Auto seating number on new venue

[MartinBlomberg]

Hi, 

 

I'm drawing a 12.000 cap arena from scratch. The only thing I got is a 2D dwg with the structure along with chairs, row, and chair number. 

I've created a simple chair and attached a record to the symbol. I've also linked text to the record so that when I fill in the chair number in the record it appears on the symbol.

 

Now, do I actually have to do that 12.000 times? There's gotta be an easier way to do this than to manually enter the chair number for each chair, right?

 

Please let me know your thoughts on this. 

Warm regards and thanks!

[markdd]

The Spotlight Numbering Tool will work on any object with a record.

[Mike Rock]

As Mark said - Spotlight numbering could save you some trouble. I made a simple 12 X 12 grid of chairs and was able to get the tool to number them pretty quickly. Using letters for rows and then running the tool again using numbers for the seat number.  Now if your arena is like most and some sections have uneven row lengths the spotlight numbering tool won't be able to easily account for those edge cases.

[michaelk]

Hi @MartinBlomberg.  I made this for theaters, but it should work for an arena:  https://www.verysmallgroup.com/theaterow

[mjm]

3 hours ago, michaelk said:

Hi @MartinBlomberg.  I made this for theaters, but it should work for an arena:  https://www.verysmallgroup.com/theaterow

Great tool, Sometimes wish. I had more opportunity to use it!

[MartinBlomberg]

8 hours ago, michaelk said:

Hi @MartinBlomberg.  I made this for theaters, but it should work for an arena:  https://www.verysmallgroup.com/theaterow

Fantastic! I just realised I asked about this several years ago and I think we talked at that time as well. At least I recall the plugin. 

Just a question @michaelk, is there a way to set a default mode on spacing, symbol so that I just can draw lines and later on adjust the numbering?

 

Many thanks!

[michaelk]

Yes!  (If I understand your question.)

 

If you double click the TheateRow tool in the tool palette you can set the default parameters, including the default seat spacing.  You can also set the default seating symbol. (Keep in mind that the tool expects to place a seat symbol with no arms.  The arms are handled separately so there aren't two arms between seats.)

 

You can change the numbering - starting number, direction of numbering, increment, placement on top of the seating symbol at any time.  But those options can also be set to your particular default by double clicking on the tool.

 

[MartinBlomberg]

1 hour ago, michaelk said:

Yes!  (If I understand your question.)

 

If you double click the TheateRow tool in the tool palette you can set the default parameters, including the default seat spacing.  You can also set the default seating symbol. (Keep in mind that the tool expects to place a seat symbol with no arms.  The arms are handled separately so there aren't two arms between seats.)

 

You can change the numbering - starting number, direction of numbering, increment, placement on top of the seating symbol at any time.  But those options can also be set to your particular default by double clicking on the tool.

 

Thank you! Didn't see that option, I guess I was to eager 😃 I think I'm almost there, just another question:

Please look at this picture. On (A) I've drawn as the upper black line shows, and I get the result as shown. On (B) I've done the same, but tried another length of line for the section. In both cases I get a gap in the beginning of the section. I'm not sure how make the tool work so that the seats line up perfectly. 

 

Many thanks!!

 

[michaelk]

Here's what I was thinking when I made the tool 🙂 : 

 

1.  Make sure the seat symbols are created with the seat facing up on the screen and the insertion point in at the back of the seat.

 

2.  Always draw the seating row from House Left to House Right.  My intention was that you could use the edge of the riser behind the row you were drawing as the guide and then offset seat, arms, and seat numbers as necessary in the OIP.  In this video the last row of seats has space behind it.  But I still use the back of the riser or wall or whatever architecture is there to draw the row and then offset it in the OIP.

 

 

 

[MartinBlomberg]

14 hours ago, michaelk said:

Here's what I was thinking when I made the tool 🙂 : 

 

1.  Make sure the seat symbols are created with the seat facing up on the screen and the insertion point in at the back of the seat.

 

2.  Always draw the seating row from House Left to House Right.  My intention was that you could use the edge of the riser behind the row you were drawing as the guide and then offset seat, arms, and seat numbers as necessary in the OIP.  In this video the last row of seats has space behind it.  But I still use the back of the riser or wall or whatever architecture is there to draw the row and then offset it in the OIP.

 

 

 

 

Thank you so much! I'll try to dig in deeper and try again. Also, thank you for doing such an awesome plugin!

Do you know why I get a gap from the first chair? The distancing between the chairs is good, I only need to adjust the first seat to get them to line up.

I'll attach a video for clarity 😃

 

 

 

Thanks!!

[michaelk]

Ha!

 

Yes I DO know why that happens!

 

The plug-in uses a lot of vector mathematics.  When I wrote it 3 or 4 years ago (w/ a lot of help from @MullinRJ who helped me relearn my college vector mathematics) the vectorscript function that returns the normal vector at any point on a polyline path had a bug.  It didn't work correctly for the endpoint of the polyline.  And sometimes it failed for points very near the endpoint.

 

We (mostly Raymond!) made several heroic gazillion-lines-of-code attempts to work around it.  

 

I took a less strenuous approach.  I did a few tests and realized that the function never failed more than 1" (25.4mm) from the endpoint.  

 

You can see where this is leading.  The perfect is the enemy of the good.  Right?

 

I took the users polyline and inset everything 1" from the starting point and the end point, where the normal vector function never failed.

 

Because it worked.  And who would ever notice a 1" inset?!??!!?

 

Apparently… you!

 

I've never checked to see if that function was fixed.  I've been happily drawing seating rows 2" short for years. :-).  If you use the arms it's hard to tell.

 

If you really want to beta test it, I'll make you a new version with the offset removed and you can see if the last arm or seat sticks out at a weird angle :-).  But I don't have time right now to fix it if it breaks something!

[MartinBlomberg]

6 hours ago, michaelk said:

Ha!

 

Yes I DO know why that happens!

 

The plug-in uses a lot of vector mathematics.  When I wrote it 3 or 4 years ago (w/ a lot of help from @MullinRJ who helped me relearn my college vector mathematics) the vectorscript function that returns the normal vector at any point on a polyline path had a bug.  It didn't work correctly for the endpoint of the polyline.  And sometimes it failed for points very near the endpoint.

 

We (mostly Raymond!) made several heroic gazillion-lines-of-code attempts to work around it.  

 

I took a less strenuous approach.  I did a few tests and realized that the function never failed more than 1" (25.4mm) from the endpoint.  

 

You can see where this is leading.  The perfect is the enemy of the good.  Right?

 

I took the users polyline and inset everything 1" from the starting point and the end point, where the normal vector function never failed.

 

Because it worked.  And who would ever notice a 1" inset?!??!!?

 

Apparently… you!

 

I've never checked to see if that function was fixed.  I've been happily drawing seating rows 2" short for years. :-).  If you use the arms it's hard to tell.

 

If you really want to beta test it, I'll make you a new version with the offset removed and you can see if the last arm or seat sticks out at a weird angle :-).  But I don't have time right now to fix it if it breaks something!

Haha, nice one! I thought I did something wrong all the time, nice to hear 😃

 

I'll make the rows a bit short then, works fine as well 😃

 

Many many thanks!

 

Martin