FREQUENTLY-ASKED-QUESTIONS

Lightwright 3 I have Windows 2000 and the Lightwright installer says I need a service pack, but there aren't any for Windows 2000. What do I do? I am using Lightwright for Macintosh, and the names of all of my paperwork have disappeared from the Paperwork Menu (they're also missing from the list of printouts when I go to print). How can I get them back? Beamwright won't take my registration, approval code, etc. Help! The show file I was working on is "read-only" or "locked". How did this happen and how can I get back to normal? How do I exchange Lightwright data with the VectorWorks Lighting Toolkit? Can I save a version 3 show file in version 2 format? Why doesn't Lightwright count my instruments correctly? Dragging columns in layout using Microsoft Windows is extremely slow. How can I speed things up? How can I get Lightwright to use the wheel on my Microsoft mouse? I cannot use the Phase File, it will not open or save files. States it is missing files or corrupt. Lightwright won't correctly import dimmer numbers in universe format: It puts them all into the first universe Windows will not open Lightwright when I double-click a show file, or it opens Lightwright but then doesn't open the show file Layouts are Empty Lightwright won't count my templates; it thinks they're colors. Lightwright won't separate my colors properly; it thinks "R-33,L-110" is one color. How do I get rid of colors (hanging positions, instrument types, etc.) that I'm not using anymore? How can I add a light before Unit #1 on a pipe? Why don't some (or all) of my colors get counted? Why are colors counted for some of my instruments but not for others? Why do I get the message "Some of your margins were too narrow for the printer and have been adjusted" when Lightwright first starts? I just upgraded from the DOS version of Lightwright to the Windows version. Is there a replacement for using [Insert]? How do I uninstall Lightwright (or Beamwright)? How do I move Lightwright to a different place on my computer? Lightwright 2 for Mac can't find my customer registration file I have Windows 2000 and the Lightwright installer says I need a service pack, but there aren't any for Windows 2000. What do I do? Download the current version of Lightwright and install it instead of using the version that came on your CD. I am using Lightwright for Macintosh, and the names of all of my paperwork have disappeared from the Paperwork Menu (they're also gone from the list of paperwork to print). How can I get them back? This is a symptom that the Lightwright application has been damaged. Toss it in the trash and replace it with a fresh copy. Be sure you replace it with the current version of Lightwright, which is probably NOT the one on your Lightwright CD. You can always download the current version from this web site. Beamwright won't take my registration, approval code, etc. Help! Download the current version of Beamwright and install it instead of using the version that came on your CD. The show file I was working on is "read-only" or "locked". How did this happen and how can I get back to normal? Lightwright sets show files to "read-only" while it's working on them so that other folks who might be on the network with you won't be able to screw up your work. When it finishes with the show file or quits normally, it clears the read-only status. If Lightwright crashes or "quits unexpectedly" while you're working on a show, it doesn't have a chance to clear the read-only status. The same thing happens in both Windows and the Mac versions, except that on the Macintosh the term is "locked" instead of "read-only". To clear the read-only status of a file in Windows: Quit Lightwright. Use Windows Explorer to find the show file, then right-click on it and select "Properties". At the bottom of the resulting dialog box is a check-box option "Read-only". Un-check the box. To clear the locked status of a file on the Macintosh: Quit Lightwright. Locate the show file, then click on it once to select it. Press Command-I or choose Get Info from the File menu. At the bottom of the resulting dialog box is a check-box option "Locked". Un-check the box. How do I exchange Lightwright data with the VectorWorks Lighting Toolkit? It's actually pretty easy once you get things set up, but that takes some preparation. So rather than take up space here, click here for complete directions, in .pdf format. Can I save a version 3 show file in version 2 format? Lightwright 3 can export version 3 show files to version 2 format, but of course anything that version 2 cannot understand will not be included. So if you have put info into any of the 12 new columns or entered things like dimmer phases or DMX universes, it will not be included in the version 2 file. Also, if you go beyond version 2's overall capacities (such as total number of instruments or # of circuit names/purposes/etc. or highest channel/dimmer numbers), those things will not be included in the version 2 file. If this is going to happen, LW3 will put up a large warning with complete details about what will be missing before it does the export. The cleanest solution is to have the person to whom you're sending the version 2 file upgrade to version 3! Why doesn't Lightwright count my instruments correctly? In most cases, it's because some/most/all of your lights are missing unit numbers or are duplicated in a way that doesn't do what you want.Here are some things to look for: 1. Unit numbers determine (in most cases) the order of the units on the pipe. Without them, the order on an instrument schedule will be random, therefore pretty much useless. You can "lock" the order of the instruments in each position and do without the unit numbers, but that still doesn't let Lightwright know which light is which. 