Adding light fixtures

The default lighting in Vivien produces realistic renderings; however you may want to add custom lighting your events to achieve different looks.

Light fixtures in Vivien represent real-life light fixtures and simulate the lighting for your event. They display as objects on the drawing and appear 3D in Virtual Views.

You can insert light fixtures directly from the Library Browser, or you can create shortcuts to your favorite light fixtures with your preferred settings. For information on shortcuts, see “Shortcut bars”.

You can place light fixtures on surfaces, suspend them in mid air, place them on the ground or you can hang them on hang structures (truss or pipes). It is recommended that you always hang fixtures from hang structures, especially if you use more than a dozen or so.

You can also use the Gobo Wizard to create custom gobos that you can apply to light fixtures in Vivien. For example, you could apply an image of your client’s corporate logo to a light fixture and have it shine in your renderings. For details, see “Applying custom gobos to light fixtures”.

The settings you assign to lights affect the look of your rendered drawings.

Note: To quickly hang multiple light fixtures on a pipe or straight truss simultaneously, you can use the clone feature; to arrange multiple fixtures along a pipe/truss, use the distribute tool. For details, see “Hanging multiple fixtures” and “Distributing fixtures”.

To insert a light fixture

1. Click the Drawing Wireframe tab at the bottom of the work area.

Note: You must be in a drawing view to add light fixtures.

2. If you are hanging the light fixture, ensure that the drawing has a hang structure to support it. For information on adding hang structures to your drawing, “Drawing hang structures”.
3. From the Library menu, choose A/V or Lighting.

Result: The Library Browser opens with the A/V tab or the Lighting tab selected.

4. Click the Lighting folder to see the available light fixtures.
5. Double-click the name of the light fixture you want to insert.

Result: A light fixture with default settings for this type attaches to the cursor.

6. To change the properties of the light fixture before inserting, right-click on the light fixture name, and then click Properties.

Result: A dialog box opens with a Virtual View of the light fixture on the left and an image of its symbol on the right.

7. Click Insert and the dialog box closes.
8. Move the cursor where you want to place the fixture and click.
9. Continue placing this type of light fixture by repeating steps 6 and 7.
10. To finish placing this light fixture type, right-click and choose Finish Placing Fixtures from the pop-up menu.

Hanging multiple fixtures

Once you hang a single fixture, you can use the Clone feature to instantly copy and paste multiple copies of it along the length of a pipe or straight piece of truss in the direction that you specify. This feature enables you to hang up to 100 fixtures quickly and precisely.

To hang multiple fixtures

1. On a pipe or a straight length of truss, hang the fixture of your choice by following the procedure “To insert a light fixture”.

Note: To hang fixtures along the length of truss or pipe, hang the first fixture at one end of the pipe/truss and then set the direction in which you want to copy and paste it.

2. Click the fixture to select it, and then right-click and choose Modify > Clone > Along Pipe.

Result: An arrow attaches to your cursor when you hover over the pipe/truss.

3. Click on the pipe/truss to set the direction in which the fixture will be cloned, either to the left or right of the fixture.

Result: The Clone Along Pipe dialog box appears.

4. The Length box in the Clone Along Pipe dialog box displays the distance from the selected fixture to the destination position of the first cloned fixture as indicated by the arrow and cursor. This value is not editable.

5. Choose between Interval or Total Distance.
6. In the Number in row box, type the number of fixtures you want to clone along the pipe.
7. If you chose Interval, type the distance between the selected fixture and the next fixture cloned. If you chose Total Distance, type the total sum of the distance lengths for all the intervals between the selected fixture and all the cloned fixtures.
8. Click OK.

Result: The cloned fixtures are placed along the pipe/truss.

Distributing fixtures

You can use the Distribute Fixtures feature to quickly arrange multiple fixtures evenly over a pipe or piece of straight truss starting at a specific point.

You can distribute selected fixtures in three ways:

• between two points that you choose on the pipe/truss
• in a specific direction from one point that you choose on the pipe/truss
• centered around a specific point that you choose on the pipe/truss

To distribute fixtures between two points

Note: Since you cannot mount fixtures directly on the end point of truss, before you distribute fixtures between two points, ensure that Endpoint Snap is disabled.

Use this procedure to select two points on a pipe or length of straight truss and have Vivien distribute selected fixtures evenly between those points. The spacing is determined by dividing the selected region of the pipe/truss by the number of fixtures selected.

1. Click to select the fixtures that you want to distribute on the pipe/truss (to select multiple fixtures, press CTRL and then click on each one).
2. From the Modify menu click Distribute Fixtures> Between Two Points.
3. Click to set the two points on the pipe/truss.

