Export to Cast, WYSIWYG

Hi
Iam working with some lightdesigners using CAST lightdesign program WYSIWYG. It has been known very tricky to get any CAD-file from whatsoever program to work without redraw everything in WYSIWYG. Do anyone else have experience of exporting to this program? Maybe we could share some tips and tricks?
/F

Hello - what file formats does the application accept?

-Pascal

DWG or DXF but i haven’t understood if solid or polygon geometry they give this clue;


I have exported to this program in many years but It is mostly a lottery if it’s going to work. Dfx is said to be the best format but they usually becomes too heavy so wysiwyg crashes. Light polygon DWG exports and opens nice but makes polygon edges a mess in the drawing view. However most of the imported objects becomes either corrupt or useless.
They mention “autocads write block” to make a ac naitive file. I don’t know what this tool does but it seems important to make a workable model

Ive done some work with this program - its probably the worst, arcane, frustrating piece of software I’ve ever come across…
I have release 27 - I stopped updating after that and I just now do all my lighting design stuff in rhino…

Anyway, FWIW, below are my notes I made regarding this when I did the last big show in it (an opera), in 2011, using R26. Hopefully things have moved on from there in later releases, but I’m over it, and I’ll never use that piece of rubbish ever again…
Also, as noted below, I found Sketchup to be the best portal into WTF, but for some things rhino is better.
Finally, at the time most stuff I built in Rhino I then opened in MOI and exported to sketchup from there - gives a much better mesh in sketchup / WTF.
I haven’t done this lately, so perhaps Rhino’s mesher is better now…
(I have other notes re actually working in WTF, but the rhino forum is not the place for those…)

START

To insert a theatre or performance space into WTF R26

1] In sketchup, move the whole theatre to the origin (0,0,0). In fact, place downstage centre at the origin. This is VERY important - everything will be off if you don’t, and although you may be able to see the theatre geometry, the shaded view will remain blank…

2] Set all the layers to colour white in sketchup - this can also be done in R26 - makes the theatre a “default” grey colour.

3] Also, those walls you want to be able to see through in R26, make just a single surface, rather than full 3D with thickness.

4] It is less complicated to bring the theatre in layer by layer, mostly because this can catch entities that are still on layer 0 because of sloppy modeling in sketchup.
Typically you would have various parts of the theatre grouped, and on named layers. Begin by turning off all layers, then turn on the first one you want to import. Select all the entities, copy, and in a 2nd empty instance of sketchup, paste-in-place. Explode the group(s) then using saveas, save the sketchup file - something like “theatre_royal_stagewalls”

Then, in R26:

1] merge the sketchup file, using 0,0,0 as the origin of the import. This will line up everything as it is in the sketchup file.

2] In the layer dialog, you should have “main” (the default R26 layer which cannot be deleted), layer 0 and layer “stagewalls” or whatever you called it in sketchup. Make the layer stagewalls non-editable. Try to delete layer 0 - if it has stuff on it you will not be able to, in which case, close the layer dialog, select everything, and via properties set it to layer stagewalls. You will now be able to delete layer zero.
Continue in this fashion until the whole theatre is imported.

3] Walls you want to see through, make single sided, flipping the normals if necessary. Do this from the properties dialog, while in quad view, and check the shaded view to see if this is ok. There is no layer select, (from the layer dialog, but there is select by layer in the select menu) so you have to turn on only the layer you want, then select the objects in quad view, and then alter the properties.

4] Once the theatre is set up how you want, make those layers non-editable.

Sketchup itself has no “export selected” option, so if you need to merge further objects into the R26 file - for example various furniture, props etc, then:

1] Place the objects into the sketchup file, arranging them however you want on the stage.
2] Open a 2nd instance of sketchup, copy the objects you want to the clipboard, then in the 2nd instance “paste in place” to keep everything lined up.
3] From here save the sketchup file with an appropriate name, and then merge it into the R26 file - if it is a component, then choose make library item, and in any case always choose to drop in at the origin - the object will then drop into the R26 file exactly as it was arranged in the 1st sketchup file.
4] The item will also show up in the library under a folder entitled “sketchup”, so you can use it again in other R26 files.

So in this way you can build up your set / props / etc as needed per scene within R26.

Adding via rhino:

If you have the theatre set up using the same origin in rhino, then you can merge objects via dwg in the same way, and they will line up exactly.
However, copy and paste to moi, and export as sketchup from there - gives much better mesh, BUT export lines that will become pipes as dwg, using the wysiwyg export scheme:

Under General tab:
Autocad version = 2004
surfaces = meshes
meshes = meshes
check export layer names only
check color RGB
check Preserve normals

Under Curves tab:
lines = lines
arcs = arcs
polylines = lines
curves = lines
polycurves = lines
Curve tessellation parameters = max angle 2.0
everything else unchecked

Drawing the pipes:

If the 2d lines that represent the pipes are imported, R26 will automatically convert them to pipes if they have a block on them that is converted to a fixture on import.
Otherwise, import them, then select them and choose tools / convert / lines into pipes.
Remember to name them properly, and if the lines representing the pipes are from a 2D file, then remember to set their trim heights via the tab key while selected, or from their properties.

Exporting direct from Rhino:
1] Make sure the drawings origin (0,0,0) is at d/s center (as with sketchup file)
2] Edit walls and other 3D structures so they are one surface thick - this simplifies the file and also enables you to see through them when rotating the drawing in shaded view - very helpful.
3] save selected as dwg with the wysiwyg options (see above) and merge into a new wysiwyg file.
4] Comparing the sketchup based file and the rhino one, the su one has a different default camera which is a lot better - there appears to be no way to set this default camera or access its settings…

On balance perhaps it is better to go through sketchup, since it all seems less complicated, and the results are good.
However, individual things can be merged direct from the rhino file as long as the theatre origins are the same.

END

cheers
rabbit

Thank You Rabbit
I have to try this but it seems I have gone through some of your suggestions past the years.
One way that did work some years ago (older version of WYSIWYG) was to export layer by layer as a solid DXF.
Now in later versions of WYSIWYG this makes the software to crash.
I do a big modelling job for a theatre and they want it to work with WYSIWYG so I will continue to report the result
And yeah this software seem to be the most uncompatible software I have tryed to export to
Thanks again /F