offset between shutter cuts and rendered view

[hendrik-thomas]

Hello,

I am getting an offset between shutter cuts and my rendered view (screenshot attached). It seams like that the beam/field lines doesn't draw in the right angle.

In other words saying the lines do not match the fixtures lense train angle. So I am getting a deviation when rendering an certain view.

Does anyone know what am I doing wrong or if I can manipulate a certain value somewhere to change that issue? 

I have tried a few different Vectorworks library fixtures from different brands without any change. I am working with Vectorworks 2018 SP2 R1.

Any help is appreciated, thank you very much!

[markdd]

Edit: I think I misunderstood your post. The rendered beam and the lines drawn by the instrument (including the shutter cuts) in my experience seldom line up. This in my opinion is an annoyance but probably should be considered a bug. I would look upon the rendered beam as accurate as opposed to the lines which you should consider to be a guide only.

 

The lines that represent the beam eminate from a locus point inside the symbol. If you edit the 3D portion of the symbol you will see it. The locus should in theory be at the x=0,y=0 point of the symbol. It is probable that the body part of the symbol is misaligned and that is what is giving you the odd result you have shown. You will need to make sure that the lens tube is centered on the 0,0 point of the symbol in top view. 

 

Just edit the symbol and then refresh the instruments and all should be fine thereafter.

Edited March 16, 2018 by markdd

[hendrik-thomas]

Hi markdd,

please accept my apology for replying that late, and thank you for your kind support and answer! I have double checked what you've said in the first place but couldn't find any misaligned body part. So your second message does make more sense to me. Do you know if this is a known and official Vectorworks bug which will be fixed in the near future? What would be the appropriate Vectorworks contact to get an answer on this if you doesn't know?

I just don't want to guess when focusing a fixture. I also don't want to rerender my drawing every time I've adjusted one single shutter (and I have loads to focus!) It might be not a huge issue when you do a rough-and-about focus to test something, but it becomes very time consuming (and annoying, compare to the investment people have to spend for the software) when you want to produce a first class rendering for your client where guessing is not an option. I might don't see or understand the bigger picture (I really don't) but it would be ever so great to get a profund and official answers.

Thanks again for your support! 

[scottmoore]

There have been several threads regarding this particular issue. It seems like OpenGL can produce shutter cuts as evidenced by this ability in Vision, though we cannot get that functionality in VW. It would be nice to have a really simplified “console” available in VW that allowed for pan, tilt, and shutter cuts. The fact that you have to use high level rendering to visualize a shutter cut is a little disappointing. 

[markdd]

6 hours ago, scottmoore said:

The fact that you have to use high level rendering to visualize a shutter cut is a little disappointing

 

If you toggle the Fill of the instrument geometry to None in class settings, refresh the instrument; then when you enable shadows in open GL you will see the shutter cuts as you would expect. Not perfect but very quick to do and until Vectorworks allow OpenGL to read the shadowless element of textures then this is a good stop-gap.

 

Gobos also work although are "reversed out" which is a little disconcerting at first!

 

With OpenGL

 

Fast Renderworks

 

 

Edited March 24, 2018 by markdd

[hendrik-thomas]

Thank you all for such useful support! One more thing concerning the focus of a fresnel fixture. Is there any chance to soften a barn door cut in final quality render mode? It would be ever so great if diffusion filters would get drawn as they do in the real world, but unfortunately this doesn't work. One other option I can think of is to play around with beam and field angle size so that I do not need the barn doors at all to get that pretty soft fresnel beam edge. But how can I manage to aline the beam with the DS-edge of the stage when focusing a diagonal backlight?

[scottmoore]

Mark,

that is an I terstjng workaround. Thanks. 

 

Hendrik,

While a fresnel clearly does not use gobos,  a Spotlight Fresnel certainly can. Therefore you can create a soft edge circle in either a graphics program or just use VW, chop off the appropriate segment (as in a barn door) and then use that to create a custom gobo. Insert that into the fresnel, adjust beam and field to approximate the zoom and rotate the gobo as you would your barn door. Voila’.