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Symbol Insertion vs Instrument Symbol Insertion


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I'm trying to make an 8 light Mole-Fay but my symbol keeps reverting back to a 4 light version. This is what I've done to make it

-I grabbed the 4 light version from the library

-I duplicated it into a new symbol

-I grabbed it and mirrored it onto itself in order to make an 8 light instead of a 4 light.

Here is my problem. When I use the symbol insertion tool, no problems. It looks fine. But when I use the instrument insertion tool, the symbol reverts back to its pre modified form. What gives?

I'd include pictures but for the life of me I can't figure out how to attach them.

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Josh

I think I know what's happening?

The 3D part of a symbol must contain exactly 4 objects.

3 of those objects have a record format attached with values that tell the symbol what swivels what direction when the instrument is orientated towards a focus point.

The other object is a 3D Locus that defines the pivot point.

When you mirrored the group of the body of the fixture another object with that record format was created. One more than the lighting device expects.

You have two options:

1. Select each of the 3D objects in the symbol and remove the record format. This allows you to have more than 4 objects, but the fixture will no longer orientate towards a focus point.

2. Since the record format is attached to the group, you can edit anything inside the group without violating the 4 object rule or messing up the record format assignments. Double click the group of the body and make your edits there.

I'll attach an example?.

hth

mk

Edited by michaelk
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Once you have the symbol right go in to edit it. With nothing selected you should see the Lighting Fixture record. That has all the defaults for that fixture. Edit freely.

After you place the light you can change them again, but only for those specific instances.

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RickR,

what I want VW to do is know that as soon as I put my light on the plot, it has 3 channels. It is kind of a multi circuit instrument, but kind of not. Yes, it would take 3 dimmers, but I would only count it as one lighting unit on a pipe, not unit #A. It would be clever if VW could look at the Number Channels field and read it to know how many channels to give you. I could see this coming in handy with an LED fixture as well.

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Josh

The method of showing the beginning address and knowing the number of channels works great for moving lights, where dimmer counts and power loads aren't a factor, and using a multi circuit instrument for an 8 light would work, but it's a bit of a pain, since the symbols aren't built that way.

I usually use accessories to handle the paperwork for extra channels and dimmers. The geometry is just a short line. No 3D geometry.

I'll attach an example.

hth

mk

ps. file manager isn't working for me? Let me know if you need the example and I'll get it to you some other way.

Edited by michaelk
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Figured out why I couldn't post the file to this forum.

Josh, if you've already downloaded the file from the link I emailed to you, I'd trash that one and use the symbol in the attached file.

That 4 light symbol is not built in a smart way for VW. (Possibly imported from another CAD application?):

1. It has no clamp object, so it flies apart in 3D.

2. Each lamp cell is 1770 3D polys. VW hates that.

I'll try again to attach the file. I've added a dummy object to take the place of a clamp and changed the 1770 3D polys to one sweep and one extruded rectangle each. This made the file size go from over 8MB to 1.8MB.

hth

mk

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