Download Problems
If you're reading this, presumably you've run into a problem while attempting to download a document or a SoftSymbol™ product. We apologize for any inconvenience. Here's a couple of problems we've encountered, and methods that have been employed to correct them.
Asterisks in Window-centric Document Titles Are Cursed
We recently became aware that asterisks **cannot** be used in file names of Window-centric documents. [We've been working in the Mac OS since 1983, and we didn't know.] When the Vw2016 version of SoftSymbol Object Libraries were constructed, an asterisk was added to the end of each Vw2016 SoftSymbol document suffix [...*.vwx], indicating it was part of the Vw2016 Object Library segmentation structure. After Windows users reported empty downloaded files, we discovered our error:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/177506
https://kb.acronis.com/content/39790
Double-quotation Marks in Window-centric Document Titles Are Dubious
In those three links, there's also debate about using the the double-quotation mark (“) in a Windows-OS document title. It's currently used in the SoftSymbol USITT file names for ERS lens sizes, and the Boom names in the FT-Lighting Positions documents. Without them the file names become much less understandable.
One SoftSymbols user ran into a road bump while batch-converting older Vw2016 SoftSymbol documents into Vw2017. While in the Windows OS 7 environment, the FT-Lighting Position document labeled FT-1'6" Booms [for example,] gave the OS fits, producing the following alert:
Cannot create SoftSymbolsV3-VW2016FT Object Libraries V3-vw2016FT-Lighting Positions_3.0 $FT-1'6" Booms.vwx
Eventually, OS 7 automatically replaced the double-quotation mark with an underscore. Until we hear different, we're going to leave the (") alone. Let us know if your results don't smoothly convert.
Windows Downloaded Zip Files Are Empty?
To all of those of you Windows users who may have experienced problems trying to extract Zip files, we’ve been instructed to NOT use the zip extractor packaged with the Windows OS. Instead, folks have told me they have success with 7-Zip:
With any luck, none of you have continued to have either extraction or asterisk problems. But if you are having any difficulties, it may be the combination of the two issues. In any event, our apologies. Please contact us if you wish any replacement files, or if you have further comments that might help us or future SoftSymbol users.
Other Challenges
If you're convinced that any problem you're having has something to do with this Field Template website, please send an email to:
Thanks,
The Management
