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CAST WYSIWYG PERFORM user struggling with simple things in VW


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Hey everyone, first post.  I am a CAST WYSIWYG PERFORM user, have been for close to three years.  I had hoped to have ONE single program/environment that I can use for design, programming, visualization, pre-visualization, and reporting.  Where WYG lacks greatly is in CAD importing and exporting, and CAD in general.  I really like VW, it's powerful--and from an "integrator's" point of view where I need to write AV prints it's awesome!  However where I'm really struggling (and ANNOYED!) with VW is that there are often multiple steps to do ONE task, as compared to WYG.  For example in WYG I insert a truss and drag it to the position, then attach a fixture.  Not only is the trussing hung, fixture attached, etc...but the light immediately turns on and I can position the beam, both in wireframe and lit on the stage, immediately.  We're talking SECONDS....  on top of that I can have multiple views open, one in my wireframe and one in my shaded view to see the haze---without having to do any kind of rendering, it's all REAL TIME and REALLY INSTANT!  This is absolutely NOT the case in VW.  I just want to DRAW BEAM or DRAW BEAM AS SOLID, and they are all grayed out.  I am reading about assigning classes, etc.  WHY can't I just insert the truss, connect the fixture, and BOOM it all just comes up?   Why won't VW draw beams w/haze in Open GL mode?  WYG will do things that VW can't come close to doing, likewise VW does things WYG just can't do. For this reason, I have to go with BOTH programs (sucks!) but VW just annoys me because everything is multiple steps.  I'm a smart guy, I can figure stuff out---but this drawing beams from fixtures, I'm lost! 😞

 

Thank you in advance!

Brad Lyons

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VW has a long history as a 2d drafting programme, and is being dragged into the 3d world a little painfully.

 

Lots of the stuff (principles of classing and so on) that worked well in 2d, and which has always made it a very flexible software, transfer into a 3d context in a way that means it remains very flexible, but behaves in a rather different way from what people expect, if they've come from software which started out as kind of object-based plug&play 3d environment. Or, that's how I see it.

 

If you want to model non-standard stuff, and/or set up your drawings in a way that is optimised to your particular workflow, then VW gives you pretty impressive scope to do this, and remains one of its great strengths. However, it does mean that to some extent there's not really a 'standard' way of doing things, and this can make it pretty confusing for new users I think. It also means (as far as I can make out) that it is tricky to make foolproof parametric-type objects that 'just work' in the way you describe. There will always be some setting or something, that means something isn't quite doing what you want, and it takes a while to work out what it is and where it is, and this can be very frustrating, but at the same time, this customisability is what allows it to be so flexible, and quite powerful once you actually get a grasp on what's going on.

 

But aside from - or alongside - all this, it's true that many of VW's tools/parametric objects are pretty poor. In some cases they haven't been updated for many versions and you only realise that they don't work for certain things once you've spent some time getting to understand them. I don't do lighting design so am not sure to what extent that applies in that part of the programme, but many of the architectural tools (things like stairs and windows) are very poor and in urgent need of update. I think those tools are now well left behind by their equivalents in other architectural packages, perhaps similar to what you describe, but then those other architectural packages perhaps don't allow the flexibility that VW does (again perhaps similar to what you describe when comparing to the other software you use).

 

 

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Hi Brad,

 

I'm in exactly the same boat.  I'm currently sitting here trying to figure out how the heck to hang a light on a pipe, and pining so hard for the ability to patch in the spreadsheet (not to mention the x.y address nomenclature).

 

Ping me if you want to commiserate; maybe we share the learning curve.

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