Spotlight Workflow

[C. Andrew Dunning]

For those of you who've been living in the Spotlight world for a while, would you share some advice w. a long-time AutoPlotVW user trying to get up-to-speed...?

Label Legends:

Do you have a single Label Legend you use for all fixtures - simply moving the text around for each placement?

-or-

Do you have a very few Label Legends - for example, for wash fixtures, profile fixtures, intelligent fixtures, etc. - again, moving text around after placement?

If either of the above, are you using Red Symbols to avoid constant readjusting?

-or-

Do you have separate Label Legends for each fixture type?

Symbols / Lighting Devices:

How do you handle different fixture orientations?

Do you have different reference Symbols w. the 3D portion already rotated?

-or-

Do you use the same reference Symbols and rotate the 3D portion upon placement?

If the latter, are you using Red Symbols w. things pre-rotated? If the the former, how does that "play" with ESP Vision, knowing that (if I'm correct in my understanding) Vision is referencing 3D rotation information to set its fixture orientation.

I've grown accustomed to using different Symbols w. different 2D geometry (& the 3D portion oriented appropriately) to indicate hanging orientation on my plots (alleviates a LOT of questions and mistakes) and am trying to decide what the best Spotlight approach will be.

Many thanks!

[ChadL]

Hey Andrew,

On a typical drawing I use 4 label legends. My template has a label legend for Source4, Pars, Movers, and LEDs. Mostly I do this because I show different information for movers and Source4s and want it displayed differently. Also historically the legends don't aline to all fixtures the same. One shows where I find myself moving 1 piece of text to the same spot on a whole group of fixtures, I will make a second label legend for that.

I don't know what Red Symbols are, can you explain?

I typically do not use different symbols for different orientations. I use the 'Set 3D orientation' in OIP, and have not had a problem with that. I have not used ESP so I cannot speak on that.

[C. Andrew Dunning]

I don't know what Red Symbols are, can you explain?

Sure...

Insert a PIO and make any settings changes you'd like. Create a Symbol from that PIO, making sure "Convert to Plug-in Object" is toggled on in the "Creat Symbol" dialog. The Symbol that is created will be red in the Resource Broswer. When you insert that Symbol, all of the settings changes you made will carry through and the object will be returned to its PIO state. This can be quite helpful for things like memorizing text locations and 3D orientations for Lighting Devices or different stock Video Screen settings.

Make sense??