Festoons

[DianaK]

Million years ago I made an ugly but usable 3D symbol for festoon lights (that swaged). I was chitchatting with an electrician today about whether a custom tool exists or if anyone has made something like that (better than my dumb symbol from 15 years ago). Anyone? @Sam Jones @Jesse Cogswell @JBenghiat @SCParker @Mark Aceto @tgooch

[VIRTUALENVIRONS]

Can you be a little more specific.  A picture perhaps.

[rDesign]

There is this festoon Marionette object by @SBarrettWalker

 

[DianaK]

2 hours ago, rDesign said:

There is this festoon Marionette object by @SBarrettWalker

 

This might be what we were thinking of.  These items come in 50' lengths:

[VIRTUALENVIRONS]

I have these on the outside of the house....cool.  There appear to be 24 lights on each string.

 

Is it the light settings or the geometry that you are interested in?

 

  

[DianaK]

This was requested by a production electrician so I would imagine she wanted to function like a fixture that shows a likely swag and can be drawn like a poly line with a line type or similar. I used to just drop the symbol, scale it (ugly) and then call it a light so it worked in light right.

[rDesign]

46 minutes ago, DianaK said:

likely swag and can be drawn like a poly line with a line type or similar

If you’re wanting to estimate the end heights and sag of the cable, there is also the third-party Catenary Curve plug-in. No lighting as part of the plug-in, so you’d have to add those separately.

 

Edited September 29, 2025 by rDesign

[VIRTUALENVIRONS]

There are about a dozen ways to do this.  Post a picture for us if you can.  

 

Have a look at this for example.   Need something to dial in with.

 

 

[DianaK]

These guys are definitely looking for a tool or plug-in rather than having to do it from scratch.  I will direct them to the marionette.

[DianaK]

Just now, DianaK said:

These guys are definitely looking for a tool or plug-in rather than having to do it from scratch.  I will direct them to the marionette.

@VMigoulia

[mjm]

Festoon 2025-1v1.vwx

 

 o well. here's another one…

[LiteDoctor]

22 hours ago, DianaK said:

This was requested by a production electrician so I would imagine she wanted to function like a fixture that shows a likely swag and can be drawn like a poly line with a line type or similar. I used to just drop the symbol, scale it (ugly) and then call it a light so it worked in light right.

 

What I've done is use the Festoon Marionette for the Plot and 3D views, then created a simple symbol as a "lighting fixture" to attach the Label legend to and for worksheets/Lightwright. On the plot it looks like so:

 

[grant_PD]

there is a plug in tool that does this.  I had it for a while.  search "festoon" in the message board and it may come up.  I recall that I also used the rope and stanchion tool to get the swag, and then duplicated a symbol along it for the lighting festoon.

[Peter Neufeld.]

Hello,

In tech support last week I had an LD who wanted to number and label the different types of bulbs and also the length of the catenary. Using the Marionette tool as mentioned above, once they were happy with the result I got them to Modify>Convert to Group and then ungroup. Once done just add the EntEquipUniversal record (or Light Info if required) so the Numbering command auto numbers the lot. I then created a quick Data Tag and a Graphic Legend. In the enclosed file it was using the symbol name which as you can see was too long and should be shortened.

 

 

 

 

 

Festoon v2026.vwx

 

Cheers,

Peter

[DianaK]

On 9/30/2025 at 10:27 PM, grant_PD said:

there is a plug in tool that does this.  I had it for a while.  search "festoon" in the message board and it may come up.  I recall that I also used the rope and stanchion tool to get the swag, and then duplicated a symbol along it for the lighting festoon.

No luck on search, but sounds cool

[grant_PD]

@DianaK  Nice to see you!  Here it is.

 

[GILPMTL]

On 9/29/2025 at 10:45 AM, rDesign said:

There is this festoon Marionette object by @SBarrettWalker

 

My first post!   I know I'm resurrecting a dead post but I only wanted to say thanks for this file.   it really saved me !!!