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Wish for lighting device, Wattage as number field with trailer


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I think it would be very useful it the wattage field was a numeric field rather then a text field. It can just be a number that if formatted how you want like a dimension. If you want it to appear as 2000w then it just adds the w or if you want it to appear as 2kw it does that.

The advantage would be you could easily create reports estimating you overall powerdraw and break it down by services for nice and neat reports.

Just a thought and I am curious if anyone else would second this as a potential good idea.

Matt

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What I typically do is create a custom report with listing objects with record that are lighting device and summarize and sort fields as necessary using that.

I cannot do it with the wattage because of its text. Or even if it was like some of the others like channel with an alternate wattage that would be helpful.

I could put it is a user field, but that is a lot of work and wont nest in my symbols.

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Unfortunately, the "=value(record.field)" function will not work if the field contains any non-numeric characters, and the VS functions that will parse text are not available as worksheet functions. Unfortunately, again, if you are going to allow "w" or "kw" as suffixes you kill the ability of the field to be numeric. Dimensions are a particular parameter type for plug-in objects that works across all disciplines. If we call 2'3" a dimension, what do we call 2kw as a parameter type? It's possible to make up a name, but I doubt that Nemetschek will implement it. Your best work around for the foreseeable future is to only put numbers in the wattage field and then add a column to your report that has the "=value('Lighting Device'.'Wattage')" formula at the database top.

Sam

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Sam

So that would mean going into your library and taking out the w or kw and standardizing the wattage format for instruments you want to use.

At that point, why not change the record format and make the Wattage field numeric?

...might have to try that...

michaelk

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Isn't there a way to have Wattage thought of as a unit? That would be the harder thought.

Or maybe an easier way is there the ability to simply add a trailer to a numeric value. I do not know much about programming, but if I draw a 9 inch line it knows that the unit is an inch and because of that it puts the " at the end of it. Is it possible to have a column in a report that gets a w as a trailer?

My rational for this is that I do all these shows and I need to order power for them and one of the few excel sheets I still use is my power draw one. Well if I can format my report in the database to only display info on rack 1 and summarize the wattage then divide by 120 and by 3 assuming it is 120v power I would get a rough estimate of my service size.

Could be a cool thing that I would be even more interested in expanding on with our 208v distros, but without the prospect of a numeric value in there I am not sure I can.

Matt

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Hi folks;

while the thought of making the wattage data numeric, sam's note about mix & match with alphabetic extends through almost all of the data fields. colors, gobos, etc. at one point i tried to change the wattage to numeric, make it flush right, and then add a custom data field adjacent to it, make it alpha, and make it flush left. then i needed to change all the wattage data to strip the w or kw. yikes. it just got nutty.

i also remember those days of excel computation for power. inevitably still needed to go through and remove the k or kw from any symbol imports. ahhhh, the humanity. (or the huge manatee--rim shot).

anyway, as soon as i started working with lightwright i was able to put that spreadsheet to rest. lightwright, (at least in version 4, probably also in earlier versions knowing mckernon) has worksheets that does all this computation for you. it's also possible to segregate racks from one another and work on balancing loads in one rack.

of course, after a point, it's all a crapshoot as far as i can tell until you get the rig up and snap an amprobe on each leg in "the bright cue". my last lesson was a couple of years ago when i discovered that you need to recalibrate your fluke every once in a while or the readings can be a little wonky. <*su-prise*>!

anyway, i digress. at the present time i'm not aware that any worksheet in vw can deal with this electrical power computation, but i know that exporting the file, cleaning up wattage information, and balancing loads is easier in excel, and (for my money) even easier in lightwright. and i can say from experience that my attempts to make wattage make more sense in vw changing data identities or adding custom fields are hopefully harbored in files i no longer need to import from again.

hth,

shelley

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Hi All,

Just my $.02, but VW is a drawing program and does that very well. Lightwright is a database/paperwork program and does that very well. I'd personally rather their developers continue doing what they do best and continue improving how the programs talk to each other than duplicate each other's features.

VW's spreadsheet functions are great for getting a quick, live snapshot of a plot (how many units am I using? Does everything have a position assigned?), but I don't think they are or should be developed to be a substitute for a real paperwork or spreadsheet program.

-Josh

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I am a fan of lightwright, but I do often find it tedious to import/export. I know there is a feature in the works to get rid of this, but until then it is still a pain. I also work more in the rock and roll side where a good amount of people do not use lightwright, own lightwright, or understand the benefits of it. I am just trying to place some calculation in vectorworks, not get all my paperwork out of it, but some of the stuff for quick estimates.

I just am unaware of the advantages of having it as a text field opposed to a numeric field. I think it is something that does not hurt anything especially if there were a way to format the number. Maybe the only draw back would be that it would have to have a value in it as a default, but that is probably a good thing to encourage more accurate paperwork.

No there are no worksheet to do the power draw in vw, but I certainly could drop in some of the various formulas and get pretty close. Yes no accurate reading is there until you amp clamp it, but you still have to order power and you need a fairly decent estimate to give to places for that. The tricky part for our company is the 208v loads which even if we wanted to use lightwright we couldn't because it doesn't calculate those loads. I still have to play in excel with the formulas depending on phasing and I may be able to put that in vectorworks if it were a numeric value.

Matt

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