fatoxious Posted February 20, 2009 Share Posted February 20, 2009 I'm about to head off on an australia wide tour, and as the only tech I'm going to need to send out each venue a grid design. I was just wondering if anyone knew of the names of programs that you use to design and print out said lighting designs? and if you know rough costs that'd be great too. Thanks Fatty. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pritch Posted February 20, 2009 Share Posted February 20, 2009 Seek, and ye shall find! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stee_cri1 Posted February 20, 2009 Share Posted February 20, 2009 Auto Cad works for desiging on but I would use WYSYWIG but this is not cheap, it is a totally amazing program though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smalljoshua Posted February 20, 2009 Share Posted February 20, 2009 It is possible to create rig plans in M$ Visio. It is also possible in WYSIWIG or any other number of programs that can draw to scale. Josh Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sirrus Posted February 20, 2009 Share Posted February 20, 2009 LXDesigner - http://www.lxdesigns.co.uk/ It's relatively handy... Also 2DDesign, but again that's very pricey indeed. http://www.techsoft.co.uk/ But really something like wysiwyg design is the ultimate tool here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DonkiDonki Posted February 20, 2009 Share Posted February 20, 2009 Possibly a place to start with this would be to contact each venue from your tour and ask for CAD plans of their rigs; and see what formats you get offered.It would make sense if the package you choose allows you to use the venues own plans as a basis for your designs. There's a good bet that most if not all will be AutoCad files, though Vectorworks and Wysiwyg are common too. All are expensive to buy and have different strengths - there's plenty of threads here on that subject to help you choose which one. Personally I would suggest Wysiwyg Design - It's a dedicated lighting package with good plotting & pre-visual abilities (Wyg's CAD features are weak compared to the others). AutoCad and Vectorworks are true CAD design packages, there are seperate additional packages for each to give them dedicated lighting features. All of them can read and write .dwg format which is what most venues will use. (native AutoCad format) If all these options prove to be simply too expensive, then consider one of the cheaper CAD programs which offer good .dwg compatability. (Don't use any myself but I'm sure there are plenty of members here who could suggest a good choice)At least you will be able to work with most venues plans and there are plenty of free CAD lighting symbols available to draw 2D plots with. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fatoxious Posted February 21, 2009 Author Share Posted February 21, 2009 Thanks very much guy, I was only looking for a 2d program, though the others look like great fun. I also stumbled onto the FAQ, and my apologies for not looking there first. and, at the risk of sounding feeble, does anyone know where I can find the *free* 2d lighting stencils mentioned earlier? Fatty Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DonkiDonki Posted February 21, 2009 Share Posted February 21, 2009 does anyone know where I can find the *free* 2d lighting stencils mentioned earlier? Fatty Errrr, try going back to the FAQ; I'm sure there's some links in that somewhere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sirrus Posted February 22, 2009 Share Posted February 22, 2009 Manufacturer's websites tend to have a .dwg free download, Selecon for example... It worked for me, recently a school needed a plot and I was stuck because I didn’t pack my laptop and the school did not have any pro cad apps to hand... Hence the intro of a free simple enough CAD app (but surprisingly handy) via http://freeware.intrastar.net/cadsoftware.htm and then the mentioned download and conversion from .dwg to something the cad app could handle. Nice fix at the time :o but, in your current situation, perhaps it’s just necessary to go the extra mile and fork out for pro software? sirrus Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fatoxious Posted February 22, 2009 Author Share Posted February 22, 2009 Nice fix at the time :o but, in your current situation, perhaps it's just necessary to go the extra mile and fork out for pro software? sirrus I think once the pay starts to trickle in I will. :P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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