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Multi-Cell Instrument Label Legends


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Hey All,

 

So, maybe I'm missing something obvious, but with the changes to the way multi-cell units are handled, how does one deal with label legends for these changes?  When I have tried to create a label legend for a fixture, it only seems to give me the option for a single 'channel' field.  In the VW2021 docs, there is a picture showing multiple channels/dimmers for an instrument, but all of the references in the documentation that I can find only seems to deal with single cell units as opposed to multi cell...

 

FWIW, I'm trying to set up a label legend for a 6' Ministrip...for now, I'm using the Altman 6' Zipstrip symbol since the L&E Ministrip symbol seems to be borked as far as multi-cell implementation.

 

Cheers,

-gonda

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The way I have been dealing with it in 2021 is very similar to how I dealt with it in early versions, I make a Label Legend using just the center unit symbol.  Then I apply that separately to each cell.  Multi-cell isn't all that different from earlier versions, it's just that you will use the Edit Cell field in the Object Info Palette to select which cell to work on rather than selecting the individual cell.  Spotlight Numbering works like it always has, though it now has an option to apply changes to a multi-channel fixture with a single click (just know that it might not number in the direction you might like if using manual selection).

 

Here's a picture of my quick tests using the Altman Zip Strip-3 symbols from the library.

 

image.thumb.png.9a20be676ac10b326cc54ce549837c07.png

 

And what the Label Legend looks like:

image.thumb.png.152d232d7fc457392e32aa40a1462167.png

Edited by Jesse Cogswell
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So, I've tried creating a Label Legend base on the full Altman ZS-3 Symbol:

1471796116_Screenshot(1).thumb.png.b6707bdcbd5b8ac0bf64c8d69e3bc888.png

 

I also created one based on just the Center Sub-Symbol:

136527341_Screenshot(2).thumb.png.2011455ff7e2aa54050020f74326e46e.png

 

When I apply either legend I get the following:

467398082_Screenshot(3).thumb.png.c72168c59ddb3c6f13c6169c6048bbc9.png

 

 

If it helps, I'm running 2021SP3.1 on Windows...also, as far as I can tell, there is no way to select an individual 'cell'.

 

Cheers,

-gonda

Edited by Gonda
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@Jesse Cogswell So, I've tried applying the legend with individual cell's selected via the 'Edit Cell' dropdown as well as to the <All> option...same result both ways...

 

@JBenghiat I am trying this with the standard Altman ZS-3 Symbol from the standard Vectorworks Library.  If I edit the symbol, it contains three symbols:  the L, C, and R parts of the light.  I've looked inside each of those symbols and they only contain either groups or extrudes...

 

Any other ideas?  Silly question...are y'all on Windows or MacOS?

 

Cheers,

-gonda

 

 

Edited by Gonda
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@Gonda On Windows 10, running VW2021 SP3.1.  Dumb question, did you try selecting the fixture, making sure that Edit Cell is set to "All", then setting Use Legend to "None", then setting it to "ZS2" (based on your example above)?

 

The other thing to try is making sure that your ZS2 legend is set to active and dropping in a new zip-strip fixture, as it should then apply the label legend correctly for each component.

 

In my example above (and I did it again just now to make sure it still worked), I opened a blank drawing, imported in the ZS-3 symbol from the VW library, built a quick Label Legend using the zNested ZS CTR symbol as base (using ZS2 as the name just to make sure that wasn't throwing anything), made sure that it was set as the active legend, and dropped in a fixture and it correctly displayed all three Label Legends.

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Well...ballz....just tried this again...

 

So...I finally got it to work.  At least for me, the only way it works is to make the label legend active.  But specifically, selecting 'Make Active' from the Resource Browser doesn't seem to work.  I had to go into the Label Legend Manager and make it active there.  After doing that, when I inserted a new instance of the zipstrip, the label legend did the right thing for all the cells.  If the label legend was not active upon insertion, even applying the label legend failed to get it to do the right thing.  Chalk one more half-broken thing up for VW2021.....

 

Cheers,

-gonda

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As an update...I created a new label legend and tried to apply it to a unit that had succesfully had a label legend applied.  Applying the new label legend via the context menu ONLY changed the legend for the first cell of the unit regardless of which cell I had selected or if All were selected...

 

Clearly, broken...

 

Cheers,

-gonda

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I just tried this.  Using the "Assign Legend to Lighting Device" menu command/context menu does appear to be broken and only assign the Label Legend to the first cell.  I suspect that the menu command has not been properly updated to handle multi-cell fixtures and should be reported as a bug.  However, selecting a Label Legend through the Object Info Palette works exactly as expected.

 

I almost never use the Assign Legend command, so I entirely missed that this was bugged.  The only time I used that command was back before VW2014 when legend elements would suddenly stack on top of each other and using Assign Legend was the only way to reset the Label Legend.  I haven't seen that happen in a very long time, and changing legends through the OIP does a complete reset of the layout, so I have no need of the menu command.

 

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But I did also try opening an old file from 2014 with multi-circuit strip lights to see if there is any kind of conversion needed, and it works perfectly without any additional work.  I just opened the drawing, and can freely select any multi-circuit fixture and can change legends to any single cell or all cells using the OIP.

 

Accessories on the other hand...let's just say with the number of scrollers in the drawing, I hope that show from 2014 doesn't get remounted anytime soon.

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