2d/3d Light Symbol to Instrument.

[andrewrondinone]

I'm not too familiar with vectorworks, especially 2012. I was recently sent a file for a theater with a stripped light plot, their lights were sent along and just opened up with their file. They all are 3d objects but when double clicking on a light it only opens a symbol insertion tool, not an instrument, and I can't seem to even find an instrument insertion tool. Where can I find either the tool or a conversion to turn the lights from symbols to instrument?

[michaelk]

Are you using VW spotlight?

If so, double clicking a lighting instrument in the resource browser will activate the symbol insertion tool and they will insert as instruments.

hth

mk

[klinzey]

First make sure you are in the Spotlight workspace. If the Light Info Record is attached to the symbol the instrument insertion tool will automatically activate if it is available in the current workspace. If the instrument insertion tool is not in the current workspace it can't be activated.

[JBenghiat]

To expand a bit, the instrument insertion tool can be found in the Spotlight tool set palette, which is only visible in the Spotlight or Designer workspace. The tool will insert any symbol as an instrument.

The Spotlight workspace also has a menu item to convert a placed Smbol into a Spotlight Lighting Device.

Symbols which have been prepared for use with Spotlight (either by NNA, a third party, or a user) have a record attached called "light info". This tells Spotlight default information to use for type, wattage, weight, etc, as well as tells Spotlight ro automatically select the Instrument Insertion tool when you select the symbol in the Resource Browser. The VW help viewer contains a section on creating symbols optimized for Spotlight. You may want to start there and come back with specific questions.

As I mentioned before, though, you can still use a "regular" symbol as an instrument, you will just be missing some convenience features.

HTH,

Josh