Cable Paths / Cable Tool Bug?

[ChollyO]

I'm having an issue with the cable path & cable tools where they are not acting in the way that I have viewed on the Cable Tools Suite videos.  I have a number of screenshots to show what's happening, hopefully someone can clarify if I'm doing something incorrectly or is there is an actual bug in the tool.

 

 

Above is my site, stage at the bottom, FOH at the top.  I've drawn a single cable path that runs through the cable ramps to the nearest wall, down to SL, near where PD land will be.

 

 

 

Here I'm attempting to create a DMX cable that starts on the leftmost riser.  I click on the riser to start the cable and then click directly below that start point to enter the cable path.  The line representing the cable does not enter the cable path where I have clicked, it jumps to the start of the cable path.

 

 

 

 

 

Here you'll see that as I drag my cursor down the cable path, it stays anchored to the start point.  From what I've seen in the tutorial videos, the cable should follow the path and jump out at the nearest point to the path.  This is not what is happening.  

Sorry about the quality of this one, I had to take it with my phone as my screenshot app couldn't capture what I wanted to show.  

 

 

For this example I'm just running the cable to an area near the middle of the path.  I attempt to exit the path and end the cable where I have placed a callout.  The resulting cable is something that is exiting the cable path at its end near stage, jumping back towards the FOH riser, then back to stage where it ends.  Length of cable created is 218'.  Nowhere near what I was trying to create.

 

 

 

 

Additionally, a NURBS Curve has been created.

 

 

Can someone please help me figure out what is going on?  Am I doing something incorrectly?  Is there a bug with the tool?

Running VW 2023 SP4 Build 693289 64-bit on a Windows 10 Pro v.21H2 machine.

 

 

 

[ChollyO]

It also should be noted that Alt+Click or Ctrl+Click to enter and exit the cable path had no effect on the intended operation.

[Pat Stanford]

I believe the cable tools have been updated and function differently since those videos were created. New videos are in the works.

[ChollyO]

@Pat Stanford Looking forward to those new videos, but in the meantime can you give any insight into what's happening? 

[Pat Stanford]

I have never used the cable tool, so I can't help.  @Conrad Preen can you help?

[jcogdell]

@ChollyO can you dm me the file?
I'll take a look and see if I can figure out what is happening

[markdd]

It's definately the case that you can't currently enter a cable path midway along the path in the same way that you can exit it. It is an annoying inconsistency, especially as the Power Patch command will enter and exit a path using the shortest route.

[jcogdell]

I've had a quick look at your file,

On 4/11/2023 at 4:02 PM, ChollyO said:

Here I'm attempting to create a DMX cable that starts on the leftmost riser.  I click on the riser to start the cable and then click directly below that start point to enter the cable path.  The line representing the cable does not enter the cable path where I have clicked, it jumps to the start of the cable path.

I think this is an unintended consequence of the change to using a modifier key to control when the cable exits a path, I will raise the issue and see what can be done to improve this.

 

On 4/11/2023 at 4:02 PM, ChollyO said:

For this example I'm just running the cable to an area near the middle of the path.  I attempt to exit the path and end the cable where I have placed a callout.  The resulting cable is something that is exiting the cable path at its end near stage, jumping back towards the FOH riser, then back to stage where it ends.  Length of cable created is 218'.  Nowhere near what I was trying to create

I can't reproduce this one, how did you exit the path?
I was able to exit the path near the desired exit point while continuing to hold the alt key and clicking on the ground.
 

On 4/11/2023 at 4:02 PM, ChollyO said:

Additionally, a NURBS Curve has been created.

This has been an issue in the past that I thought was fixed. Again I'm not seeing this at my end in your file, but that doesn't mean its not happening as previously this was intermittent and I couldn't reliably reproduce it in my own files. I'll open a new bug report for it.

 

I have a question, why are you not using any distributor objects (breakouts, PD's etc...) in your workflow?
 

[ChollyO]

3 hours ago, jcogdell said:

I think this is an unintended consequence of the change to using a modifier key to control when the cable exits a path

I just tried again using the "modifier key", Alt (Windows machine), and the cable did enter the path where I clicked, so that does work. However the cable does not track along the path as I have seen in other tutorials. 

 

One item to note on this - when you press the modifier key and hover over a cable path, the red highlight that typically shows that you are interacting with the path disappears, so initially it was not clear that I was linking to it properly.  That probably should be something that could be fixed.

 

3 hours ago, jcogdell said:

I can't reproduce this one, how did you exit the path?
I was able to exit the path near the desired exit point while continuing to hold the alt key and clicking on the ground.

As with entering the path, on exiting I tried using the modifier key to exit and it now is exiting, but since it is not tracking along the cable path it is just jumping from where I entered and drawing a straight run from that point.  

 

 

3 hours ago, jcogdell said:

I have a question, why are you not using any distributor objects (breakouts, PD's etc...) in your workflow?

For the prep for this project, it was more important for me to determine my cable run lengths to and from each respective location (ie, FOH to backstage, PD to trussing).  When working through this particular drawing I started with the cable path tool, and then laying out my runs.  When I immediately ran into the issues (such as the one I have described here), my focus shifted to trying to figure out what is wrong and how to fix it (submitting a forum question, taking screenshots and explaining what was happening), rather than dropping the correct PD's and breakouts.  Since the cable paths & cable tool were not functioning as I thought they should have (and it takes a some time to get solutions from the forum), I was forced to manually draw in each cable, which takes a lot more time than running them through the paths.  I know a cable is going to start at a PD and end at a particular breakout, so those items were not as important for me to get into the drawing.  Ultimately, all I need are the cable run lengths.  Had I not spend additional time working through the cable run issues, those items would definitely would've found there way into the drawing.

[jcogdell]

3 minutes ago, ChollyO said:

I just tried again using the "modifier key", Alt (Windows machine), and the cable did enter the path where I clicked, so that does work. However the cable does not track along the path as I have seen in other tutorials. 

Are you continuing to hold the modifier key while attempting to get the cable to tack along the path?
 

3 minutes ago, ChollyO said:

One item to note on this - when you press the modifier key and hover over a cable path, the red highlight that typically shows that you are interacting with the path disappears, so initially it was not clear that I was linking to it properly.  That probably should be something that could be fixed

I'll bring that to the dev teams attention.

 

Thanks for explaining the reason behind your workflow, it helps us explain to our dev team what you as users are looking fr and trying to achieve.
 

[ChollyO]

9 minutes ago, jcogdell said:

Are you continuing to hold the modifier key while attempting to get the cable to tack along the path?

Just tried it, has no effect.  Cable will not follow along the path.

[jcogdell]

Weird, it was working for me.
I put a bug report in for it.

[ChollyO]

@Pat Stanford & @jcogdell

On 4/11/2023 at 11:00 AM, Pat Stanford said:

I believe the cable tools have been updated and function differently since those videos were created. New videos are in the works.

 

Since the cable tools have been updated, and new videos are in the works, I think it would be useful if a publish date and "VW version used" could be added to the existing videos that are on the University site, that way people can tell how old something is.  If I choose to spend the time to watch something that could amount to a few hours of my time and it's out of date, I may rethink spending the time.  Don't get me wrong, I'm sure that there is still some value to the content that is available, but hopefully you can see my frustration when I watch a video that does not represent the current functionality of a tool/tool set.  Just a thought.

[jcogdell]

I'll forward the request to our team.

[nakedeye]

I've the same issue and can't leave the cable path when I want, running on a Mac with the latest SP I'm using option as the modifier key but its doesn't really work and I also tried on my windows machine and the same result. I was also looking at the cable tools instruction videos.