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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!

We get data from Calculux, in CSV format: The requirement is to automatically populate a drawing with lights. The 'Qty and Code' field is a reference to a key. For example, in this case 'D' could be any sort of light; a flood, a spotlight, a wash, made by any manufacturer. Assuming it is possible to associate the key to a lighting device in the Resource Manager, is it possible to insert a Lighting Device (as if one were using the Lighting Device Tool) programmatically? I'm looking at the documentation of 'VS:CreateLight' but it's not exactly exhaustive.

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.

Hi All, I want to get the older crew of the company to step away from their trusted and reliable 3rd party plug-in set and start using spotlight. The main thing I get back as to why they are reluctant to switch is the fact that they can't easily color code Focus Point sets of fixtures. Case: For a TV broadcast there are multiple people around a table that need to be light. In the rig there are numerous amount of conventional fixtures all with their own dedicated purpose. Example: Focus Point A = Presenter = Red Focus Point B = Table Guest = Blue Focus Point C = Guest 1 = Green Focus Point D = Guest 2 = Cyan Focus Point E = Guest 3 = Orange It's easy to color the whole fixture but that also clutters the drawing as the rigs are very crowded most of the time. The 3rd party plug-In only changes the color of the barn-doors or lens-barrel, talking just conventionals. I don't mind editing large amounts of fixtures with a simple piece of geometry inside, assign to a class. But I can't seem to get that working with Data Visualization. There is a way to edit the color via attributes and the spotlight preferences menu, but that is not the way I believe. I've put that option to Modify lighting device color [v] -> Object attributes -> Modify Only Geometry in the Class: "Focus Point Color" I've just took a standard ETC Lustr2 Zoom 25-50 symbol, drawn a poliline over the barrel outline and assigned it to class: "Focus Point Color" I've tried the object criteria in Data Visualisation but no results Display Criteria are set as follows: Please help!

I often mirror boom units from one side to the other and am frustrated by the way that half top-hat accessories mirror across - flipping the accessory vertically (image attached) I currently use two versions of this accessory for SR and SL but am looking for a cleaner solution. Can anyone offer an explanation or a solution to this? Many thanks!

When I create a floor with an 3d Polygon applied with a texture the beams of my fixtures are going thru the floor/walls when Iam in shaded mode. In Fast renderworks or quality renderworks the beams will be stopped by the floor/walls. In my textures I have checked cast/recieve shadows. Iam using a JB Lighting fixture in my test drawing but it happens with all fixtures. MacBook Pro 16" M1 macOS Monterey 12.6.3 Vectorworks 2023 SP3 Kind Regards, Erik-Jan Berendsen

I've created cables with Cable tools and I want to extract the types of the cables, the length and the id to which is assigned. Spotlight can already a list of the cables and the number of these but without the cable id. I can extract the data into a table from CableObject but the list is concatenated. How can i create the first table with the cable ID from the second table? Spotlight can extract already data which is created with the "CablePart". And this is in some away confusing. I'm thinking that i must write a script or create a Marionette. Can you help me or point the right direction? Thank you! Bogdan

I am seeing something weird, and I don't think it's just me or the custom symbols I am using. If I add a TV object using the default Spotlight tool, the TV object is placed with a Z height (even when dropped from plan view). The Z height seems to be improperly looking at the "Height" screen parameter stored in the TV screen data in the symbol. This is something new happening for 2023 after moving resource files over. This is also happening when inserting the stock symbols as well, so I would not think that there has been a change to the tool and what the fields mean/do. Anyone else run in to this? It's minor, just having to correct the Z height, but it's bugging me.

It would be amazing if the Focus field could drop down and you could choose from Focus points that you have put in your drawing. Please and thank you!

I need to be able to have a Schematic View of a vertical lighting pipe on my design layer next to my original lighting position instance, but if I select Show Beam, it turns it on from both the original instance, and the Schematic View. Can I turn it off in just the Schematic View?

Hi all, Received a file to work on and when going into 3D view I now get this resizable box that only shows the model within said box, it does not appear in any of my other files. The "viewing box", as I am calling it, goes away when I enter Orthogonal view but I need to work in Normal Perspective for this. Attached are pictures of the "viewing box" on the new file in Normal Perspective, No "Viewing Box" on the same file in Orthogonal and a shot of another file that I checked in Normal Perspective that does not have the box. Any hep would be appreciated.. even pointing me in the direction of what this box is called so I can track down some settings would help. Thanks!

