VectorWorks Spotlight Question

[LX-88]

I dont know if this is the right fourm to post in, but it seemed the clossest, without a CAD fourm.

Why do some symbols in Spotlight (ie. PAR64 Body) have "Invalid Field Anglee" errors when I try to Draw a beam? What is the difference between PAR 64 Body and PAR64 WFL ?

For the lights that create the "Invalid Field Anglee" errors, is there any way to correct it without choosing another symbol?

What about going from light plots to rendered pictures? Does spotlight take colors and other light perameters and turn them into renderworks lights with a menu option that I am missing?


Sorry for the questions, my training cds are in the mail but I need a light plot by wed.

Thanks in advance!

[LX-88]

any ideas?

[zac850]

Well, I have Vectorworks, but I am no where as advanced as you. Whiled guess is that your trying to draw a beam angle with a body, and Vectorworks doesn't include the lens. Try drawing the beam angle with the PAR 64 WFL or MFL or whatever lamp you may be using for the instrument.

The difference would be that one is just the body for a plot when you didn't know what the lens you would be using. If you want to draw beams, I guess you need to use a lens degree.

I think its like using the Source 4 body. Vectorworks is just placing the body on the plot, it doesn't know what barrel degree you will be using with it.

This is only a guess though. I have only used Vectorworks to make 2D plots. I hope this helps.

[LX-88]

Ok. Thanks. I guess I should brush up on what types of instruments our theater has. We just refer to them as elips, pars, and strands......

I thought all PAR64s had the same beam angle, but spotlights says no..

Thanks.

[Radman]

There are so many versions of any given lamp, I cant even begin. (Anyone who's taken a thourogh look through the QOTD section can vouch for that.)

PAR lamps come in many different beam angles, like NSP (narrow spot,) VNSP (very narrow spot,) MFL (medium flood,) and WFL (wide flood,) plus a few others I probably dont know about.

I don't know ANYTHING about vectorworks or spotlight or renderworks or anything. I'm starting to learn AutoCAD, Visio, and WYSIWYG. I like Visio the best for drafting up the walls of the theatre, for ease of learning and use.

[zac850]

Originally Posted by Radman

PAR lamps come in many different beam angles, like NSP (narrow spot,) VNSP (very narrow spot,) MFL (medium flood,) and WFL (wide flood,) plus a few others I probably dont know about.

Exactly.

The VNSP gives a 0' beam angle (the light comes out in the same tight circle it leaves the lamp in.)
The NSP I believe gives a 19' beam angle
The MFL is around 30' x something
The WFL is I believe something like 52x40 or 52x30

If your designing the show, figure out how big a beam of light you want, pull out your calculator and figure out which beam you want. Remember, the wider the beam the fewer lux you get at the stage (lux is the right term, right?).

[LX-88]

What PARs do most school type theatres have? The ones that we have arn't huge beams but they defenetly are not the same width as when the leave the light

[Drmafreek]

OK, I came across this problem for the first time earlier this year. Vectorworks, when rendering their field and beam angles, expect the light to be hanging from somewhere. So the first thing you need to do is to see what your z axis is set at. It's basically the height from the ground the light is hanging.

Once you have that set up, there are other areas that you may need to adjust. First, Vectowrks doesn't like to render a light straight on. For exampl, if you had a light pointing straight at a persons head, vectorworks may give you the invalid field angle notation. It can be a pain, but they expect lights to be pointing down at the stage from above. The only way I found to fix it is to ignore it. Vectorworks doesn't take into account all the ways you'd want to use a light.

Now, having said all that, what you can do, if you really want, is to figure out the beam angle and field angle and draw the lines in yourself with the line tool. A little more work, but worth the effort if you're not sure you want a light in a certain position.

Vectorworks doesn't take your lights and render them either. You can add light being emitted from your units, but it's a bit of work. If you're looking for true rendering of light from instruments, than you want to go with WYSIWYG. You can download a demo and try it out if you want. Otherwise you will need to set up "looks" in vectoworks manually.

Now, I'm not against vectorworks, in fact I've been using it for shows for about 4 years now, and still use it due to not being able to afford WSYIWYG. But, if you want something to do renderings for you, then you're gonna have to shell out the money.

[LX-88]

Ok. Thanks.

[zac850]

Originally Posted by LX-88

What PARs do most school type theatres have? The ones that we have arn't huge beams but they defenetly are not the same width as when the leave the light

Perhaps its the MFL?

The following is true for the S4 PAR's, and I am 99% sure true for all PAR lenses:
Look at the lens. If the lens is clear, it is a VNSL. If the lens is pebbled (has a little texture on it) it is an NSP. The difference between MFL and WFL are a bit harder. If you look at the lens the way that has fewer lines running down it, I believe the MFL has 7 lines. Or maybe thats the WFL.

Dang, now I can't remember. Someone want to pop in and help me out with this, its been a long day.