One light, two uses

[jfutral]

Has anyone come up with a way to handle a single fixture that will be used for multiple uses?

In #1 case, trying to maintain lighting information for active rep for a dance company, one circuit of specials (not rep plot) may be specific to two dances. All the information is the same?channel, colour, focus, etc.

And similarly #2, I have a circuit that is being used by two different companies in one week for a festival, but colour and purpose is changing, everything else is the same?channel, focus, etc.?with the two companies sharing the plot.

The only solution I have come up with for #1 is entering the fixture symbol twice, either on separate layers (a layer with piece specific lighting, for the ongoing/archival-esque, rep plot) then, when "flattening" the plot for a specific performance, deleting the duplicates...

... or separate classes for #2. But in this case, dealing with Lightwright is not so straight forward, but I just started using LW 5, so maybe there is some magic in there somewhere. No awful, but seems the point of computers is to make at least some things easier?

What I think would be perfect is to be able to assign one fixture symbol two classes so it shows up with the relevant info depending on how one is displaying classes. not sure how to merge the info for LW, though.

Spotlight is great, just not necessarily in rep situations, so far.

Thanks,

Joe

[ChadL]

What if you used User Fields for your second use, and assign those fields in the label legend manager to a different class. You can import this into Lightwright and tell LW what you want those fields to be. This way all the information is connected with the light and you can easily setup view ports that show the class you want.

[jfutral]

That's pretty clever. I'll give that a shot.

Thanks,

Joe

[Steve B.]

I'd make duplicate plots and LW hookups, one for each plot/piece/company in use. Then use classes in VW to grey out the units not used in a particular plot but common to all plots and hookups. Create a master plot and LW hookup, then duplicates for the changes.

You can easily find which units are for what plot by Marking them in LW (in the Marks field), then use Find and Modify in VW (Spotlight - Find and Modify - Find All "Light" whose "Mark" "=" "XX") to find all those units marked for a particular piece. Marking particular units also allows LW to filter only those units in the Worksheet (and print) that you desire.

Make sure that you adjust the automatic map that exchange uses to include those LW fields you want VW to see.

[mjm]

Although I am in favor of Steve B's system because I have to extract info at least for any new works/company premieres, another easier take might be to employ "Footnotes" in Lightwright in the Purpose field:

Note 1: Rep Dance Name & Purp, Rep Dance2 Name & Purp, etc.

Edited June 5, 2012 by mjm

[jfutral]

I'd make duplicate plots and LW hookups, one for each plot/piece/company in use. Then use classes in VW to grey out the units not used in a particular plot but common to all plots and hookups. Create a master plot and LW hookup, then duplicates for the changes.

Do you mean duplicate files? Or duplicates with-in the file, maybe via layers? With the festival situation in question, there are basically three plots?the rep plot, the primary company plot (which uses parts of the rep, plus their own stuff), and a sort of "visiting" company plot (using what is available from the rep and primary company plot with minimal changes except for colour and purpose).

Duplicate files seems like it would make any changes cumbersome, making sure each file reflects the same changes. Too many moving parts.

Since I usually start and refine in VW and export to LW, it would be most efficient if VW is the master, and least cumbersome if only one file is dealt with in creation and alterations.

But then I also think it is most efficient if I make my coffee strong enough so that one cup is the same as three cups. Why waste the time drinking three cups?

Joe

[mdaszenies]

Joe,

I'd use seperate files for working on the company plots and have a viewport or referenced layer of a "master" rep plot file in the background.

The rep plot would be up to date in every company plot. The "visiting company plot" would only show fixtures that differ from your rep.

hth, Mario

[jfutral]

That's what I'm doing the other weeks. This week is the odd man out with two companies sharing the same plot to varying degrees. Company "A" techs one day. Company "B" techs and performs the next day. Then we go back to Company "A" to perform the third day. Need to keep changeover as close to nil as possible. No time to change out or refocus many circuits. Different files for each company in this circumstance gets kind of wanky.

Joe

[MrTemplate]

Hi Joe;

I would highly recommend that you stick with a single vw and single LW document for this rep scenario. updating separate documents becomes much more cumbersome when the patch starts changing.

When i was constructing plots in this manner i would use Sam Jone's Autoplot, which [with some custom alteration] allowed me to construct three plots and hookups in the same vw and lw documents.

These days i would first consider Chad's method of using user fields instead. without constructing it, i would pursue a different channel container, when applicable, to distinguish between the two shows or the two hookups [or maybe completely different channel numbering between the two shows?].

the big decision i think is going to be your quick changeover scenario; distinguishing what exactly has to take place to efficiently shift from one show to another. in this case i would lean towards creating a lightwright document showing all the shows in different columns.

hth,

shelley