Selecting a fixture mode
Fixture modes provide information about lighting devices that will be used in Showcase, or sent to (or exported to) a lighting console or visualizer. Some fixture modes are specific to the Vision program, while others are available in General Device Type Format (GDTF) (see Workflow: Previsualization with Spotlight for more information about GDTF).
If you plan to share over MVR-xchange, or export to a lighting console or a visualizer, specify a GDTF Fixture Mode. If you are exporting to Vision and want the option of using Vision fixture data, specify a Vision Fixture Mode as well.
The import of lighting devices in Vision depends both on the fixture mode settings in Vectorworks and on the import options in Vision. You can import lighting devices using GDTF data, Vision data, or a mix of both in the same scene file.
In Vectorworks, the DMX Footprint is set automatically by the selected fixture mode; if you select None for the Fixture Mode, the DMX Footprint can be edited manually. If fixture modes are specified for both Vision and GDTF, the GDTF mode sets the number of channels. Fixture modes can be selected in the Lighting Device properties; see Editing from the Object Info palette. The Vision fixture mode can also be specified when inserting lighting devices.
