I have a dilemma:
(1) I am an undergraduate lighting designer, which in the venues I have access to my typical plots lie somewhere between 40 and 80 fixtures. I.e, just outside the bounds of what the lightwright demo can cover, but not so many that I can't do my paperwork by hand (which I usually do). However:
(2) I am serving as Master Electrician on a show opening late January in a much larger space: 1000 seats, 192 installed dimmers plus at least 48 additional on a portable pack. I know our LD has 30+ scrollers and at least two intelligent fixtures. He's done the design in Vectorworks, so it would be easy to export data into Lightwright. However:
(3) As a student designer, I don't find myself needing lightwright on a regular basis. Sure it would be nice to use for every show, but I would really only need the full version maybe three times a year. And even the student price at $135.00 is costly.
So my question is: Do you think it would be worthwhile to invest in Lightwright at this point? How often do you highschoolers/undergrads/graduates/professionals/freelancers/touring-designers/programmers use Lightwright? Should I wait awhile until it becomes more crucial?
(Also a little add-on: does a Lightwright license ever expire?)
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(1) I am an undergraduate lighting designer, which in the venues I have access to my typical plots lie somewhere between 40 and 80 fixtures. I.e, just outside the bounds of what the lightwright demo can cover, but not so many that I can't do my paperwork by hand (which I usually do). However:
(2) I am serving as Master Electrician on a show opening late January in a much larger space: 1000 seats, 192 installed dimmers plus at least 48 additional on a portable pack. I know our LD has 30+ scrollers and at least two intelligent fixtures. He's done the design in Vectorworks, so it would be easy to export data into Lightwright. However:
(3) As a student designer, I don't find myself needing lightwright on a regular basis. Sure it would be nice to use for every show, but I would really only need the full version maybe three times a year. And even the student price at $135.00 is costly.
So my question is: Do you think it would be worthwhile to invest in Lightwright at this point? How often do you highschoolers/undergrads/graduates/professionals/freelancers/touring-designers/programmers use Lightwright? Should I wait awhile until it becomes more crucial?
(Also a little add-on: does a Lightwright license ever expire?)
73