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I usually receive stage designs with truss systems in SketchUp format, but the moment I open them, my computer starts struggling due to the heavy geometry. I try to reduce polygons by simplifying the truss layers or replacing them with lower-poly versions, but then the result looks quite poor and unprofessional. Sometimes I end up deleting the truss entirely and rebuilding it using Vectorworks' built-in truss tools—but that takes a lot of extra time. How do other designers usually handle this situation?

Perhaps there is a way already, and I haven't learnt it yet, but in case this isn't a thing: It would be nifty to have the ability to set a user folder where I can store GDTF fixture files and VW automatically directs to that folder location, instead of importing fixtures each time. AND/OR if the resource manager could link directly to the GDTF Share and you could download the fixtures directly from the resource manager.

Hi. For those of us that prefer our drawings annotated with strictly UPPERCASE text, especially with our sexy handwritten-looking fonts, may we please have UPPERCASE, lowercase, and "as formatted by symbol name" checkboxes in the summary key text formatting options? Not sure it needs much more explanation than that other than: 1) the equipment key plugin options is missing this control in the text formatting section 2) the key once generated ignores regular text formatting menu options when selected 3) the symbols included in an equipment summary key appear to draw their text strictly from the symbol name (not sure I want to capitalize every single symbol name...) There you have it. I'd sure love to see that checkbox appear in the text formatting section for equipment summary keys. If the control is available somewhere else, it seems like it makes the most sense to be available, or additionally available, WITH the text formatting controls in the dialog box itself. Cheers!

Hello! When trying to save any new spotlight preferences, clicking "Save" does nothing. File is a v2024 that has been up-converted to v2025. Mac OS Sequoia 15.4.1 VWX 4.1 Build 807188

Hi all, Is it possible to connect a Structural Member and a Truss together? I have a venue which uses truss spreaders on top of I Beams. I would like to connect all the sub-hung hoists/bridles to these spreaders, but these spreader trusses throw errors as they aren't suspended. Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

Hi there! Im looking for someone to help with our workload in drafting Technical Packs and Renders for events and concerts. We are production company in Australia with global clients. REQ. - Min. 3 years Event and Concert Design or Technical Direction experience - VWX 2025 Spotlight - Able to work remotely It would be great to hear from you!

Hi there , Until vw2024 i draw complex systems truss using double click on truss symbol in resource manager but now in vw2025 don't work anymore . I need to use truss tool and select any time dropdown menu to select truss symbol wich need . Sound easy but in my case i lose a lot of time with this way . is there a solution ? anyone can help me Thanks

I'm drawing something that has 1000 of the same symbol, and inside that symbol are a number of scaffolding symbols and other symbols that I need to count. When I run a simple reports looking for Symbol Name and (Summarize by name) Count... It says 668. The nested symbols also show up as "X*668" instead of the proper number. When I use the Select Similar tool, it says 1000 as it should... anybody know what's going on? Is there a limit to how many instances of something Vectorworks will count? I'm concerned that if the count is off with the one thing I know how many there are... is the count for everything else in the drawing off too? Kind of defeats the purpose of the Report function if I have to go through and manually count out each and every piece of gear that the designer drew up.

Hi there. As a systemtech i often want to be 100% shure that everything fits before i turn up on-site. In the resource manger its many nice locking clamps that i can attach to my fixtures as accessories. but i want to build my own accessories, so i can have the bracket that often need to be fitted on a moving head done as a own symbol. like "GLP x4bar 20 bracket with clamps" so i just have to insert that object. or just insert the bracket. So i have taken the GLP x4bar 20 bracket crated a symbol out of it, and attached the same records as a clamp. why is the ADB lightning clamp A6 from the resoruce manager working fine, but not my own symbol? What do i need to do to make my bracket work as a accessorie for fixtures and not as a regular symbol? The file where i'm working on it is attached. X4Bar20Bracket not working as a accessories.vwx

Spotlight Truss count tool... We have a Lighting Label Legend plugin to summarize Lighting Object names and qtys. Can we have a plugin to summarize Straight Truss and motor size, length, and qty?

