SPOTLIGHT INSTRUMENTS MOVING BY THEMSELVES!!!!!

[ajpen]

Help! This one will send me to the padded room!!!

ALL of my fixtures decide to up and relocate themselves in the model at random. They move together, based on their Position, i.e. all lights from "TRUSS LX2" will move very far away (like 20-50 meters in one or two directions) from their original location.

None of these fixtures are grouped. Each is individual, but they move together as i described.

The distance and direction that they move is not constant. They end up anywhere in the drawing, but maintain their positions relative to each other.

It's not always the same fixtures... sometimes its everything on one single Light Position, sometimes its almost every light in the drawing.

This happens when i do "something" which i think is related to Viewports... the thing is, it's not the same thing each time. i can go in and out of a viewport a couple of times, then it just HAPPENS! i can't properly re-create it, but it keeps happening!

Please Please Please help... every time this happens i lose another ten to twenty minutes trying to figure out how much damage has been done and fixing it.

MacBook Pro 2.33GHz

Leopard 10.5.1

2G RAM

Vectorworks 2008 SP1

[Benson Shaw]

ajpen - nobody else took a swing at this one, so here goes:

1. This behavior could result from need for restart, update (SP2) or re-install of VW, or for system permission & plist maintenance.

2. This could be a view change phenomenon (coordinates of the "moved" objects do not change, only their location relative to view screen) rather than an actual position/coordinate change of the objects in question. For example, with two layers on a drawing and 2d and 3d objects on both layers and both layers visible: If Layer 1 active, and 3d selection tool view mode changes eg. from plan to front, Then 3d objects in Layer 1 will seem to relocate (but their coordinates will not change), while the 2d objects in Layer 1 and all the objects in Layer 2 will remain static. If working in Viewports, another variable is checking/unchecking "Project 2d Objects" in the OIP - 2d and 3d objects may change onscreen position (but not coordinates) when Viewport view changes.

Observe whether the coordinates are actually changing.

3. A bug or software failure which needs to be addressed by NNA.

4. Inadvertent use/neglect of light preferences/settings, or inadvertent use of application key commands, scripts, macros, etc causing move, rotation, or other position change.

Thasss all I got for now.

Hope you get it solved and running the way you want.

-B