Question about accessories rotating with instruments

[Kevin Fraser]

I've recently moved from vw11.5 to vw2008 and I have a question regarding rotation of instruments with accessories. In 11.5 when I select and rotate an instrument that has an accessory (barndoor or scroller, for example) the accessory rotates with the instrument, staying in the same position relative to the instrument (i.e. the barndoor stays at the front of the lamp). In 2008, however, the accessory stays in the position it was originally placed and doesn't rotate with the instrument. It appears that the accessory is "attached" to the instrument, as they have the same position and unit number, and if I move the instrument along the pipe the accessory travels with it.

How can I get the instrument rotation to behave the way it did in 11.5?

Thanks.

[Cris with no H]

You, my friend, have discovered a bug. I'm sure Kevin Linzey will read this thread sometime today and note the problem and work on it. Right, Kevin?

In the meantime, I suggest selecting both instrument and accessory manually and using the rotate tool to get the rotation you need.

[Kevin Fraser]

Thanks for the suggestion. I've tried that. It gives the accessory the correct rotation angle but doesn't put it in the correct place relative to the instrument (i.e. the scroller doesn't stay at the front of the lamp).

[Cris with no H]

Did you use the Rotate TOOL or the Rotate COMMAND? Makes a difference.

Also - and I haven't tried this - what happens if you Refresh the instrument?

[Kevin Fraser]

Many thanks for pointing out the rotate tool. Initially I had been typing the rotation value directly in the object info palette, as this is what I had been doing in 11.5 with no problem. I tried the rotate command and it was behaving the same as typing the value into the object info palette. I had not tried the rotate tool so at your suggestion I tried it and it works perfectly, many thanks!

In case anyone is interested, after more experimentation here is what I've found: The rotate TOOL always works properly (i.e. the scroller stays at the front of the lamp), either selecting the instrument and accessories or just the instrument. Typing the rotation value into the OIP does not work properly after the instrument has first been placed on the plot, but works properly after the instrument has been successfully rotated using either the rotate TOOL or rotate COMMAND, or after the instrument has been moved. These results are consistent for me whether or not the instrument has a position and unit number or not, and whether the unit has a label legend or not. Refresh instruments doesn't seem to affect things at all. The rotate COMMAND sometimes works properly after the instrument has first been placed, sometimes not. It always works properly after a successful rotation using the rotate TOOL.

I spoke with another vw2008 user this morning who was not able to duplicate my problem on his system, so perhaps this is a problem with my installation. He has windows and I have mac, though.