Managing and reporting equipment lists
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Command |
Workspace: Path |
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Inventory and Equipment List |
Design Suite: Entertainment Spotlight: Spotlight |
Once inventories have been defined, and you have selected which inventories are in use, you can determine whether you have sufficient gear for the equipment you have placed, or want to place, into the drawing. When used with one or more inventory sets, the inventory and equipment list feature helps you know what equipment is available from various sources such as manufacturers, vendors, or venues, for you to include in the drawing. When your drawing is complete, you can also generate a comprehensive report—or specific reports—listing the equipment in use in the design.
To use the inventory and reporting lists:
From a drawing file, select the command.
The Inventory and Equipment List dialog box opens. The Symbols and Parts tab displays the equipment in the drawing, according to the selected category or filter.
Click to show/hide the parameters.Click to show/hide the parameters.
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Parameter |
Description |
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Filter |
Filters the items displayed in the Symbol/Object list according to the selected filter |
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Manage Filters |
Opens a dialog box to manage filters; see Managing inventory filters |
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Categories list |
Organizes the equipment into categories, and also selects the equipment to display in the Equipment list. The standard category names are editable, and new categories can be created. The hierarchy of objects and subparts within the category comes from the actual objects. You can click and drag categories to change the order. Object types can be dragged into a new category; subparts and virtual parts move with the object. |
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New Category |
Creates a new category; enter the name of the new category |
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Edit Category |
Edits the name of the category |
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Remove Category |
Deletes the selected category; the category must be empty |
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Symbol/Object list |
Lists the drawing objects in alphabetical order according to the selected filter or category. Click the disclosure arrow to view any subparts or virtual parts associated with the object. (Click Alt + Shift (Windows) or Option + Shift (Mac) to expand all of the items.) Blank quantities display with a hyphen - . Displays the following information about each object, subpart, and virtual part: Symbol/Object: Name of the item. In Use: Number of items in use in the file. Part Type: Kind of item (type of symbol, subpart, virtual part, or independent virtual part (IVP)). Category: The item's assigned category. Source: Inventory source, if assigned to the item (if not assigned, click to assign it to a source). If subparts or virtual parts come from more than one source, <Mixed> displays. Remaining in source inventory: Number of the items that remain in the assigned inventory, after subtracting the items in use (red indicates that there are not sufficient items in the inventory). Total in source inventory: Total number of the items in the assigned inventory. Remaining via all in use inventories: Total number of items in the inventories with a Use check mark, after subtracting the items in use (red indicates that there are not sufficient items in the inventory). This can help you know that while there may not be enough items in the assigned inventory, you might be able to obtain items from another inventory. Total via all in use inventories: Total number of the items in the inventories with a Use check mark. |
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Edit Selected |
Opens the Properties dialog box for the selected item, to assign it to a source or to associate virtual parts. More than one object can be selected. The selected object is highlighted in the drawing. |
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Manage Independent Virtual Parts |
Opens the Manage Independent Virtual Parts dialog box |
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Create Equipment List Worksheet |
Opens the Create Equipment List Worksheet dialog box, to create a full-featured, database worksheet of the items in the Symbol/Object list; see Creating equipment list reports |
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Create Equipment List Report |
Creates a simple spreadsheet worksheet of the items in the Symbol/Object list; provide the report name in the Create Equipment Report dialog box. See Creating equipment list reports. |
On the Manage Inventories tab, verify the inventories in Use. The Manage Inventories tab is described in Creating an inventory.
On the Symbols and Parts tab, organize and filter the equipment in the drawing.
The symbols, objects, subparts, and virtual parts from the drawing display with quantities. By selecting a category or filter, you can display a targeted set of equipment and view its properties, such as quantities available in the selected inventory or inventories, and quantities in use in the drawing.
In this example, several types of truss in the Rigging category have been placed in the drawing. In the first row, five truss are available in inventory, and five have been placed. None remain for placement. In the second row, no more truss are available in the assigned inventory; however, others are available in other inventories. In the third row, one more truss has been placed than is available in the assigned inventory. Finally, the item in the last row has not yet been assigned to an inventory.
Assign equipment to its source inventory. You can select multiple rows and choose the same source for all of them.
When you select a single row, the Source list shows inventory sources with enough inventory in green (along with the available stock value) and the sources without enough inventory in red. When you select multiple rows, the color indicates whether the source has enough inventory (green) or not enough inventory (red); black indicates that there are mixed results for the selected rows.
Add any independent virtual parts to be included in paperwork.
Continue working in the file, ensuring that you are not placing more equipment than what is available in the inventory.
Creating equipment list reports
Select the command.
On the Symbols and Parts tab, select a category or filter to display the desired equipment (or all of the equipment, for a comprehensive report). The worksheet includes all visible items in the list.
Do one of the following:
Click Create Equipment Report and provide a name for the report worksheet. This creates a simple spreadsheet-row type of worksheet. You can export the report to a program such as Excel, use it for documentation purposes, send it to a vendor, etc.
