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

Pirates & Phishing

SoftSymbols™ are available as legitimate downloads only through this website. There is no agreement with any other retailer to distribute SoftSymbols™ in any way. Any other website offering SoftSymbols™ is a sham and a fraud, and should be avoided at all costs.

It has come to our attention that SoftSymbols, presented as our product, is now appearing as product downloads on "discount software" web sites. At one point, we considered purchasing one of these "discount downloads" in order to possess evidence of copyright violation and internet fraud.

Our attorney advised us against this course of action. He told us that these web sites are often phishing expeditions. Lured by the discounted price, the victim provides his/her credit card information to the phisher. Once acquired, the legitimate credit card is then exploited in any number of ways.

In addition to risking one's credit card security, there's no guarantee that any "discount software" purchase will actually result in complete or functioning software. Field Template has always stood by it's mission to provide a complete quality product.

As a registered SoftSymbols user, you are entitled to applicable software support, software replacement, and software upgrades. If you purchase SoftSymbols in any form from any source other than this website, we have no legal obligation to assist you in the recovery of lost monies, missing documents, or non-functioning software packages.

If you discover you are a victim of internet or credit card fraud, many credit card companies provide several suggestions, including:

Call your credit card company and put an immediate stop on your credit card.
Contact the credit bureaus; Equifax, Experian or TransUnion, and report the situation so they can put an alert on your account.
File a report with the Federal Trade Commission. You can submit a report about the situation directly with the FTC by completing an Identity Theft Affidavit.
Change account information and passwords on any internet shopping websites.
Talk to your bank and make them aware of the situation, especially if your passwords may be comprimised.
Go to the FBI website www.fbi.gov and submit a IC3 complaint on the Internet Crime Complaint Center.

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