2. Because a multi-channel light such as a Vari-Lite or Cyberlite can consist of dozens of rows on the worksheet (all consisting of the same position and unit number), Lightwright looks to see when the unit numbers change to determine when a new light exists on the pipe. If one or more of your lights in one position have the same unit number, Lightwright will think all of those lights are one big multi-channel light. 3.Lights without unit numbers (unit number zero) are always counted as separate lights and never considered part of a multi-channel light. Dragging columns in layout using Microsoft Windows is extremely slow. How can I speed things up? Go into Windows' Display Settings control panel and set Hardware Acceleration to the Basic Level. How can I get Lightwright to use the wheel on my Microsoft mouse? Microsoft has released a software update for their wheeled mice that provides wheel functionality even in most programs that don't have native support (such as Lightwright). The MS Mouse Page is at http://www.microsoft.com/hardware/mouse/intellieye.htm To get the updated software you select "download drivers". Note that if you have a joystick, installing the updated mouse driver will remove your joystick driver too (thanks, Microsoft!). Just reinstall your joystick software again and all should work. Or at least that's what I've been told...;) I cannot use the Phase Template File, it will not open or save files. States it is missing files or corrupt. Phase Template files do not contain dimmer numbers, only patterns of phases - so you need to have starting and ending dimmer numbers entered into the current dimmer range before you can use or create a phase template file. If you are using version 3p or later, Lightwright will be more helpful and explain this to you instead of saying the dimmer information is corrupt. Lightwright won't correctly import dimmer numbers in universe format: It puts them all into the first universe. Go into Setup/DMX Universes and set a Start# and End# for each universe BEFORE you import. If you are using a label (such as "Univ 1" or "3a" instead of simple universe numbers, you'll also need to enter a label for each universe.   Windows will not open Lightwright when I double-click a show file, or it opens Lightwright but then doesn't open the show file When you double-click a show file, Windows will ask you to show it the folder containing lw3.exe. Show it the Lightwright folder. That will tell it where Lightwright is. If double-clicking a show file then starts Lightwright but doesn't open the show file, you will need to edit a registry entry. To edit the registry, do the following steps VERY carefully: Pull open the Start menu and select Run... In the "Open:" field, enter c:\windows\regedit.exe Click OK The Registry Editor will open. Click the + sign to the left of HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT. This will expand that folder. Scroll down the list until you get to Lightwright.3data (it'll be a long a way down the list) Click the + sign to the left of Lightwright.3data Click on the + sign to the left of "shell" Click on the + sign to the left of "open" Click on the "command" folder, then look in the right-hand pane of the Registry Editor window. You will see an odd-looking icon and the word "(Default)". Double-click "(Default)" A dialogue window will open. Make sure the value data is correct. The value data should show the correct path to Lightwright (lw3.exe), a space, and then "%1". Example: c:\light\lw3.exe %1 Common problems include c:\ being listed twice, and the %1 missing. Close the Registry Editor by choosing Exit from the Registry menu. Layouts are Empty Occasionally someone will find that when they switch to the Layout Page, nothing appears on it. This happens when Lightwright doesn't have any information about how big the printed page is going to be. To solve the problem, choose Page Setup from the File Menu. Lightwright won't count my templates; it thinks they're colors. There are two things to check: Look in Setup / Show Prefs / Vocabulary and see what your Template Phrase is. This phrase probably doesn't match what you're actually using, and it has to. In Lightwright 3, templates in the template column should be fine and don't need any Template Phrase; it's only used in the combined Color & Template column on printouts or when exporting a show file in LW2 format. If you're using Lightwright 2, make sure you separate your templates from your colors with the correct separator. The one to use is the one you've entered in Setup/ Show Prefs / Vocabulary "to separate colors to count them INDIVIDUALLY". Lightwright won't separate my colors properly; it thinks "R-33,L-110" is one color. Look in Setup / Show Prefs / Vocabulary and see what your color separator phrases are. They don't match what you're actually using. How do I get rid of colors (hanging positions, instrument types, etc.) that I'm not using anymore? To get rid of the unused names in all categories, choose Setup / List Maintenance / Remove All Unused. If you want to clean up just ONE category, choose Setup / List Maintenance / the category you want, then click the "Remove Unused" button. Note: If you clean up instrument types using either of these methods, any types with stock quantities will remain on the list. To get rid of them set the stock quantity to zero for that type and then Remove Unused. If you want to get rid of just ONE name type in any category, choose Setup / List Maintenance / the category you want. Scroll to bring the item you're interested in into view if necessary, the click on it once to select it. Click the "Remove" button. How can I add a light before Unit #1 on a pipe? Use 0A, 0B, etc. for the unit number. Or, if you're using Version 3, the unit number doesn't really matter. View the hanging position by itself and then drag the unit you want to the top of the list, grabbing it by the far left-hand corner. The lock icon will "lock" and the order of the lights will stay the way you set them whenever you sort by position instead of sorting by unit#. Why don't some (or all) of my colors get counted?  