Hand Drafting Light Plot HELP!

I am Drafting a Light Plot for my Individual Event at the Texas Thespians Festival coming up in November. And I just had some questions.

-How would I draft a (ADJUVCANON - American DJ UV 400 watt Blacklight Cannon) Black Light cannon...

-Do the Drafted distances between light fixtures need to be to scale?

We have six 6' strip lights on each of our four electric batons. How would I draft the Strip light along with other light fixtures like ellipsoidal, pars ect..

Also if you have any onther tips and suggestions please feel free to share.

Please and Thank You. A Fellow Techie
-Colter
 
I'm gonna take these in reverse order:

For strip lights, the conventional symbol is just a 6' long rectangle to represent the length of the strip. If you're using mini-strips, the rectangle will be thinner than if you're using R40s, and so on. If you're including channels on your plot, the traditional way is to draw 3 channel circles right next to eachother.

Short answer, YES! A drafting is a scale drawing, and while you should of course dimension everything appropriately, you also need to draw it in scale! For one, your Electrician might want to know the distance off center of one particular unit, and instead of adding up all the dimensions, he's just gonna take a scale rule and measure it. Also, for that inevitable time when the drawing gets scaled in the computer, it's important to know that you can set the scale based off the 18" dimension that you've drawn. And finally, since your dimensions are in a light line weight, they're often the first to go on hand draftings after a few photocopies, and it's conceivable that some of the dimensions could become unreadable.

Finally, you can draft it however you want! With the ease of computer drafting programs, it's become somewhat common to aim for photo-realistic drawings, when this actually isn't too important. Of course, there are established conventions for most common types of units, and it's in your best interest to follow them, but there's no rule that says you have to use any specific symbols. I hung a Jules Fisher show just over a year ago off of a hand drafting, and he was still drawing everything (both PARs and ERSs) as a PAR symbol, simply because it's faster to draw. Personally, I'd probably draw it as a rectangle of roughly the same dimensions as the fixture, since it will be hard to confuse with your other instruments.

You can also check out Theatrical Lighting Database for some good examples of hand-drafting from the past. Good luck!!
 
...-Do the Drafted distances between light fixtures need to be to scale? ...
That's the whole point of doing a TO SCALE drawing, isn't it? Now if it's a 50' long pipe with a fixture 25' from C.L. at either end, maybe it's not necessary to draw the entire length, but include a note "Fixtures not drawn in exact location" or wording to that effect. Likewise, FOH lighting positions are often not drawn to scale in the US/DS axis as this leads to a lot of blank space in between them

...We have six 6' strip lights on each of our four electric batons. How would I draft the Strip light along with other light fixtures like ellipsoidal, pars ect.. ...
Field Template.com. Striplight s are often represented on a batten simply as a rectangle 6" deep by 6'-0" long. USITT RP-2 Lighting Design Graphics: Page 8. While we're on the subject, Mr. Shelley's book, ADJUVCANON - American DJ UV 400 watt Blacklight Cannon) Black Light cannon... I'd probably use the symbol for a 6" or 8" Fresnel, or any other symbol that represents a fixture type I wasn't using. The exact symbol doesn't really matter, as long as it's close in scale AND is identified clearly in the Symbol Key.
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Thank you so much. Just one last quick question.

My 4th electric has six strip lights on it and also 24 Cyc lights, (12 instruments) I don't know what brand or any information on them except that there are 24 lights and 12 instruments.
My question is what symbol should I use?

-Colter
 
Do you mean twelve 2-cell cyc lights? Asymmetric reflector cyc flood s generally fall into two categories--small: ~500W, T-3, FCL; and large: SkyCyc, FarCyc, FFT, 1000-2000W per cell. See the same USITT document I posted above. It's either a small rectangle or large rectangle. Brand and model# need not be specified, but lamp type and wattage are always good to have on a plot.
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The thing about the plot is it's your scale drawing provided to the electricians as to as to what lighting instruments you want where, plus the associated information that will allow the electricians to realize your design.

So yes it's to scale and Derek has commented on the reasons why some fixtures and positions would not be.

You can use any symbol you choose, provided you indicate on the drawing and any associated drawings and paperwork as to what the lighting instrument symbol represents. I once used an architectural toilet bowl symbol as it most closely represented a particular lighting instrument with an attached color scroller. It was noted in the paperwork as to what the symbol represented, which in case anybody asks, was an ADB PC as used by a Flemish touring dance company. They got a kick out of it when I showed them the symbol template

Note that there is a standard for symbols used on drawings for the US. This is published by the US Institute for Theater Technology - USITT. The Field Template symbols pretty closely follow the standards, as do the CAD symbols found in Vectorworks, WYSIWYG and other computer programs. As well, most experienced electricians are familiar with the symbols, so it makes life simpler if you stick to the common standards as opposed to some wacky and creative objects.

The bottom line is you put info on the drawing that gets the plot hung. I put Channel and color, a T symbol to indicate a template, a dimmer, or container to record that data and two-fering if I'm also playing Elec. others do not put color, which always irritates me, but this is a huge area for debate. As well add any notes and comments that are important (All Par64 lamp orientation is to be US/DS as example) Maybe ask the electrician what they need on the drawing would be a real time saver.
 
And if you ever do draft via vectorworks or other cad programs, a lot of company's offer symbols for their instruments online for free if you search up their websites or google it. And if you are a student, you can get vectorworks "student edition" for free. (but anything printed will say that it was a student edition).
 
No matter how you choose to indicate your fixtures on your plot (skinny rectangles, toilet bowls), your Legend will indicate to any electrician reading the plot what your symbols mean. Don't skip out on the legend. No one will be cross-referencing USITT standards while hanging your show ;)

Even if your drawing is to scale, it never hurts to write in the intended lengths between fixtures or from centerline that each fixture is - no one really wants to break out a scale ruler to figure things out if you haven't done the paperwork in advance. Your plot is basically there to make sure the show is foolproof and to minimize any questions the crew might have.

Oh, and feel free to contact all the major lighting companies as well as your local vendors and see if they will send you free drafting aids - I've gotten them in the past from ETC, Strand, Altman, etc, but just remember hand drafting is more and more a thing of the past....Good Luck!
 
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No one will be cross-referencing USITT standards while hanging your show ;)

See my post above about how a "standard", such as the USITT becomes the "norm" for a lot of electricians that are used to to seeing an ellipsoidal symbol with an "X" hash mark in the barrel, as belonging to a 19deg/6x16'ish unit, as example. or a "/" for a 26 deg., nothing for a 36deg. and "V" typically for a 50 deg. These are standards used by a lot of designers for good reasons. How many LD's use the stock "36deg." small letters in an S4 symbol that you need a bloody microscope to read on a plot !. How many older electricians have not yet realized their reading eyesite is poor and can't differentiate between an 26 or a 36.

Using something the electricians are used to seeing helps eliminate errors and saves time, as the electricians are not constantly having to reference the instrument legend and key. Always ask the head electrician, or whomever is in charge of the hang what they prefer. Not that ANY designer has ever asked me !. As well, if you are drafting for a house you've never been in before and they have a website, maybe find out if they have a rep house plot on the web and use those symbol styles. Probably the house crew will be used to seeing those and that will save you some headaches.
 
Here is a follow up on how it went.

Going into the presentation I felt very proud about my draft and presenting it to the judges went by great.
After words getting the critiques (even though i couldn't read one of the three) all the reviews were great and I'm going to the national competition for it!

Thank you for all of the pointers and everything you guys imputed. Thank you.
 

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