Hello, how do I make light souce itself visible in Spotlight? Not just emitted light hitting surfaces or fog, but the source itself i.e. fluorescent tube. I'm pretty sure it is trivial, but I can not figure it out. Thanks

Hi All, I'm really excited about the 3D snapping implications of accessories. However, I have a suite of accessories like snapgrids, chimeras, etc. that I need a 2D component below the 2D symbol of the parent fixture. Is there a way I can resolve this issue? Thanks, Martin

Hi I am trying to render a scene using custom lighting symbols and have the color of the output react to the viewport class color set. I have created some custom fixtures and have a lens in one separate class and the light source in another. When i change the color of the viewport classes to be different than the classes of the main file, only the lens class actually changes color in the render, and not the light sources. The sources are the same color as the main class color, and not the viewport class color. I have the light source in the 3D model set as style solid fill and color to class style. The lens has a texture with color set to "object attribute". Is there a setting somewhere that needs to be changed in order for the viewport class to set the of the light source? Or is there another problem?

Got my graphic legend working for doing fixture summaries, and that works great, pulls in Type, dmx channel count, weight etc. is there any way for the graphic of the fixture to render with the color of my data visulization? I usually color code fixtures on plots and would love for the key on the side to match. Currently just renders in the default texture it looks like. pic attached for example.

Helo, I did recently as follows: I created a show rig setup in Spotlight. Just fixtures in correct positions, some truss and flybars. Then I exported MVR to my GrandMA3 showfile and merged it into my file. Then I did the patch inside MA3 software, assigned correct GDTF libraries, adjusted Layering and Classing a bit and exported MVR from GMA3. I imported this adjusted MVR file into original *.vwx file. I hoped for updating information in already existing set-up, so already present fixtures get patch information, etc., but there just appeared new set of fixtures upon original ones, they all fell into one layer ignoring sorting made inside GMA and they do not have correct geometry. Is there some major wrongdoing on my side? Thanks.

Hi everyone, We are a company who does event plan for different supplier and event planner. We work most of the time with the same AV suppliers and we want to use the inventory and equipment list in our projects. Is there a way to build the equipment inventory of every supplier that we work with, and use them in multiple project we do? I tried some stuff but it seems that i need to rebuild the inventories list on every project to be able to give a source to the symbols or equipment. Hope it's clear enough.. Thanks a lot!

In VW2024 Update 1 it seems like you cannot use Find and Modify to change the value of GDTF Fixture. Is this how it is intended to be or am i doing it wrong? I was hoping the value box would allow me to go through the list of imported GDTF fixtures that are in the document. Attached is a screen shot as an example.

Hello All, Whenever I create seating sections there is no longer a seating count worksheet created. I can manually run a report, but it isn't formatted and doesn't include seating totals. Any ideas? I have searched all over the forum and cant find anything. Thanks, Capp

With more and more fixture manufacturers making GDTF files available, I frequently have to import several of these when making a new drawing. The current workflow requires multiple steps to import through the File > Import menu, which is quite awkward to navigate since it currently contains 30 options. It would save time and be a lot more convenient if I could simply drag-and-drop onto the application window as can be done with PDF's. For extra credit, allow the user to re-order or hide items on the Import submenu so the more commonly used ones are easier to find. For extra extra credit, allow all valid file types to be imported via drag and drop.

After creating vectorworks schematic views, I have a question. Right now I left the image while uploading it, but the whole object seems to be rotating. I want my fixtures to look like they are in 3D, but I'm wondering how to do that. (In 2D state...)

Instrument Summary tool continues to be lagging heavily still on v2022 SP3. It's not tenable to wait upwards of 1-2min for VW to stop beach balling.. Can anyone relate? I'm running right now on a 14" MBP M1 Pro.

