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MVR Export to Capture 2021


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Hi,

 

I have just upgraded to the latest version of Capture and am looking to make MVR a big part of my workflow. I have been doing some initial testing and have found a few issues, having spoken with Capture they have said that the problem is coming from the VW export rather than Capture import.

 

What I am finding is the following...

 

1. Within Capture angled trusses import 2 copies of the truss and place them on top of each other. Video and picture below to show this.

 

2. Fixtures have shifted to the right off of the end of the truss. Pictures below to show positions in VW and in Capture.

 

3. Fixtures - Patch and Unit Number import ok but Channel Number will not transfer across. Pictures below to show this, screenshot from VW to show information in VW OIP for Channel 106.

 

4. When I import the MVR back into a blank VW document I am seeing the same position shift as I do within Capture, but the fixture information is present and correct. I also do not get the double copy of the angled truss as I do in Capture. Picture below to show position shift.

 

Is anyone that is more savvy with MVR able to give any advice?

 

I have attached various pictures, a video, the MVR and VW files.

 

I am on a MacBook pro BigSur V11.2.2, VW2021 SP2.1 and Capture 2021.

 

Many thanks,

 

Rob.

MVR 1.png

MVR 2.png

MVR 3.png

MVR 4.png

MVR 5.png

MVR 6.png

MVR 7.png

Truss MVR.mvr Truss MVR.vwx

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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee

Hi Rob

 

I've gone over your vwx and MVR

As far as I can see there are several bugs both at our end and at the Capture end

 

14 hours ago, Rob Lloyd said:

1. Within Capture angled trusses import 2 copies of the truss and place them on top of each other. Video and picture below to show this.

I think this one is a problem at the Capture side, I tried importing the MVR into both Vision and MA3 3D to test it and in both cases the angled trusses imported without duplicates.

 

14 hours ago, Rob Lloyd said:

2. Fixtures have shifted to the right off of the end of the truss. Pictures below to show positions in VW and in Capture.

This is an known issue with the MVR export from Spotlight SP 2 and 2.1, also its the trusses that have shifted not the lights. If you check the coordinates of the lighting devices you will see that they have not moved.
We are in the process of testing the fix at the moment and it should be in SP3
 

14 hours ago, Rob Lloyd said:

3. Fixtures - Patch and Unit Number import ok but Channel Number will not transfer across. Pictures below to show this, screenshot from VW to show information in VW OIP for Channel 106

This is a problem at the Capture side, the channel number is correctly displaying in both Vision and MA3 3D. Its probably a simply data mapping error but I am not familiar enough with Capture to say for certain

 

There are a few things you should consider when exporting MVR's

  • if possible don't use Hanging positions in files you plan to export to other applications, they can cause issues since they are an internal Spotlight feature. If you do need to use them make sure that when you create a hanging position to never use the create symbol option, as it is not compatible with MVR.
  • If you want other software to be able to fully use the lights in the file you need to link each fixture to a valid GDTF. If this is not done the MVR will document the location and attached data of the lighting device but you will probably have to convert the lights into whatever symbol or format the importing application uses before you have full control for previs or console programming.
    This also has benefits for when you import the MVR into an empty Spotlight file as Spotlight now supports GDTF geometry.
  • You can look inside an MVR file by changing the file extension from .mvr to .zip. This will change it into an uncompressed zip folder which you can then open and look at the different files inside.
    • There should be a GDTF for each type of lighting device, important note if the GDTF has custom in its name then that fixture type has not been correctly linked with a GDTF and has been assigned a default file (single channel conventional light)  at export
    • each non GDTF object in the file will be a 3ds
    • any textures used in the design will display as png files, with one png for each of the Renderworks shaders if it has  been correctly configured for export.
    • and the GeneralSceneDescription xml file contains all of the data needed that is not a direct part of a GDTF, such as the channel and DMX address of a fixture and the locations of all the geometry. You can open the xml and look inside, each fixture and named piece of geometry (truss etc...) will have an entry

 

 

 

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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee

I forgot to mention in the last post there is a workflow document on the VW University that goes into detail about how to get the best results when export an MVR from Spotlight to Vision. Although it focused on using MVR for transfering going to Vision most of it is relevant when using MVR to go to other application like Capture

Please note it was originally written for 2020 and the section about preparing metal textures for use in Vision needs to be updated.

 

https://university.vectorworks.net/mod/scorm/player.php?a=373&currentorg=articulate_rise&scoid=746

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@jcogdell Thanks so much for your very detailed reply, it's all very useful information. I'll be sure to check out document you linked to as well.

 

Regarding the channel number not transferring this was the answer I had from Capture - "The channel numbers are supposed to come through the MVR "FixtureId" field. However the MVR file has got this field consistently misspelled as "FixtureID". I assume this could be the data mapping error you mentioned? 

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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee

Yes I believe that's the field,
If I remember correctly this has cropped up before (in relation to Depence² who were the first implement MVR import) where the implementation of the data mapping was case sensitive (Id vs ID), Vectorworks and MA3 don't seem to have this issue. There is apparently a way round the issue but since I'm not a software developer I have no clue as to the details

 

 

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  • 6 months later...
  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee

From the File menu choose Expoer->Export MVR.

When you export an MVR it includes the necessary GDTF files.

The GDTF files contain only the fixture description the MVR file contains the details about each fixture, and the other geometry, in the document.

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