Field Templates

Field Template Dealers

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

The 1/2" Stage Fixture Field Template™

The 1/2" Stage Fixture Field Template™ is one of the flagships of the Field Template Family, known collectively as Reference Manuals in Plastic. Not only does it provide information about each kind of lighting instrument, it eliminates the need for scale rules and other drafting tools, reducing the time required to draft a 1/2" scale light plot.

The patented PRO•TRAK 50 System aligns the symbols onto horizontal axes (so you're not having to shift the template up and down to trace different instruments).
The bold vertical lines are 1’-6" apart (So all the symbols are the same distance apart).
The scaled rulers on the top and bottom of the template are reversed (So you don't have to flip the template around like a lasso to measure distances left and right from centerline.
The Grid•Dots are located at 45° around each symbol (So you can trace instruments at matching 45° angles without a triangle).

But wait. There's more:

The 1/2" Stage Fixture Field Template is the first redesigned template in the new Phoenix Series.
It has all of the standard lighting symbols, plus a BUCKET of new ones:

The ETC Source Four
The ETC Source Four 5°
The ETC Source Four 10°
The ETC Source Four 14°
Both ETC Source Four Zooms
The ETC Source Four PAR
The Altman Shakespeare
The Altman Shakespeare Zoom
The Strand SL
The Strand SL Zoom
The Selecon Pacific
The Selecon Pacific Zoom
A Video Projector
The Martin Mac TW1
The Martin Mac 700
A Moving Light Spot
A Moving Light Wash
A PAR 16 and barndoor
A 2KW Fresnel
A 2.5KW HMI and dimming shutter
A Mini 10

The 1/2" Stage Fixture Field Templatealso provides safety and unit information:

Hanging weight (stage weight symbol)
Cut color size (folded-back Post-it symbol)
Beam spread information, listed under each symbol.

This doesn't exist on any other template. Our dealers will be thrilled to provide you with as many of these 1/2" or 1/4" templates as you can carry. The blank space in the bottom left hand corner can be imprinted with a company's name and/or logo.

If you have interest in purchasing templates in quantity, leave a note for Steve.

Accepted payment methods: Visa, Mastercard, and American Express