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problems mirroring & unit numbers


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I have had a problem where I'm designing the beginnings of a touring dance rig where 4 of the LX bars are duplicated to form the overhead system. I drew the LX position, then the lights on the SR side, complete with their Colorram CXi scrollers and one gobo. I then mirrored the SR side to the SL, then duplicated the whole position & lights 3 times to make the 4 overhead bars. Then I re-named the positions to LX2, LX3 & LX4, and selected all the lights and accessories and changed their position info accordingly. Now, this is where I have the problem. I then went to [refresh instruments] to update the plan and have VW Spotlight generate instrument numbers. All the lights were numbered correctly on each lighting position. Only the accessories on the original SR end of LX1 were numbered correctly. Every other accessory (the mirrored and duplicated ones) has no unit number. Is there a way for VW Spotlight to automatically assign the unit numbers to these mirrored accessories? I couldn't work out a way to assign these accessories to the lights they are meant to be attached to, so I deleted them and re-drew them which is a very boring way to make the program recognize them. Does anyone have a better idea?

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Not the best, but before you duplicate the first position to create the rest, enter the unit number into the accessory info pallet by right clicking on it for the accessories that don't have numbers. Then when you duplicate the position you will have the info and it will duplicate.

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I also usually create the positions first and only duplicate the instruments. I find it quicker than having to rename the position later, or forgeting to!! Also by numbering the first position before I duplicate, especially since the pipes are identical, I save some more time. All I have to do is change the position name on the instruments.

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I played around with this last night. It appears that when you duplicate accessories they lose their attachment to their instrument.

If you place an accessory on an instrument with the accessory attachement tool it will stay associated to that instrument, travel with it and number. Once you duplicate them it doesn't. So unless there is something I missed there is a bug when you duplicate instruments with accessories.

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  • 2 months later...

I've been having this problem in v9, reported it over a year ago, and am shocked to see that it hasn't been addressed.

Duplicate, Duplicate Array, Mirror & Duplicate all cause this to happen in v9.

I was hoping to hear of a new Spotlight tool in v10 or command that would "Repeat" or "Reverse & Repeat" since it probably does require a bit of extra programming on the Spotlight end of things to keep the accessory info intact.

There also seems to be no easy way to manually clean up this issue, except as you said to delete them and re-insert one at a time.

Any offical word on any progress with this?

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While you folks are back on the topic. When I put accessories onto fixtures, I would assume that the attributes of the instrument would be applied to it's accessory. I have been doing it manually afterwords. Very unfriendly I must say.

[ 08-20-2003, 04:18 PM: Message edited by: Martin ]

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  • 2 weeks later...

Tech is not required to answer here or anywhere on the message board. If you need a problem addressed by a tech support individual, please contact them either by phone or email.

410-290-5114

tech@nemetschek.net

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i wish to apologize , i seem to have missed the chapter where the CRITERIAS that makes a post worthy of an answer are listed.

i seem to have laboured under the misconception that the techboard was the place to go to see what the other members were experiencing and to get an indication as to the nature of a given problem, thereby saving time and frustration.

thru time , i've noticed that the problems i have, seem to fall in 4 different categories. 1-my own stupidity or lack of knowledge, 2-misunderstanding or not being able to understand the instructions, 3- platform and/or OS compatibility and 4- "known problem".

-since it's a posted fact that company policy is not to maintain a bug list, it stands to reason that category 4 problems are not part of the CRITERIAS

-as for categories 1-2-3, to get an answer, it seems to be dependent on my attitude.

but i fear where missing the whole point. i invested in a product that is supposed to help me express my concepts, ideas and solutions in such a way as to communicate them in a comprehensive format to others, so as to attain a final product.and right now , i'm experiencing difficulties which make it very painfull to do so.it is extremely frustrating not being able to deliver because you can't get a handle on a programming problem and solve it. i'm a lighting designer, not a programming designer.

and i know i've got an attitude and i'm not wondering why.

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Katie,

The problem seems to be that we have been posting this problem since last May and only now do you deem it time to post any type of response, and that is to tell us that you all are not required to respond to any posts!!

Well I am sorry that WV has bugs, but if we don't post them it would seem to follow they will never ger corrected.

Our frustration is that we see someone who wants to know if two different people can use that program on the same computer get an immeditae response, and those of use who are posting a major bug get no response!!

So where is the problem?? Why can't one of you address this problem in some manner other than to slap us up??

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The tech board is used as an alternate resource to discuss the problem.

It should not be the fall back crutch and ONLY option for technical assistance.

If you aren't getting a response on here, it's probably for alot of different reasons, mostly due to time limitations. When I worked in Tech Support I only had limited free time. I choose to come here and comment. I didn't have to, it wasn't in my job description, I choose to .. to help some folks out and save the phone call or email attempt.

Now that I'm not in tech support, I still come back here to help when I have free time and where I have the resources to resolve problems.

To make a comment like " I wonder why tech support never answered this post " .. could also be turned in why the user never contacted tech support about the problem.

If it's a serious problem, I would think the user would make the necessary arrangements to contact tech support or bug submit to log it if it's a bug.

If you notice through the summer, I didn't comment here as much as I had in previous seasons. We were incredibly busy in the TS dept and were short handed. The priorities were Phone and email over the message board.

I've said time and time again, if you aren't getting a response on the message board, try another route - which should be the first route in most situations - contact TS or Bug Submit directly.

If you read the Read Me at the top of the discussion area, you'll see that no where it says TS is required to respond here.

I can understand your frustration with not getting a response here, but you have to understand that I am only one person and can only do what I can do.

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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee

quote:

Originally posted by jtallen:

Katie,

The problem seems to be that we have been posting this problem since last May and only now do you deem it time to post any type of response, and that is to tell us that you all are not required to respond to any posts!!

Thiws is not the paid technical support that comes with a copy of VectorWorks. Anyone, including people still running MiniCAD 7 and before (and thus long out of the 18 month tech support interval) can sign up and post requests for help, and often get responses. It is free for anyone who has an interest in MiniCAD/VectorWorks, and you get what you pay for... (More, actually.)

The tech support you paid for is via the phone number already given. If you absolutely need a response, call.

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All well and good, but I was always schooled in the philosophy that the customer comes first. If a company comming into my facility notified me of a problem and I just passed it off because say catering isn't my area, and as a result they didn't get what they needed, it would not reflect well on my facility, and my boss would rip me new --- for not making sure it was taken care of.

I know you all are busy and this is supposed to be a board to share ideas and maybe get help - BUT if I worked for a company and saw a major problem with my product I would think one would just jump on say "We see it and will pass it on to tech to address." instead of letting go on through several updates and revisions.

I personally have held off on upgrading to give time for the bugs to get worked out and see if it is that much better to make spending the money worthwile. But I don't see much reason to upgrade if one of the major problems I am having continues. This is a function that would be used often, if it worked, along with the issue of moving stiplights.

Right now I have to delete and create new strips if I need to move them once they have been placed & multicircuited. The duplicating of instruments is VERY usefull and since we all use accessories a lot, this has been a major problem.

I am sorry to rag no you about this, but I REALLY think that it wouldn't have been that hard, after seeing all the posts about this, to somehow address it with your tech people. A lot of other posts were addressed during this time that seemed a lot less important to the future of the sucess of VW.

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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee

We are aware of the mirroring and duplicate problems. These problems have existed since version 9 and we are looking for a reliable solution that will not slow down the program.

Please send tech support problems to tech@nemetschek.net. We do monitor this board, but questions submitted to tech support or Bug Submit will get a better responce.

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