LW Data Exchange Question

[John Hall]

Hello everyone here's my question- I just upgraded to LW5, and I'm curious how my existing VW2010 repertory plot drawing and my existing LW file for the same drawing will react with each other when I turn the syncing on. SHould I be nervous starting with two existing files rather than starting the exchange from scratch?

thanks-

[sig_eigei]

I would suggest having VW save a clean xml of your plot file and open a new LW file to start synching. VW needs to assign codes to all the units that LW will read. If you have an existing rep LW file, none of that will be in it so you could have a mess if you attempt to sync the two directly. Maybe others have had luck with this, but I suggest to start a new LW file from scratch form a clean VW export.

Since LW5 allows you to keep two LW files open at the same time, you can use your old one as a reference to clean up the new synched file.

[JBenghiat]

Lightwright has the capacity to synchronize your drawing and LW files through its reconcile feature.

When you have Spotlight do a full export (which it will always do on the first export), LW will run a reconciliation on the exchange data. It will first check for matching VW IDs, then position/unit number, then purpose and channel. You will be prompted to add any lights that don't match as well as which version of conflicting data to use.

So, if you've been synchronizing LW and VW through Automated Actions, your files should sync up with ease. If not, and unit numbers and positions are accurate in both files, syncing up should also go smoothly, though devices, accessories, and multi-circuit devices might need some attention.

Before the first exchange, make sure you look in LW's instrument maintenance and check that instrument types you don't want on the drawing are unchecked in the "On Light Plot" column.

Also remember LW's new history features. If you notice VW has erroneously changed data in LW, you can right click on the cell and revert to a previous instance.

HTH,

Josh

[John Hall]

thanks guys, I'm going to setup a test file name of the existing VW and LW files and sync the two and see what happens. I just didn;t want to think I was saving some time, while actually creating more work for myself.