Best Programs to Create Lighting Plots?
- Thread starterarogue
- Start date
Hi Arogue
1) - Do a search here on CB under "CAD", "Vectorworks", "Lightwright", "WYSIWYG", "AutoCAD" and "LD Assistant"
Lot's of useful info as to peoples experiences with the assorted programs, which are:
- CAST WYSIWYG: All in one program for pre-viz (maybe the best program for this), as well as paperwork generation, including plots.
- Vectorworks: CAD program, Spotlight is the entertainment lighting version. FREE for college students as a one year license.
- Lightwright: The paperwork (hookups, instrument schedules, color orders, error checking). Discounted for students and cost effective to upgrade to the full blown version. has a semi painless integration with VW.
- LD Assistant: Another well thought of stand-alone all-in-one program.
- AutoCAD: The most popular for folks having to generate shop drawings (scenic) and/or needing to work with architects and consultants.
No hands down the "best" as they all have their pluses and minuses. My own preference is the Vectorworks/Lightwright combo and it's the one I see folks using the most at my road house - as in I see a lot of plots generated in VW and paperwork in LW (and pretty much no other programs used, excepting the occasional European user of WYSIWYG). Thus as an upcoming LD, VW & LW are probably (and arguably) the most widely used in the industry. Vectorworks has a free version available to college students (which makes it easy for them to create market share and gain future users). I happen to think that the plots generated in VW look the best and are the easiest to get to look the best, but I've been using it for 10 years. Note that pretty much every one of these programs can run upwards of $2,000 - $2,500 to purchase the full blown "pro" versions down the road.
So choose wisely.
Others will hopefully chime in with other programs. These are the one's I know of.
1) - Do a search here on CB under "CAD", "Vectorworks", "Lightwright", "WYSIWYG", "AutoCAD" and "LD Assistant"
Lot's of useful info as to peoples experiences with the assorted programs, which are:
- CAST WYSIWYG: All in one program for pre-viz (maybe the best program for this), as well as paperwork generation, including plots.
- Vectorworks: CAD program, Spotlight is the entertainment lighting version. FREE for college students as a one year license.
- Lightwright: The paperwork (hookups, instrument schedules, color orders, error checking). Discounted for students and cost effective to upgrade to the full blown version. has a semi painless integration with VW.
- LD Assistant: Another well thought of stand-alone all-in-one program.
- AutoCAD: The most popular for folks having to generate shop drawings (scenic) and/or needing to work with architects and consultants.
No hands down the "best" as they all have their pluses and minuses. My own preference is the Vectorworks/Lightwright combo and it's the one I see folks using the most at my road house - as in I see a lot of plots generated in VW and paperwork in LW (and pretty much no other programs used, excepting the occasional European user of WYSIWYG). Thus as an upcoming LD, VW & LW are probably (and arguably) the most widely used in the industry. Vectorworks has a free version available to college students (which makes it easy for them to create market share and gain future users). I happen to think that the plots generated in VW look the best and are the easiest to get to look the best, but I've been using it for 10 years. Note that pretty much every one of these programs can run upwards of $2,000 - $2,500 to purchase the full blown "pro" versions down the road.
So choose wisely.
Others will hopefully chime in with other programs. These are the one's I know of.
Vectorworks is probably becoming the industry standard if it isn't already. WYSIWYG has some proponents in the worlds of Rock and Roll, education, and sales. WYSYWIG is great for visualizing the light show with movers and everything, so it's a great way to show people, this is what the show is going to look like. But it's not as useful for the rest of the production team. Vectorworks is just as good for the set designer as it is for the lighting designer allowing you to build a complete virtual set with the lights in it. When you add Lightwright you have a really powerful combination. There's nothing wrong with AutoCAD, but they didn't embrace theater applications the way VW did and it's sort of been left behind as everyone focused on VW as the thing to use.
shiben
Well-Known Member
What does your school teach? Mine teaches Vectorworks for lighting design students and AutoCAD for set design students (I know but thats kind of how it ends up). If your school teaches VW, best get on board with that so you can take a class. Same with whatever they teach. Vectorworks is great, and combined with ESP vision it can be quite a bit more useful than WYSIWYG (WYG has terrible plots and paperwork IMO). In addition, if you want paperwork, I cant stress enough that you will want Lightwright. I dont know if it works with LD Assistant, but its integration with VW is one of the most useful things ever. Im a huge proponent of Vectorworks, not only because its free for students, but because it comes with pretty much everything you need to get started in one package, and starting is easy. Mastery is going to be a much more complex task but its enough to get moving. Download it with your student creds and see if you like it!
Learn them all, pick what you like. Wyg is hard to learn on unless your school has it. Vectorworks and AutoCAD (all AutoDesk software actually) are free for students. There's also other programs that you can tailor to making a plot, but I would recommend learning something more traditional first, then try hacking something together if you want. There's also extensions of programs that make life easier.
If this is your first adventure into CAD-land, then I would try Vectorworks, its interface will likely be easiest to pick up quickly, and let you focus on using the tools rather than how to access them quickest.
If this is your first adventure into CAD-land, then I would try Vectorworks, its interface will likely be easiest to pick up quickly, and let you focus on using the tools rather than how to access them quickest.