This is an active bug in Spotlight 2023 SP6, but I've seen it for a few years. The attached file and screenshot show what's happening, so I'll try to keep the post itself as short and to the point as I can. Synopsis The Instrument Summary Tool's Show Counts function gives false results when you have multiple lighting device symbols with certain identical data in the Light Info Record (LIR) and OIP. Specifically, the [Inst Type] and [Model Name] fields in the symbol LIR and the [Instrument Type] field in lighting device OIP's are involved. Description As seen in the screenshot, There are 12 instruments in the drawing, but the counts in the Instrument Summary are wrong. The Instrument Summary list is organized by symbol name, with each symbol having a separate line and its own count. The root issue appears to be that symbol name is not the top-most criterion used for counting. This means that instruments generated from different symbols can be counted together on the lines for each separate symbol, multiplying the true number. In the demo drawing, I have four instruments generated from four discrete symbols representing Arri Skypanel S60-C's. The two black and white symbols were imported directly from the resource library, then the red, blue, and yellow versions were created by duplicating the original symbol and changing the 2D geometry color. Because the relevant fields in the LIR's are identical, they all get counted under each symbol. Note in particular that the yellow symbol is not even present in the drawing, but still shows the count for the other four due to the bug. It's worth pointing out that anyone using the two black and white skypanel symbols taken from the VW resource library will encounter this bug without having made any customizations. There are other examples in the resource library of sets of symbols with identical LIR's which will cause this bug out of the box. I created the bottom three rectangle symbols in the Instrument Summary from simple 2D geometry which I turned into a symbol, attached the LIR and copied the [Inst Type] field from the skypanel symbols, then duplicated. I included the Lighting Symbol Maintenance dialog in the screenshot to show the LIR values of the various symbols. The counting bug takes on different behaviors depending on which of the data fields match and which don't, as noted in the screenshot. The bug variations for the rectangle symbol counts come from the [Instrument Type] in the OIPs being different from [Inst Type] in the LIRs, whereas they are the same for the skypanel symbols. For the dark grey rectangle devices, the OIP [Instrument Type] matches the skypanel device OIP's, and for the white and light grey rectangles it is different. Comments FWIW I have encountered this bug numerous times through sharing files and collaborating with other users on film set lighting plots. As a team, we frequently create customized variations of the resource manager lighting device symbols, most commonly to represent instruments which are not in the resource manager, or for different accessory buildouts. It is quite easy to duplicate a symbol, tweak the geometry or colors, then begin using it without updating the LIR fields, but it is rather tedious to make sure each symbol variation has unique data in the relevant places to avoid this bug. In my experience many Spotlight users aren't familiar with the finer points of using the Light Info Record in the first place and don't know how to update it. To my mind, the ideal solution would be to fix the count algorithm so it uses symbol name as the first distinguishing criterion, as that would remove the requirement to give each symbol unique data in the LIR and OIP. Thanks as always for all the work the mods and devs put in to keep VW humming. instrument summary count bug.vwx

It would be great to have the ability to change render mode for objects that are using their 3D symbol in the plan view. For example, when drawing lighting trusses that are raked out of level, the 3D symbol is used in plan view, but it is only able to be rendered in wireframe. I would like to be able to render the truss symbol in hidden line while in plan view, as it looks much cleaner. Currently if I change render mode it snaps into top view and the 2D Symbols for all the lighting instruments and lost. Setting background render to hidden line gets closer, but its not the look I'm after.

SPOTLIGHT should have the "convert to wall" option available >>> the polygon and "solid addition" or "solid subtraction" we need to create in the world of Theatre ... but then use it as a wall for scenic and/or venue overlay to a show design. In creating Scenic Items and when drawing out a theatrical/event venue you are making your elements out of available tools. The ability converting them to a "WALL" is something that I would use almost daily... but can't afford the extra $1000 for the Designer workspace for just that ability. (and the Advanced Stair Tool as noted in another thread...) Thank you!