Partially Color my symbols assigned to specified Focus Point

[LenLindhout]

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!

[markdd]

I don't think that Data Vis will do it in this case as it will only work on highlevel objects and will not work within them on specific geometry.

 

Try getting the lighting device to assign itsself to a particular class based on the focus point name and then use the modify lighting device colour function that you describe in your post. It's all is Spotlight Preferences.

Works well. I have an oval in all my lighting devices that I can use to colour spot lighting devices based on criteria and mostly I use it for gel colour but I see no reason why your use case wouldn't be just as good.

 

Here is the file.

 

 

Focus colour.vwx

Edited March 9, 2023 by markdd

[LenLindhout]

Hi Mark,

 

Thanks! Forgot about this option.

The main problem is that I have to adjust class settings after creation and that updating focus points doesn't go to well with updating the color of the geometry inside the fixture when I just tested your file.

What happens is when I change the focus point the color doesn't change.. But when I change it for the second time it changes to the previous focus point color..
Can you see if this also happens with you?

 

There is also an other issue with this way of working. On all our productions we also assign fixtures to Positions and stick them in a class together for easy viewport handling.
This is not possible with the way you describe unless we put all fixtures in a group.
The next step is that I get issues with datatags in annotations as this feature will not work great when fixtures are grouped.

 

Our setup is as follows:

Fixture Class = Object name of the object the fixture is in

Fixture Layer = Lighting Plot layer / Lighting Plot Floor layer

 

Same goes for trussing/hoist/bridles etc.
This way it's the fastest way to make-up your sheet layers as production drawings.

 

So that's why I was hoping Data Visualisation was the way to go..

The other issue is that most of the designers are of age and have been using the 3rd party plug-in their whole career, from the time Vectorworks was MiniCAD. As Spotlight wasn't the tool compared to what it is today

.

 

A simple dropdown menu gives you the option to choose your Focus Set. This is pre-defined and not related to a focus point you can also draw an focus arrow to focus the lights to a certain 'focus point'.

This easy way of setting up fixtures would be great to create via the Spotlight synergy.

Doesn't need to be the exact workflow but automating the colouring of the fixtures+focuspoints is essential.

Maybe clarifies a couple of things I wrote in my first post.

 

Or maybe Vectorscript/python will be the way to go for this issue in automating the proces.

They I can get my hands dirty with ChatGPT haha!

[markdd]

You can definately set up two identical Data Vizualisations that can run simultaneously based on the Name of the Focus Point and the Lighting Device focus point field. The problem comes when you want to just have a portion of the Lighting device show the colour which is currently not possible with Data Vis. Hence my suggestion.

 

Sometimes Lighting Devices need a refresh to show the color info when using the Class workflow. Refresh Lighting Devices command (cmd/) is something I have got used to using and I rarely think about it anymore.

[markdd]

This is my offering uising Data tags to change colour with Data Vis.

 

 

With Data Tags and Data Viz.vwx

 

 

A record is attached each of the two data tags. The Focus Point info is pushed from the Data Source (FP or Lighting Device) to the Record attached to the Data Tag by using the Link to Calculated/User entered field section of the Define Tag field dialog.

 

A single Data Vis is set up based on the Record attached to the Data tag.

 

You should be able to attach each data tag to all the lighting devices and then all the Focus points in one action so adding the data is going to be relatively quick. Even works on objects inside groups!!

Edited March 10, 2023 by markdd