Lx Free

[LXbydesign]

Hi Peeps,

 

I wonder if someone could help.

 

Im having to use LX Free for the moment to do a plan and Im having a problem. I've converted the groundplan of venue into a JPEG and imported it into Lxfree as a 'graphic'. ( I think that was the only way to do it ).

 

The groundplan on A4 size is 1:50, which is fine - but then when I drop a lighting symbol onto the plan, its not in scale.

 

Is there anyway to scale the symbols and reduce / increase the size of them?

 

Cheers

[richard_cooper]

Hi Peeps,

 

I wonder if someone could help.

 

Im having to use LX Free for the moment to do a plan and Im having a problem. I've converted the groundplan of venue into a JPEG and imported it into Lxfree as a 'graphic'. ( I think that was the only way to do it ).

 

The groundplan on A4 size is 1:50, which is fine - but then when I drop a lighting symbol onto the plan, its not in scale.

 

Is there anyway to scale the symbols and reduce / increase the size of them?

 

Cheers

 

In my limited use of LXFree I've found scaling to be tricky, but someone with more experience could easily prove me wrong!

 

The scale is fixed at either 1:48 for imperial units selected in the "coordinates" tab in the inspector, or 1:50 for metic units, and the symbols are fixed to that.

 

I found this the easiest way to work. Import the image of the ground plan and measure a known distance on it by using the line drawing tool. Work out a scaling % against the original and use the Format->Transform->Scale... option to scale the image.

 

Hope this helps, it's not super accurate, but was near enough for my uses.

[LXbydesign]

Yeah thankyou for that!

 

I did try it and got the groundplan blown up more which then made the symbols 'fit', but theres only a little bit of the plan showing on the A4 working area, and when I drag around, the groundplan moves but the bars and lights dont.

 

Bloody hell. It'll be quicker to do it the old way on stencil.

 

At this rate, I may just have to go back to a clean start and simply do an unscaled plan just with bars and lights.

[richard_cooper]

Yeah thankyou for that!

 

I did try it and got the groundplan blown up more which then made the symbols 'fit', but theres only a little bit of the plan showing on the A4 working area, and when I drag around, the groundplan moves but the bars and lights dont.

 

Bloody hell. It'll be quicker to do it the old way on stencil.

 

At this rate, I may just have to go back to a clean start and simply do an unscaled plan just with bars and lights.

 

I'm probably misunderstanding you so apologies in advance if I'm pointing out the obvious...

 

Does the ground plan you are using fit on a piece of A4 @ 1:50? if not you can select "Match Contents" from the cog icon on the page setup tab of the inspector which should show you the whole thing and position it across multiple A4 pages. Is there a lot of white space on the edge of the ground plan image, that's pushing the useful stuff off the page?

 

To drag everything at once you need to make all layers selectable by ticking all the boxes in the right hand column of the layers tab, then select-all.

[LXbydesign]

Hi Richard.

 

This is the very first time im using the program, so I'm running in the dark basically!!

 

SO, what ive done to now is I have the venue groundplan JPEG and have imported that into LX by means of 'import' > 'graphic'.

 

I couldnt see any other way of doing it.

 

So then on the white space which Im assuming is A4 size when you print, the groundplan fits that white space. and it is A4 = 1:50

 

So then, if I zoom in a bit, I can drag the image around.

 

If I then drew in a bar and put a light on it, its far bigger than the scale of the groundplan. At that point if I drag around the groundplan, the bar and light stays where it is so then its completly in the wrong place.

 

I dont think its seeing the groundplan as 'the first layer'. Im not sure tbh.

 

Hope that makes sense.

[richard_cooper]

No expert here either, I just hoped it would be better than it is, but it's free so hey-ho. First used it when I had a drawing sent to me it it, which you guessed it was all out of scale....

 

I have found the white box is related to the print area, but can be a bit odd and inconsistent! Especially after importing a graphic it means very little, you'll need to scale your image, unless you're extremely lucky!

 

I've just been through setting up a drawing again from my notes and this seems to be my full process, but something is amiss with the pages sizes.

 

Start a new drawing and check units are correct in inspector -> page -> coordinates

 

Import the pictures File -> import -> graphic

 

"do something with the working area" by inspector -> page -> setup -> cog icon -> "Match Contents"*

 

Draw line along known dimension on drawing to a record length of line. Delete line.

 

Work out ratio (original dimension / measured dimension * 100 )

 

Select image, File -> Format -> Trasform -> Scale enter ratio in both horrid and vert, then OK

 

"do something with the working area" by inspector -> page -> setup -> cog icon -> "Match Contents"*

 

Draw new line to check dimensions.

 

Rename layer to "ground plan" and create new layers above it for fixtures etc.

 

If you select File -> print it will show you what a mess it's made of putting it on a printed page..... Sometimes it seems to be to the wrong scale, as in first go my 14.5m wide plan should not fit on one sheet at 1:50, but it does. Randomly changing the page size to A3 and back again seems to fix it!

 

* - I don't know what this step really does but lets me see whole drawing.

 

I'm not sure if this will help.

 

Richard

 

Annnnnd I just realised something that makes me think this really isn't a tool I wan't to use too much.......

 

The printed scale is wrong if you are not zoomed to 100% on screen before selecting print.

[LampTramp]

Also, if its printing out sheets and sheets of paper after you've done the plan...Just export it ( in the options) as a PDF and it shrinks it to A4 I've found...