Creating Custom Lighting Fixtures

[westonteatlanta]

I am a Spotlight user and we are building some custom set pieces that will utilize generic LED tape. Is there a way to build a custom set piece that can be used as a fixture in Vectorworks/Vision that will react in pre-vis the same way it does in the real world? Thanks so much for any input/advice.

[jcogdell]

Currently there is no way that a user can create a standard Vision fixture (a .lit file), however there are several potential work arounds

 

The first would be to leverage the Vision RGB emissive textures. You would need to correctly set up the geometry of your set pieces, so that each area that you want to have LED tape in, is a separate piece of geometry and you would have to use MVR file type to get the object into Vision. The main drawback of this approach is that you can only set up the emissive texture in Vision and not in Spotlight.

 

Another possibility would be to try using the GDTF fixture builder to create custom lighting device based on your set piece design or for LED tape. The GDTF builder is available on the GDTF share website, linked below

 

https://gdtf-share.com/

 

[Ben3B]

On 8/28/2020 at 9:36 AM, jcogdell said:

Currently there is no way that a user can create a standard Vision fixture (a .lit file), however there are several potential work arounds

 

The first would be to leverage the Vision RGB emissive textures. You would need to correctly set up the geometry of your set pieces, so that each area that you want to have LED tape in, is a separate piece of geometry and you would have to use MVR file type to get the object into Vision. The main drawback of this approach is that you can only set up the emissive texture in Vision and not in Spotlight.

 

Another possibility would be to try using the GDTF fixture builder to create custom lighting device based on your set piece design or for LED tape. The GDTF builder is available on the GDTF share website, linked below

 

https://gdtf-share.com/

 

Hello I tried to import gtdf, but I only have a 2 symbol, without 3d geometry, where I'm wrong ? thanks
 

[jcogdell]

To be able to use a GDTF inside of vectorworks you need to link it to an existing lighting device symbol. you can't just insert it into your file.

first  use the impost GDTF command in the file menu, to import the GDTF into your current files resources

next select a lighting device in your file and in the properties link it to the GDTF using the GDTF Fixture dropdown. The GDTF fixture dropdown will open a search dialogue allowing you to look for and select the GDTF fixture and mode.

Once this is done the GDTF is useable in Spotlight and will export when using MVR.

this will also enable the Use GDTF Geometry toggle in the properties allowing to use the GDTF 3D geometry rather than the default Spotlight symbol geometry.

 

 

 

[Ben3B]

Hello thanks for answer me ;)

Ok that a bit stange workflow, but that "works" I arrive to use gdtf geometry , but VWX crashed twice during test ...

Hop Gdtf import will be optimized ;)

[jcogdell]

I'll bring the import performance issues to the developers attention