Multi Circuit

[markdd]

I rarely use the "convert to multi-circuit" menu item as I see no use for it if one builds ones own, or uses multi circuit instruments in the various Spotlight libraries. However today I am embarking on a project that is going to use a lot of 6-lamp pars, so rather than create a 6-lamp bar multi circuit symbol, I thought I would try selecting  six pars in a row and use the "convert to multi-circuit" command. This works great, the fixtures move well in 2d and also adopt the multi  circuit numbering convention which I really find helpful. What is odd though is that all the 3d pan and tilt functionality is "broken". (SEE Pic. The ones on the left have been converted)

So the question is, am I misunderstanding the tool, am I missing out a step, is the tool not fully functional (bug) or, what is the tools's purpose?

It would be great if anybody could help!

Mark

Edited September 9, 2016 by markdd
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[michaelk]

I think the original intent for the convert to multi circuit command was for strip lights, zip strips, etc.  It was a way of numbering cells of a multi cell unit.

I have also struggled with the lamp bar issue.  (Occasionally a rental house would invert the direction of the fixtures on the lamp bar.) I've ended up making a lamp bar symbol (with a clear indication of which end the soca goes on) and converting that to a position. That makes the unit numbering more useful in the same way that multi circuit does.

Thankfully, lamp bars seem to be going away :-).

 

hth

 

mk

[markdd]

Thanks Michael

It would be really good if you could use the command to convert instruments to behave as multi-circuit instruments without breaking the 3d focussing attributes. It seems ill-considered without this functionality.

Mark

[willburgher]

I struggled with this exact problem for a lot of pinspot banks and ACL bars, It would be interesting to see if there was a way of resolving this 

 

Will

[StevieRay]

I'm trying to do the same, Create a 6ix lamp Bar. As being new to Vector Works I'm finding reference to command structure and usage rather hard to come by. I understand the concept but executing the tasks needed to get to the outcome is hard to reference. When  I try to create a multi circuit Lamp Bar (like shown above) by Grouping the six symbols, (seven with the Lighting pipe tool) then applying Spotlight>Object Conversion>Convert to Multi circuit, I get no difference in functionality, movement as a group, etc. What am I missing?