Why are colors counted for some of my instruments but not for others? Check Color Frames (Setup / Color Frames...) and see if the number of frames per instrument has been inadvertently set to N/A. Instrument types that are marked this way mean that they don't use color so Lightwright ignores them when it counts. Be sure there is a correct number there, usually 1. Why do I get the message "Some of your margins were too narrow for the printer and have been adjusted" when Lightwright first starts? Whenever Lightwright opens a layout file, it checks the margins to make sure they work with the current printer and adjusts them if necessary. When Lightwright first starts, it automatically opens the layout you were using the last time you worked with Lightwright. So if that layout's margins need fixing, you will get this messge. To stop it from coming up (assuming you don't change layouts), choose Save Layout from the File menu. This will save the layout with the corrected margins. Of course, you should probably go to Layout and choose Paperwork/Margins to see what Lightwright set them to. I just upgraded from the DOS version of Lightwright. Is there a replacement for using [Insert]? Yes: Pressing [Enter] to put information into a cell puts it into the "on hold" area at the top of the worksheet. If you then move to another cell and press [Ctrl]+[Enter], whatever is "on hold" will be put into the new cell. If you press [Ctrl]+[Up arrow] and if a number is "on hold" it will be raised by one, the result pasted into the currently-selected (cells), and the next row down the worksheet will be selected instead of the currently-selected cells. If you press [Ctrl]+[Down arrow] the same thing happens, except that the number is lowered. You should also look into using [Ctrl]+[Shift] to quickly paste. Press F1 while viewing Lightwright's Worksheet for a summary of all the worksheet cell editing commands, or look through the tutorial section of the manual. How do I uninstall Lightwright (or Beamwright)? If you're using the Macintosh version, you're in luck: just drag the Lightwright or Beamwright file folder to the trash. If you're using the Windows version, things are much messier, although they sound simple. From the Windows 95/98 Start menu, choose Control Panel and then Add/Remove Programs. Find Lightwright on the list and click the Add/Remove button. This will run the UNWISE.EXE application located in the same folder with Lightwright. UNWISE is installed automatically when you install Lightwright and Beamwright. The installers create a log file when they install Lightwright, detailing everything they do. UNWISE uses that log file to undo things. If the log file doesn't exist, then UNWISE will not be able to do the uninstall, and the best you can hope to do is to erase the Lightwright/Beamwright applications only. The registry will still contain references to the removed software, but unless you are confident with RegEdit (and few people are!), there's not much you can do. As for the DLL's and other software bits and pieces that got installed, there's no hope of ever knowing which ones are extraneous and which ones aren't. And you're probably asking why the program is called "UNWISE.EXE" - no, it's not because uninstalling is an unwise thing to do (although that's true). No, the reason is that the Lightwright/Beamwright installer is created by software produced by Wise Solutions, Inc. How do I move Lightwright to a different place? If you're using the Mac version, just drag it to wherever you want. If you're using the Windows version, DO NOT MOVE IT. Because Windows is inordinately stupid about these things, simply dragging it to a new location will screw up vital registry entries, shortcut pointers, and all kinds of other important things. To move Lightwright in Windows, you first need to make a backup of all your show files and anything else contained in your Lightwright folder that might matter to you, like layout files, graphics, or whatever. Then use Start Menu/Control Panel/Add-Remove Programs to remove Lightwright entirely. Then reinstall a brand-new copy of Lightwright in the new location using the Lightwright setup program. Finally, copy the things you backed up to the new location. Lightwright 2 for Mac can't find my customer registration file If you get a message from Lightwright for Mac saying that it can't find your Customer Registration file, check for these important things: Make sure you only have one copy of the Lightwright application on your hard disk Make sure that the file with your name and serial number on it (such as 10011 - John McKernon) is in the same file folder as the Lightwright application. If these two conditions are not met, Lightwright will not run. It may load your show file, but it will quit shortly thereafter.