Strange thing happening with beam and field angles

[Najmy]

When I place an instrument using the inst. insertion tool, some times the beam and field angles are different from one instrument to another.

For instance, I placed a Source Four 26; beam angle 1 was 17, beam angle 2 was 23; field angle 1 was 25 and field angle 2 was 34. Then I placed another one and both of the beam angles were 17 and both field angles were 25.

Why does this happen and is there any way to fix it? It has gotten me confused, and I'm not sure which set of angles is better to use.

Edited June 19, 2009 by Najmy

[michaelk]

What version of VW are you using?

Both field angles should be the same and both beam angles should be the same. I get 18? and 25? with VW2009.

michaelk

[MrTemplate]

Hello Najmy;

like michael said, when you have a chance, please update your signature so we can see which version of vw you're using.

i **think** you're using at least vw08, since you refer to two sets of beam and field angles. short answer, the ETC S4-26 cut sheet series B states you want both beams to be 17 degrees, and both fields to be 25 degrees. this will produce a circular pair of light cones originating from the 2D locus, one inside the other.

long answer; in vw08 two additional beam and field data panes were added to the light info record. this was done so that ellipses could be projected as such, rather than cones of light. for whatever reason, it sounds like you've got (at least) two S4-26 resources that each contain slightly different default data.

in your position, i would do a custom select of the instrument type, then reselect and re-assign one symbol to all the instances in the plot. then i would delete the second resource.

if that didn't seem pruduent, i would edit both resources so that the default data matches. the "right" way to do this is to click on each resource in the RB, then click on the black triangle on the right hand side of the "resource" text, scroll & release on "edit", edit 2d component, then while inside each symbol, **making sure nothing is selected**, update the data panes in the data tab in the OIP for the beam and field. exiting the symbol should then update both resources to matching beam & field.

the "alternate" way is to insert instances of each of the resources as symbols using the 2d symbol insertion tool (not the spotlight instrument insertion tool). double click on one, edit 2d component, etc, exit, done. rinse and repeat. delete the instances; the resources are updated.

hth,

shelley

[michaelk]

Mr Shelley, who probably keeps better track of the changes in Spotlight record formats better than anyone, is totally correct.

I was assuming that you were using at least VW 08 and that you were working on a drawing that was started in VW12.5 or older.

That's the only way I can think of to get the behavior you are seeing. In addition to Mr Shelley's advice, I would also recommend purging the old record format (keep the new one!) from any drawing you think it might be in (it lives in the resource browser) and don't import instruments from drawings made with earlier versions.

But if you're sure this drawing has never had contact with earlier versions of VW, then something else is going on...

hth

michaelk