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Rigging - Insert Connection Tool


Oaktown

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For some reason, I'm getting weird results with the [Insert Connection] tool when I try to connect 2 lighting pipes or 2 trusses together. When I look at the video on Vectorworks 2023 introducing  the tool (see screenshots below). When Scott Parker shows the tool, it looks very straight forward but in reality it doesn't quite work the way I thought it would. The symbols they're using in the demo are not available in the resources and when I use a similar symbol to connect two rigging pipes, it doesn't line up and I can't make it line up. 

 

Could anyone point me in the right direction so that I can use this tool successfully?

 

 

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Rigging pipes sadly can’t be joined together using this symbol function. I reported it as a bug and it was flagged up as a limitation. 
 

The connection symbol you are searching for is not available as per the video. You will need to make your own……
 

The connection symbols do work though when used on truss to truss and truss to lighting pipes so maybe that could be the route you could take?

 

 

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Thanks Mark for the quick reply. It seems like a huge limitation!! 

 

When you do truss to truss or truss to lighting pipe, it seems weird that you have to indicate the spacing between the two rigging objects in order to insert the connection symbol. I would think that when you leave it at 0, it should insert the hardware based on the required spacing of the symbol selected to join the two objects, am I missing something obvious?

 

I experimented with creating my own connections with cheeseboroughs but unfortunately I'm not being very successful with the insertion location. It seems that the minimum drop you can select is 2" but a typical cheeseborough is more like ⅞". 

 

I'm also confused with the notion of hoist vs pick-up symbol because I can seem to hide the hook & chain in the connection without making the chain link and hoist chain classes invisible. I would think that there would be a check box for that in the object info palette.

 

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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee

@OaktownI was able to get it to work using cheeseboroughs. I set the offset to 20.75mm and made sure to adjust the insertion point of the symbol accordingly. I have included two images to show how my cheeseboroughs look and how I have setup the 3D part of the symbol. I am using Tomcat 12x12 truss. Note that the 3D loci in the 3D symbol setup is at (0,0,0).

Screen Shot 2022-09-23 at 09.18.45.png

Screen Shot 2022-09-23 at 09.21.44.png

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Thank you @JustinVH

 

For some reason, I can't seem to set an offset smaller than 2 inches so a 20.75mm offset won't work for me. Also, if I set the insertion point of the symbol the same way you have it, the symbol appears in the middle of the truss (which seems to be 8.215" too high). It also seems to not always line up with the truss where the symbol is rotated 90˚.

 

Any chance you could share a file with the symbol you created so that I can see the difference between mine and yours?

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