Light Wright 5 or 6

Do you need rig paperwork? Do you need to share this with other people?

I always tell people the console has the most up-to-date patch, it may not be right that thats not always our fault.

If you give us a better idea what you need it for we can give better advice.

Oh and there is no LW 6, yet!

I need rig paperwork and the ability to share plots, patch and show info with others. I thought I saw something about LW 6 on City Theatrical's site. I must have been mistaken. At any rate, I was wondering if their were any alternatives to LW that people might be using. At this point I'm probably going to go with LW unless anyone has reasons not to or could suggest something else.

"I always tell people the console has the most up-to-date patch, it may not be right that thats not always our fault." Not sure what you mean here.

Are the people you're going to share with using LW? I'm not knocking LW or trying to put you off, I use LW on all my theatre show but when I work in TV or events almost all the paperwork is done in excel (i'm based in the UK).

LW is good software if the people you're sharing with have it also. But if you just need to share Channel and Address data there maybe cheap options. Like exporting/printing the patch, excel.

blasko said:

"I always tell people the console has the most up-to-date patch, it may not be right that thats not always our fault." Not sure what you mean here.

I sometimes work on show where designers, associates, crew get obsessed with what LW says it should be. Thats all well and good until you changed something yesterday to make it work and someone forgot (because they were busy and doing a hundred other things) to keep LW up to date. If something was working for me an hour ago and now it doesn't, I don't need to check it's right with LW. That's why a print a paper copy of the channel hookup on my first day and all changes get added there in pencil as well.

Are the people you're going to share with using LW? I'm not knocking LW or trying to put you off, I use LW on all my theatre show but when I work in TV or events almost all the paperwork is done in excel (i'm based in the UK).

LW is good software if the people you're sharing with have it also. But if you just need to share Channel and Address data there maybe cheap options. Like exporting/printing the patch, excel.

blasko said:

"I always tell people the console has the most up-to-date patch, it may not be right that thats not always our fault." Not sure what you mean here.

I sometimes work on show where designers, associates, crew get obsessed with what LW says it should be. Thats all well and good until you changed something yesterday to make it work and someone forgot (because they were busy and doing a hundred other things) to keep LW up to date. If something was working for me an hour ago and now it doesn't, I don't need to check it's right with LW. That's why a print a paper copy of the channel hookup on my first day and all changes get added there in pencil as well.

What I really need is a program to draft printable plots. I've never used LW so maybe thats not the correct tool for what I need.
For my shows, I only need to be able to share plots with dimmer/channel via email and print. Not many of the people I work with have LW.
As far as other people getting hung up on what a program says, I generate the patch info and people just go by the info I give. I'm usually the only one who has any idea of what that info means anyway. I dont have LD's or associates to deal with, its just me giving the info to the crew. I just need to be able to give them a plot and patch info, so If you know of a CAD program that can generate this, thats what I'm after. Something like iDraw but on PC would be perfect.

Yes it sounds like you want a drafting programme, LW is spreadsheet programme.

Sadly I don't think I can help with this, I use vectorworks which is very expensive and I think you could find something much more affordable for what you need.

Depending on the size of the projects but you can get this info in a magic sheet and export that.

Yes, I looked into Vectorworks and while its very cool, Its over kill for what I need. Perhaps making Magic Sheets and printing them is a option. Thanks.