Vectorworks Rendering 2009

I am working on a 3D rendering project in Vectorworks 2009. I took an old 2D drawing and converted everything to 3D and have now begun to render with the fixtures. I can get light to come out of the fixtures but it is not rendering accurately, rather it seems to be letting out opaque blocks of color. This is my first time rendering in the software and I have been working off of various tutorials. Does anyone have any suggestions?

I'm afraid all that comes to mind is questions:
Can you explain "opaque blocks of color"? Post an image?
Do you have Renderworks features?
Do you have "lit fog" on and set really high?

I sometimes like to build up slowly. Does it look OK in Hidden Line in couple of views? then OpenGL? Then full rendering.

There are many things that can go wrong, or just be misunderstood.

Are you using the emitter setting, and if so at what value?

Sorry, I realized that was a very vague explanation. I guess my first question should be do you need to put a light source in each of the lights and then adjust from there?

Yes. Start with some of the built in library units to learn about rendering. Be sure they are "Lighting Devices" not just symbols in the drawing.

Building your own units can get complex. The other approach is to skip the Spotlight process and just use "Lights" from the visualization tools. You don't get a theatrical light plot but you have all the rendering options.