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LED Bar emitting light only as point source


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You're not missing anything. Vectorworks Spotlight Lighting Devices will only contain one instance of the Light tool. That way, only one beam can be emitted using this tool. It is becoming a big issue nowadays especially with the proliferation of multi faceted light emitters in lighting instruments in the real world and I am sure it is something that the engineers at VWX are looking at. However I'm not certain of that by any means. VWX symbols are now shipped with 2 extra parts record fields, one being a "lens" and the other being "Point". None of these has had any implementation as yet but there must at some time be plans to use these and I hope that they will be for this kind of functionality.

 

The cynic within me wonders whether they are hoping everybody will move to the Vision visualiser for this kind of feature, but frankly the quality of the renders from Vision are so far behind what Renderworks can achieve. I hope that soon they will update the functionality of the Spotlight Lighting device which has seen precious little development over the last 10 years.

 

A while back I tinkered around with making some visualisations with Svoboda battens by adding 9 light objects per symbol and the results were really good, so for now, if you want to do this kind of thing then its going to be about you digging around in the symbols to create your own custom objects that you can use for visualisations

Edited by markdd
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24 minutes ago, Steve Clarkson said:

Hello again!

I'm using the stock instrument Elation Sixbar 1000, an LED bar that should emit light continuously along the length, however in rendering it shows as a point source.  Am I missing any settings or is this just the way it is?

This seems to be an issue across all multi-circuit spotlight fixtures. If I need truer output, I make the fixture myself, <hopefully> using the MFR supplied IES file. Pee in the A, but gets the job done and I don't need a million Focus Points to focus the thing:

2018_Gala.png

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9 minutes ago, markdd said:

The cynic within me wonders whether they are hoping everybody will move to the Vision visualiser for this kind of feature, but frankly the quality of the renders from Vision are so far behind what Renderworks can achieve. I hope that soon they will update the functionality of the Spotlight Lighting device which has seen precious little development over the last 10 years.

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Sadly, I have exactly the same fear. The Vision tool is useful (when it works) as a way to focus, choose gobos and an overall look, but most of my clients are far to tactile for the crude visualization Vision can produce, and most of my renders are 1—5 minute renders, nothing all that special.

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@mjmHere is the file. You can take a look at what I did. I customised the rather good symbols that ADB supply to VWX. I gave the reflector a mirror texture and then added a glow texture to bounce off the rear of the spill ring to make the reflector glow. Otherwise this is just me playing around with a few objects while on a long train journey! I wanted to show a director what light curtains looked like and how we might be able to use them for an upcoming project.

Svoboda.vwx

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3 minutes ago, markdd said:

@mjmHere is the file. You can take a look at what I did. I customised the rather good symbols that ADB supply to VWX. I gave the reflector a mirror texture and then added a glow texture to bounce off the rear of the spill ring to make the reflector glow. Otherwise this is just me playing around with a few objects while on a long train journey! I wanted to show a director what light curtains looked like and how we might be able to use them for an upcoming project.

Svoboda.vwx

Super duper Mark, thanks very much. Can't wait for a moment to dig in.

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I've taken mjm's CF-12 Virtual and increased the number of elements to 12 to mimic the Elation SixBar 1000, it's working well enough, I'm okay with the initial lower brightness issue, and I've created a symbol from that. 

 

I'm inserting it into project, and I can't rotate it.  I'm getting messages about permissions only in certain views and it's not making much sense.

Can anyone explain this to me?  Can I convert the symbol to the necessary image type?

Thanks!

Edited by Steve Clarkson
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So I'm still trying to get this LED BAR to have more versatility.  I've attached an image.  Currently it's a Symbol with 12 Symbols inside it.  But I want more attributes to modify like an instrument.  So what would I need to convert this into to be able to convert to Instrument?  Should I deconstruct it down to the first Symbol level?  

What about Multicircuit?

I did read that in a Multicircuit instrument the end elements must be different than the interior ones... not sure exactly what that means, or how that could be useful in creating something that requires 12 identical elements?

The main attributes I'd like to utilize with this are colour change (across all 12 elements), Focus and 3D Placement

Any ideas?

Thanks!

LED BAR 12.PNG

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You could definitely make it into a multi-circuit instrument. However they are a little limited in that the will only really work in a horizontal orientation. However if you are feeling like a challenge there is no reason why you shouldn't make one from 12 symbols. They are a bit of a head-scratch. Even the MC instruments shipped with Vectorworks need a fair amount of work to get them working properly.

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10 hours ago, Steve Clarkson said:

What about Multicircuit?

I did read that in a Multicircuit instrument the end elements must be different than the interior ones... not sure exactly what that means

 

I'm pretty sure end units don't need to be different. For groundrows at least.

 

The end units only want to be different because of the 3D representation of the yoke for multi batten hung fixtures. You would have the middle units have just the horizontal section of the yoke while those at the end have the "L" section come down to the side of those units. I tend to also insert clamps on the units so I end up with, for example, a 4 batten cyclorama flood that hangs horizontally on two clamps, not unlike in real life. 

 

Gabriel

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So here's what I've come up with...

It uses 12 spot elements and 1 linear light.  I used the linear light to somewhat overcome the dark zone right at the exit of the fixture.  I've also splayed the 12 elements to reduce the brighter convergence area in the middle.  In order to allow for 3D rotation, I've left it as a group of symbols.  Haven't tried putting into a real project yet, we'll see how it affects render time and workflow, it's a little clunky I know, definitely fun getting into custom objects.

I'll post the file if anyone's interested.

LED BAR-latest.PNG

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Steve,

That is some nice work. I’ll be very interested to see how this impacts render times. If you haven’t already, check out the wishlist item for imrproving volumetric rendering and up-vote it. This applies to what you are working on currently. 

 

One trick I use a lot is to light walls, drapes and similar scenic items on their own. Work in as much detail as you like.  When it looks like you want it, export as an image file or take a screen shot. Turn that into a texture including a GLOW component and apply it to an appropriate sized extruded polygon and you get that exact look without any discernible hit to your processor. If you want to be able to change colors, render your initial image in white and have your texture allow for color filtering. I then have the object respond to class color for quick scene changes between renders. 

 

Just sayin’

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On 2/23/2018 at 5:30 AM, Steve Clarkson said:

So here's what I've come up with...

It uses 12 spot elements and 1 linear light.  I used the linear light to somewhat overcome the dark zone right at the exit of the fixture.  I've also splayed the 12 elements to reduce the brighter convergence area in the middle.  In order to allow for 3D rotation, I've left it as a group of symbols.  Haven't tried putting into a real project yet, we'll see how it affects render time and workflow, it's a little clunky I know, definitely fun getting into custom objects.

I'll post the file if anyone's interested.

LED BAR-latest.PNG

Well dang, I am!! When I have time, I actually like building these kinds of things. Thanks man!

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Edited by mjm
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