Click Create Equipment List Worksheet.
The Create Equipment List Worksheet dialog box opens.
Click to show/hide the parametersClick to show/hide the parameters.
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Parameter |
Description |
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Worksheet Name |
Provide a name for the worksheet |
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Show project name |
Includes the project name (from the Title Block Manager) |
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Show vendor information |
Includes the vendor name from the inventory information; this is only available if the vendor information exists, and all of the assigned equipment comes from a single inventory with a Use check mark |
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Include assigned sources column for |
Includes the source assignment information, either for the objects or for the objects and the object subparts, parts, and virtual parts |
See Concept: Worksheet overview for information about worksheets. The objects in the database-row worksheet are editable; generating equipment reports can also be a convenient way of editing the items. See Editing drawing objects from a worksheet.
Managing categories
Use the categories in the Categories list to filter the equipment displayed in the Symbol/Object list. Default symbols use default categories; however, you can create new categories if needed. Move object types from one category to another by dragging.
To create a new category, click New Category. Provide a name for the category in the New Category Name dialog box.
To edit a category name, click Edit Category and enter the new name.
To delete an empty category, select the category in the Categories list and click Remove Category.
Assigning equipment to an inventory
To be able to properly determine whether sufficient equipment of each type is available from the inventories marked with Use on the Inventory Management tab, and to properly subtract equipment from the inventory, each piece of equipment must be assigned to an inventory. This can be done from the Object Info palette of selected objects, by clicking Assign Sources. It can also be done from the Inventory and Equipment list, Symbol and Parts tab. When assigning equipment to a source, its subparts and virtual parts also become assigned.
Source assignments are saved with the file. Use a template to preserve source assignments for future use.
To assign equipment to an inventory source from the Object Info palette:
Select the drawing object (a Spotlight object, such as a lighting device, hoist, truss, etc.).
In the Object Info palette, click Assign Sources.
Show Assign Sources must be set to display for the object type in the Inventory pane of the Spotlight preferences.
The Assign Sources dialog box opens, displaying the selected object along with the subparts and any virtual parts, and the quantities in use in the drawing. If you selected more than one object, all of the selected objects display.
Click in the Source column for one or more Symbol/Object rows, and assign the inventory source. By default, subparts and virtual parts are assigned to the same source as the parent object, but they can be assigned to different sources if necessary.
To assign equipment to an inventory source from the Inventory and Equipment list:
Select the command.
The Inventory and Equipment list dialog box opens. Select the Symbol and Parts tab.
If needed, use categories and filters to display the desired equipment.
Select the equipment to assign. In the Source column, assign the inventory source. By default, subparts and virtual parts are assigned to the same source as the parent object, but they can be assigned to different sources if necessary.
Managing virtual parts and independent virtual parts
Virtual parts are associated with drawing objects but do not display in the drawing (such as safety cables associated with lighting devices); virtual independent parts are not associated with objects and they also do not display (such as rolls of gaffer tape or extra gels). They do not have attributes such as weight, ID numbers, etc.
Add independent virtual parts to an inventory file to accurately calculate stock quantities. See Creating an inventory.
To associate a virtual part with an object:
Select the drawing object (a Spotlight object, such as a lighting device, hoist, truss, etc.).
In the Object Info palette, click Edit Virtual Parts.
The virtual parts must be set to display in the Inventory pane of the Spotlight preferences.
The Virtual Parts dialog box opens. Virtual parts that are associated with the object are listed, along with their quantities.
Click New to add a default virtual part named <New Virtual Part>. Click to enter a different name for the virtual part, and click to enter the quantity to associate with that part.
Continue to add needed virtual parts. You can also edit the name and quantity of previously associated parts.
To remove a virtual part, select it and click Delete.
Virtual parts associated with an object display in the Object Info palette, along with the quantities, which can be edited directly from the Object Info palette. The virtual parts also display in the Inventory and Equipment List dialog box, where they can be included in reports.
When you add virtual parts to an object, or edit the virtual parts later, all existing and future instances of the object in the file will also include that virtual part in the specified quantities. Edits made in the Virtual Parts dialog box apply to all selected objects. Leave the Default Quantity at 0 to be able to enter different quantities for different instances.
To create an independent virtual part:
From the Inventory and Equipment List dialog box, click Manage Independent Virtual Parts.
The Manage Independent Virtual Parts dialog box opens.
Click New to add a default virtual part named <New Virtual Part>. Click to enter a different name for the virtual part, and click to enter the quantity to associate with that part.
Continue to add needed virtual parts. You can also add a part by selecting an existing part and clicking Duplicate, and then editing the item.
To remove an independent virtual part, select it and click Delete.
Open the Manage Independent Virtual Parts dialog box again to change the properties of any of the existing parts.
Virtual parts display in the Inventory and Equipment List dialog box, where they can be included in reports. The Part Type is "IVP" for Independent Virtual Part.
