Self Generating Invisible Instruments

[andru]

using SL 12.0 on Mac OS 10.3.9

2x2 G5, 4.5G RAM

I am drafting a plot and working from converted dxfs, and the occasional old .mcd file. While I may not have drawn the underlying document, I am drawing the positions and their lights.

I draw a truss. I convert same to a lighting position, and give it a name. I add some instruments.

Assuming that the instruments figure out that they are associated with the position (never a sure thing, so far), I often end up with a bonus instrument that I did not place, do not recognize, and cannot see. I discovered them by checking the Position Summary and Sum Insts checkboxes in the Object Info palette. Sometimes the instruments that I have placed on a given position show up. Sometimes the phantom does. Sometimes both do.

Type of object (truss, polygon, what have you) that the position is based on does not seem to influence this.

Quitting the app and relaunching does not seem to make them go away.

Haven't yet found a symbol that calls itself 3.5Q-6 in the Resource Browser.

So far, there is always only one of them on a given position. So far, they always call themselves 3.5Q-6. They show up on the position summaries. But they seem to be invisible, as I cannot see them on the position.

1.) What are these?

2.) How do I find them?

3.) How do I kill them?

4.) How do I keep them from coming back?

thanks!

andrew

[klinzey]

It is probably in an invisable class.

3.5Q-6 symbol name looks like an imported symbol from the dxf. (The import appends -# to duplicate symbols names)

The way to find it is to turn all clares and classes on, set the document to show/snap/modify others for layers and classes, then do a custom selection. Select only objects whose "Symbol" "is" "3.5Q-6" then check including components of "Symbols" "Plug-in Objects"

The symbol name should be in the RB, but if thres is an instance anywhere in the document this should find it and select it.

Kevin

[andru]

Thanks for your help, Kevin;

The good news is that I came up with a workaround.

I created a new position that happened to be empty, reassigned the instruments to the new position, and deleted the old one.

The custom selection trick did not select the mystery object, though it did end up pointing me to where it was hiding in the RB. Turned out to be an old Kliegl 3.5 ERS, buried in a symbol folder. I had simply missed it before, since I wasn't using symbols from that folder, but the imported file was.

The next question I'd have about the Position Summaries is, how do I make them useful?

I can drag them about, in a limited fashion, but frequently, the Instrument Summary's graphic doesn't fit its text, and both often end up in the way of the name of the position. Or vice versa.

Edit Group generates an error message, telling me to use the Object Info Palette. Well and good, but the OIP has no controls that apply to those attributes.

The manual tells me to adjust the size of the text with the Text menu, which certainly adjusts the size, but not the dogpile itself.

Suggestions about this are welcome, thanks again for your help

best

andrew