Vw Support

What others are saying

When I started using Vectorworks some 16 years ago I was fortunate to come across the Field Template SoftSymbol range not long after. They are the absolute benchmark for high quality, detailed and most of all clearly drawn symbols. They are the first ones I reach for when starting a new design and as a side by side comparison with the stock supplied VW symbols…well there is no comparison.

Max Conwell
Lighting Designer, Naked Eye Lighting Ltd., www.nakedeyelighting.com

Some [lighting designers] have always drawn their own symbols. If that’s the path you choose, that’s fine. For everyone else, there’s Steve Shelley and his SoftSymbols™. The range of products covered is remarkable. The price, given the amount of work that must be involved, remarkably low. Which is perhaps why they’re so widely used, particularly by lighting designers and their associates in America - a country that really does care about beautiful light plots. If you do too, check them out: this is a working classic, still in use daily...

Rob Halliday
Lighting Designer and Author for Light and Sound International, February 2020

What makes SoftSymbols so useful is that they are thoroughly researched, well made and above all, stick to some rigorous drafting standards that are maintained across the whole catalog.

Mark Doubleday
Lighting Designer, UK

Soft Symbols are my Vectorworks symbol library of choice, and have been since my tenure as Hubbard Street’s Lighting Director. Steve has created a product that is incredibly thorough, thoughtful, and well-organized. It looks great at any scale, is appropriate for every type of lighting gig, and could only have come from someone with his level of experience and attention to detail. It is an invaluable resource to me and will continue to be my go to library for the foreseeable future.

Matt Miller, Freelance Lighting Designer/Director
Chicago, IL

SoftSymbols are the symbol library of choice for the Lincoln Center Festival, and for all my other professional activities. They are cleanly built, graphically sophisticated, and the libraries are by far the most complete. There’s no other choice as far as I’m concerned.

Aaron Copp, Lighting Coordinator, Lincoln Center Festival, and freelance lighting designer
New York, NY

I did the Lab Rep Plot revisions with SoftSymbols. LOVE IT! So does the crew and the union House Elec. We also think the twenty-or-so production teams coming into the Lab this spring (who’ll receive print copies of this drawing) will love it too. I cannot tell you how happy I am to have SoftSymbols™ - I trust my layouts again, since your symbols are the same size as the objects they represent (DUH!), and my drawings look more like my drawings again. Woo hoo!

Martha Mountain, Freelance Lighting Designer
Washington DC

Vw Tech Support

As long as lighting is designed by humans, and/or computers are involved, there will always be that late-night emergency that will make you wonder why you didn't listen to your mother and become a doctor instead. As sure as the filament that will never fail blows out - just before curtain - or that backup system that will work until the end of time coughs up a hairball, and loses the entire show; Murphy's Law will always rule the day - especially at the last minute when it's Crunch Time.

Here are some notes that have been made over the years, regarding dealing with Vectorworks:

Q: I can't select the object i see on the screen.
A: Check the Layer Menu. If you have several layers, and they are not all the same scale, you may be trying to select an object that's in a different scale. Make a different layer active and try again.

Q: I can't find/see the lighting device/object that i just inserted into the drawing.
A: Check the Class Menu. You may have inserted the symbol in question into a non-visible class.

Saving a Corrupt File

From Jonathan Pickup, Vectorworks Guru: This trick doesn't always work, but it is a last hope solution. If you can get most of your drawing using this method, you may only have to redraw a small amount. This trick uses WorkGroup Referencing. Refer to the Vectorworks Archnitect or Landmark manual, or "Setting up Large Projects" at www.archoncad.co.nz.

If this method doesn't work the first time, try importing the layers one at a time. Attach one layer, save the file. Remove the layer, Save the file. Attach the next layer, and so on. You many find that only one of the layers is corrupt. If you do, leave that later out and attach the others, and remove them, keeping all the resources. You could end up with all but one layer saved. Tha's better than redrawing the complete file.

Jonathan Pickup
jon@archoncad.co.nz
http://www.archoncad.co.nz

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