Editing Lighting Fixtures

[Stauba]

I am sorry if this is in the wrong forum, please let me know if it is.

 

I have a light plot that I didn't create. I'm updating it and changing it a bit for better use in my venue. I have a "rep" plot that has a dummy source 4 at each position and the designer just changes the fixture to what they want. Also, in my venue we have our barrels color coded, 26's are red, 19's are blue. You get the idea. I would like to edit the fixtures so either the outline is the color code, or the fill would be the color code. Not sure what is going to look better to the eye. but, when I go into the resource manager and try to edit the fixture  it changes a couple of the fixtures. For instance, I will change the 26, and the Dummy, 19, and 36 will all change. Not only this but when I view the plot, all the dummy units change to rectangles. I feel like it every fixture has the dummy unit as the base for the symbol. Does that make sense? Would I need to just make completely new symbols? I have attached a screen shot of the before and after. Let me know if you have any idea, or if you need more info.

After.pdf Before.pdf

[jcogdell]

From the looks of things you have accidentally deleted the 2D geometry from the symbols, the rectangle looks like a default bounding box.

 

Instead of editing the symbols you could use the 'Modify lighting instrument color' setting in the spotlight preferences (file-document settings- spotlight preferences- lighting devices classes and color) to control the fill or pen color of the symbols.

This can be set up to be based on the fixtures class, manually using the the fill and pen settings in the attribute palette or by clicking the edit button in the fixtures OIP and using the color field in the color field in the instrument properties pane of the Lighting device dialogue.

[ReMatsu]

Did you rename the symbols? That happens to me whenever I rename them. To fix I have to replace the symbols, go to Spotlight>Replace Instruments.

[jcogdell]

Odd, renaming a symbol should never delete the geometry.

Are renaming the symbol instance in the resource manager or somewhere else?

[ReMatsu]

Yes, in the resource manager. I think that`s odd too. But I think, it doesn't remove the geometry just doesn't recognize it, because if I edit the 2D or the 3D portion of the symbol, it's still there. To replicate this do the following:

1-Add a fixture to the drawing;

2-Rename it in the resource manager;

3-Refresh instruments;

You'll see that symbol turned into a rectangle, both in 2D and 3D views.

To fix it, use the replace instrument command and select the same symbol you've just renamed.

[Stauba]

Thanks everyone for the help. I was able to get it to work. I went into the resource manager and duplicated the dummy unit and renamed it, and edited that fixture. it seemed to work.

 

Thanks again for all the help.

[jcogdell]

@ReMatsu Thanks for the detailed workflow to recreate the problem.

 

I have filed a bug report

[Sam Jones]

This is the perfect case for "Data Visualization" that lets you color objects based on the values in attached records or parameters.  You can apply attribute changes without having to change symbol definitions.  Additionally you can have different criteria for different cases, a set of colors for Instrument Type, and different set of colors for wattage.  This gives you a few more options than the Spotlight Preferences.