I have used every version of Lightwright since before the dinosaurs became oil and find it to be the program to use for the basic paperwork that deals with the data associated with a lighting
plot and plan. In addition to the very basic functions, which in truth can be done on a well configured free spread sheet, it does things like "knows" how to count color frames to get sheet order, generate a patch file for the
console, can do error checking of electrical loading on circuits and dimmers, can readily deal with
address assigning of multiple
DMX universes.
etc.... all in a program that thinks and talks the lingo of the electrician and LD, among the many features. I have always found it useful for that alone. Could you do this in a free spreadsheet or data
base - Yes, but you'd spend a lot of time making it work as well, if you ever got to that
point.
The data exchange between Lightwright and other programs is at a basic
level in a standard spreadsheet format where LW can import and export
tab or comma separated data. Thus if the
CAD program can deal with the fields of information that LW generates and can handle that in an import and export, that data exchange can work.
The LW exchange method with
Vectorworks has a
system sees any changes being made in either program and allows automatic updating of the file in both programs. Thus if you do this a lot and do a lot of light plots, it's worth having VW.
You might qualify for the free education edition but the
Vectorworks website is not
clear as to whether a high school educator is allowed to download the free educational edition, the link is here:
http://www.vectorworks.net/education/
