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Spotlight photometric measurements


rickpett

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I just got Spotlight and this is exactly what the client is asking for: a photometric grid on the stage measuring footcandles. Perfect!

So I take the plot and lay the grid on it. I add a focus point at one of the points, and I focus lights on it, but the grid fails to measure the intensity!

The lights have been assigned to that focus point, and have the info record describing their light output, etc. But I got no juice.

The lights are trimmed at 50', and the grid is at 6'.

What am I missing? Anybody?

RP

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Thank you for your reply.

You say: "You have to turn on "Draw Beam" for the Lighting Devices..."

But I have no "Draw Beam" in my object info palette, neither in the "light info" record nor in the "instrument record."

This might be the source of my mistake: do I not have the proper record file in the drawing? The "light info" record shows beam spread and candlepower, but offers no choice for "draw beam."

RP

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Thanks again for your reply.

I scrolled down as you suggested. The last item in the "Light Info Record" is "candlepower," and the last item in the "Instrument Record" is "Number 4."

Mmmmm. Something fishy here...

Oh well. I'll get this solved eventually. All suggestions appreciated.

In the meantime, have a happy Holiday!!!

RP

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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee

You either have to turn on "Draw Beam" for the Lighting Devices or turn off "Calclate using only visible beams" on the Photometric grid. Depending on how many instrumens you have in the drawing turing off "Calclate using only visible beams" on the Photometric grid may slow things down, because it will have to look at every lighting device in the document.

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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee

O.K. Back to basics. When you palced the symbol did you use the Spotlight Instrument Insertion tool? Spotlight doesn't use a record named "Instrument Record". When you select the instrument what is in the Shape Pane (not the data pane) of the Objetct Info Palette? It should be titled "Lighting Device".

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Hope your holidays are pleasant.

One more question...

The photogrid is working, and the lights are lighting it up, but I'm getting some renegade readings way upstage, from some unknown source.

Is there anyway to identify which lights are focused on a particular focus point?

Thanks again.

RP

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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee

I don't know where the "-NAN FC" is from. You can send the file to tech@nemetschek.net and I will take a look at it. As for the renegade readings the only way to tell is to turn on draw beams for the lights. Also remember the photometric grid can be at a different elevation then the focus point. The draw beam goes only to the focus point, the photo metric objects calculate to their own elevation.

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