Why does SL Auto Numbering seem so uh iffy? AutoNumbering seems to fail regularly with multicell fixture numbering. I have attached a video demonstrating both the SL AutoNumber fail as well as the current workaround— Savvy Sequencer, developed by @JBenghiat. Screen Recording 2022-08-31 at 6.54.40 AM.mov

Having an issue with the Lighting Device Rotate Mode. When selecting only lighting devices on a vertical position, I expect them to rotate from their insertion point/c-clamp. That is not happening. They are rotating off of the center betwen the selected lighting devices. I expect it to behave like this video: I did a test in a blank file with a fixture from VW library and it worked as expected. I imported the geometry and devices into the file i'm working on and the rotate lighting device mode didn't work anymore. I run a custom workspace so I switched to Spotlight Standard and had the same result. There is no mode to switch to in the tool bar. Do I have a setting turned off in this file? Running SP4.

I would absolutely love it if Vision was integrated into Vectorworks. Making changes, updating patch, moving fixtures etc would be reflected in both the visualisation and CAD file and would all-round speed up the workflow.

Just to get this out of the way - No, it's not classes turned off and it's not classes or layers buried deep in symbols. It's something else. I'm having an issue where Spotlight Symbols are not appearing. They are there - I can select them and they are outlined in orange. I make a rectangle selection around the area where the objects should be and the previously invisible objects are now still invisible but outlined in orange as if selected. If I click away from the selection the selection disappears and the objects are still missing. This is in Top/Plan or any other 3D view. If I select symbols and manipulate them in some way (flipping, nudging, or toggling OIP checkboxes such as "Use GDTF Geometry" or "Flip 2d Legend) they appear as normal! I can select all of the spotlight symbols in the drawing, get them to appear, save the file, close and reopen the file, and then symbols are back to being invisible. Once this behavior has begun, 2D Insertion Tool only inserts invisible symbols. They are there, selectable as described above, but will not render. Previously existing (non spotlight) symbols in the drawing remain however. If the symbols are invisible on design layers, they do not appear on sheet layer viewports either. This behavior began in VW2022, and stays with the file when exported to VW2021. NOTE: I've rebuilt this file once already from scratch in VW2022 to try to solve this behavior, because I thought it was related to the "Enable Legacy 2D features" check box, which had been checked. Legacy features are OFF and there are no Screen Plane objects in this drawing. Any ideas? Here you can see that I've made (35) appear. but another fixture on SR is just ghosting. Here you can see I've selected a bunch of symbols.

I have a bunch of 2D label legends that reference text styles for Unit numbers, Channels, etc. Occasionally for reasons I can't figure out my Unit Numbers size will change to 0.1 and the references in the label legend to the text style will break. If I edit the label legend and try to change the unit number back to the text style, it stays 0.1 size. Eventually after I refresh the instruments and fiddle around the with the text style size enough the legend seems to go back to normal. But I'm not sure what causes the bug or what makes it go away. I'm running VW 2022 SP 3 on Mac OS 12.1.

Who has time for this? It appears that in the shuttling of data between virgin LW6 and made-in-2022 plot that data is being corrupted: Entire (but not every) electrics of lighting devices have suddenly become static accessories. They retain at least some of the fixture data but they're NO LONGER LIGHTS. There goes a couple hours of work lost and certainly another to rebuild. Any product trust I may have retained has been corrupted by that data loss. Easy-peasy fix anyone? I have attached a couple screenshots showing the diff between the backup file from 2 hours ago and from the current file. I suppose it might be best to delete the problem units & copy | paste-in-place the backups from the latest still Lights file, eh? Let me go do that research now.

edit: fixed in SP 2.1 🙂 The recent update for VW2022 SP2 appears to have broken Label Legends to the extent that the feature is significantly crippled. Label legends where "use layout symbol" is unchecked do not display in top/plan view and cause errors with the lighting symbol it is attached to such that the 2D symbol cannot be interacted with using the mouse. This can be reverted with undo, but effectively label legends that do not use layout symbols are unusable. This is infinitely repeatable. I observed this issue on two separate Windows 10 installations with SP2. Reverting to SP1.1 restored proper functionality. I hope this issue can be resolved quickly as Label Legends is a fairly important function in Spotlight. I would suggest pulling the update for SP2 until it is resolved, as any files created previously which use label legends without layout symbols will be severely impacted. The attached file demonstrates the bug: 1) Select the instrument symbol, and in the OIP, change the label legend to "channel no symbol". The label legend is not displayed. 2) Click in a blank area of the screen to deselect the instrument. The 2D symbol now can not be selected using the mouse (it can be selected in 3D view or via "select all"). 3) Open the Label Legend Manager window, select the "channel no symbol" legend, and click Edit fields. Select the "Use layout symbol" checkbox to enable that function, and click OK and Done to confirm. The label legend now displays correctly, and the 2D symbol can be interacted with as normal. edit: I will try whipping up a file to demonstrate this bug when I get home this evening. edit: updated to reflect more specific conditions to trigger the bug; added demonstration file Thanks, Matthew Rohn SP2 Label Legend Bug.vwx