm experiencing some sort of glitch with VW that doesn't really have anything to do with the import mapping. I've tried starting fresh with LW, I opened a brand new file and imported all the data from VW from scratch but when I send it back to VW the same problem occurs with the Alt6 x 9 symbols so it seems that it might have more to do with VW. If I add a new instrument in the VW file of the same Alt6 x 9 type and then do an export and import the same problem occurs with the new instrument I just inserted. I even tried this; I completed deleted the Alt6 x 9 symbol (and also the Alt4.5 x 6 since it depends on that symbol) from my resources and imported it fresh from the Altman library. I also thought that since the instrument symbol used in my label legend used the Alt6 x 9 symbol that that might be causing the problem so I used a different symbol in the label legend. I then re-assigned the proper symbols to the Alt6 x 9 and Alt4.5 x 6 symbols and did the export and import and encountered the exact same problem.

I am using LW 4.1.5 and VW 12.5.1 and having a strange problem importing LW data back into VW. I don't seem to be having any troubles with mapping; what is happening is all the data is being imported properly but all of my instruments of one particular type turn into boxes once I refresh the instruments. There are no orphans being created, and the symbol name is still correct on each of these instruments, they are just displaying as boxes. The only way I can reverse the problem is to make that symbol active, select all of the instruments, and use "Replace with active symbol". Then they all go back to normal until the next time I import from LW. Any ideas why this would happen for only one instrument type out of the 10 different ones I'm using?

I am having some trouble with viewport cropping. I used a rectangle to crop a viewport and then I set the rectangle to have no line so that it would not be visible. I needed to edit the crop so I entered the edit crop mode but I was unable to select the rectangle I used to crop the viewport. Even with all classes turned on and using Select All I would get no selection of the crop object. To make matters worse I tried re-cropping the viewport in the same way I did initially and now it proceeds to tell me that I can have only one crop object, but it still won't let me select the crop objects. Basically entering crop mode for that viewport now puts me in an infinite loop of it telling me I can have only one crop object and me not being able to select any of the crop objects. My only way to get out of the loop is to shut down VectorWorks and re-open the file. Any suggestions for making invisible crops the right way? Or any ideas what might be causing my problem? Thanks!

Thank you for the help! I figured it had something to do with my layer Z settings but it didn't make sense to me why they would display differently using align views and viewports/layer links. Thanks again!

I am having a problem with the way my 3D model is displayed when creating layer links and viewports. I am doing a model of a theater with several different design layers for parts of the space (house, balcony, control booth, stage, grid, etc). When viewing and working with my 3D model everything looks good, the control booth sits nicely on the balcony. When I create a layer link of the balcony and the control booth together the booth is suddenly floating 10' or so off the balcony. The same thing seems to be happening when I try to create a viewport with both layers turned on. I'm not sure what could be causing this. Could it have something to do with the Z or +-Z settings of my layers? I don't quite understand the point of setting the Z base elevation on a layer. For example, I set the Z for a new layer to be 15' and then I created a new wall on that layer. The new wall, however, did not automatically have a bottom Z equal to that layer's base elevation. Am I wrong to assume that new objects would be placed on the layer's base elevation height? I have added 3 photos to this post with the file manager. They show the 3 different scenarios of viewing; viewing the 2 layers normally using align views, viewing the 2 layers together in a layer link, and viewing the two layers in a common viewport. Any help would be greatly appreciated!