Result: The selected lights are evenly spaced between the two points.

To distribute fixtures in a direction

Use this procedure to select a point on a pipe or length of straight truss and have Vivien distribute the selected fixtures along the remaining length of the pipe/truss in the direction that you choose, spaced according to your specifications.

1. Click to select the fixtures that you want to distribute on the pipe/truss (to select multiple fixtures, press CTRL and then click on each one).
2. From the Modify menu click Distribute Fixtures> In a Direction.
3. Click to set the starting point on the pipe/truss from which you want to distribute the selected fixtures.
4. Click on one side of the point (either to the left or right of it) to choose the direction in which the fixtures will be distributed.

Result: The Distribute - In a Direction window appears.

5. Type the desired distance between each fixture, and then press OK.

Note: The value that you type must allow the selected number of fixtures to be evenly distributed over the remaining length of the pipe/truss.

Result: The selected lights are evenly spaced between the two points.

To distribute fixtures around a central point

In this procedure you choose a point on the pipe/truss and then distribute selected fixtures along the pipe/truss, using this point as the center. You specify the spacing of the fixtures.

1. Click to select the fixtures that you want to distribute on the pipe/truss (to select multiple fixtures, press CTRL and then click on each one).
2. From the Modify menu click Distribute Fixtures> Center.
3. Click on the pipe/truss to set the point around which the selected fixtures will be centered.

Result: The Distribute - Center window appears.

4. Type the desired distance between each fixture, and then press OK.

Note: The value that you type must allow the selected number of fixtures to be evenly distributed over the length of the pipe/truss around the point that you have specified.

Result: The selected lights are evenly spaced around the point.

Moving fixtures

You can move one or more fixtures along pipes and truss. “Moving objects” for basic information on moving objects.

• If the fixtures you want to move are all on the same hang structure, line markers will appear to indicate where the fixtures will be positioned after the move is completed.
• If the fixtures you want to move are selected from different hang structures, line markers will not be displayed and this move will be complete only if the fixture can slide across the specified distance while positioned in the hang structure.
• To move the fixtures by exact distance, use the @ operator and a positive or negative direction along the hang structure.

To move fixtures along a pipe or straight truss

1. Select the fixture(s) you want to move.
2. From the Modify menu, choose Move Fixtures.

Tip: You can also choose the Move from the Modify menu or Modify toolbar.

Result: If multiple fixtures are selected, line markers will appear to display where the fixtures will be positioned.

3. Click on the plot, to set the destination point.

Tip: You can also type @, and a positive or negative move distance value along the hang structure, and then press ENTER (e.g. @5 or @-5).

Nudging fixtures

You can nudge one or more fixtures along a pipe, truss or on the floor.

To nudge fixtures along a pipe or straight truss

1. Select the fixture(s) you want to nudge.
2. Press and hold the ALT key on your keyboard, and then press the ARROW keys on your keyboard to nudge the fixtures towards the desired direction.

Tip: You can also nudge fixture(s) by half the Snap Interval distance by pressing and holding SHIFT and ALT, then pressing the ARROW keys.

Note: You can use the Position Tool to nudge selected object(s) by specifying new coordinate numbers for the X, Y, and Z axes. For more information, see “Position tool”.

Creating uplighting

You can add dramatic uplighting effects to your events by placing lights on the floor in a couple of simple steps.

To place fixtures on the floor

1. In the Drawing Wireframe tab, select a light from the Library Browser.
2. Right-click the light and select Insert on Floor.
3. Insert the light were desired.
4. When finished, right-click and select Finish Placing Fixtures.

Replacing fixtures

When you have designed a Vivien file that includes fixtures, and you would like to replace the existing fixtures in the file with new ones, you can use the new Replace Fixtures feature. In so doing, you will replace the existing fixture(s) in the file with the new one, and update all tabs in the file.

This feature is extremely useful when you open a Vivien file from previous releases and would like to replace its fixtures with updated versions.

To replace fixtures

1. In the Drawing Wireframe tab, click to select all the fixtures that you want to replace.

Tip: Press CTRL on your keyboard and click to multi-select fixtures.

2. Right-click and choose Replace Fixtures from the menu that appears.
3. In the Fixture Selection window, navigate to the fixture that you want to insert in your file.
4. Highlight the fixture and click Insert.
5. If a message box appears, notifying you that some of the fixture properties may have been removed, click OK.

Result: All the selected fixtures are replaced with the new fixture.