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Lighting Device Type - Survey


MattG

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I have been using VW for years and mostly have developed our own symbol library we use here.  In that we have started making symbols with less devices type options that were available in versions many years ago.  That said I have some people working here that I am finding it necessary to document what I have always just thought of as givens in my head.  With that said I am making a little document spelling out how I want other people here to build symbols and just general VW workflow for how we create our documents.  This has been on my list for a long time and finally getting a little time to look at it.

 

With all that in mind I ran into a thing that I have come across in the past and sort of dismissed, but I am wanting to see what other peoples thoughts are.  When you are making a new symbol and assigning a "Device Type" what do you assign to certain things.

 

For me  it is more or less as follows

 

Light: Conventional light most likely one that connects to a dimmer, or possibly a single channel DMX Fixture that the DMX only controls intensity.  We have LED Lekos, Fresnels, Pars etc that work that way, but they are only one control channel.  This would be a very basic light.

 

Moving Light: Anything that pans, tilts, changes color etc.  Very easy with say a Robe BMFL, Mac Viper whatever.  What I am having a difficult time with is where LED color changing lights fall into this mix.  Not something like a Mac Aura that is definitely a moving light, but say a ColorForce 48, LED Par, LED Color Changing Mole Light?  That is what is stumping me a bit.

 

Accessory: Color Scroller, beam bender, gobo rotator, things similar to that that would get DMX but don't have a light source.  Something you call up from a desk to help an already existing fixture.

 

Static Accessory: Barn doors, top hats, iris, etc 

 

Device: Not entirely sure here, maybe something like a MA 4 Port Node, Networks Switch? Not too sure what others think would fall into this category.

 

Practical: Lamp on stage, hanging chandelier, desk lamp etc things that are on and off built into a set piece etc.

 

SFX: Strobes (Xeon, LED), Hazers, Foggers, Low Smoke, Lasers and similar

 

Power: Not sure what this is intended for.  Maybe just a symbol that is marked as a power drop?  Maybe something that just needs power and nothing else?  Maybe a small portable dimmer pack power that goes to it?  I am not too sure here.

 

Other: I guess this would be the catch all for anything else that does not fall into something above?

 

I guess for me my big question is where would most people categorize multi channel LED.  Things like strip lights, LED Pars, all the gimmicky LED stuff that is coming out.  In my mind it is a moving light even though it does not move, but are others calling those devices or maybe even SFX?  Just curious more than anything.

 

If anyone wants to chime in I am curious to hear thoughts.

 

Thanks,

Matt

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My lighting symbols are classes as follows :

Any unit that goes to a dimmer is assigned to class "1 - Light", moving light "1-moving light"

Led par/strip "1-led"

All units that are hung are on lighting flown later

All ground floor units are on lighting floor layer. 

I also break up the truss to sub classes. 

All of my truss is by default black truss when in render, but when I look at it at top plan I like to see different color for each length so I created a rectangular for each truss length and assign it to 1- truss color. 

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

I've been playing with device types as of late and I'm having trouble distinguishing what each type does in relation to lightwright, and how each type is handled by vectorworks. I get that static accessories, when dropped on lights appear in LW in the accessory columns. That's great and I use it all the time. But how do I help VW and LW communicate regarding, say a gobo rotator? I guess it sort of comes down to designer and master electrician preference how they want it patched, whether its a separate instrument or they make it behave like a scroller (we use ETC consoles).

 

What's the distinguishing characteristics between the device types "light" and "moving light"? Does LW care about that?

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