Best Pre Visualization Software

Thanks for the responses so far.  I am in the process of checking them out.

Now, please excuse my ignorance on the subject, but I am really a noob with pre-vis. 

Can someone tell me about Vectorworks Spotlight?  They advertise to be the industry standard.  Is this true?  If not, what is the standard? 

I have also seen that other pre-vis programs have plugins for Vectorworks.  This where I get confused.  Will Vectorworks do pre-vis cueing on its own?  Or, do I need another program that will import into it?  Why do other programs need to import into Vectorworks? Will they not do everying on their own?

What about Wiswyg?  Anybody have experience with it?

Does ETC have a recommended program that interfaces best with ETC consoles?

Lots of questions I know, but thanks again for the input!

Vectorworks is drafting software, and it is the industry standard for generating printed light plots. You can use VW Spotlight to turn on lights and render lit scenes. While it can be a great tool for trying ideas and producing printed or PDF renderings to share your ideas, it is not really for pre-viz. There is no console connection, and rendering is not real time. 

You can download a VW plug-in for ESP Vision, and it is really just a way to facilitate moving your plot and scenery to the Vision software. I believe that Capture, WSYWIG, and Light Converse have the capacity to import a drawing file via DWG, which VW can export, but it takes a little more work to get the import ready for visualization. 

I hoped this helps clarify your inquiry. 

-Josh

So...if you had to say, what is the industry standard for pre-vis software?

clswenson said:

So...if you had to say, what is the industry standard for pre-vis software?

clswenson said:

So...if you had to say, what is the industry standard for pre-vis software?

I would guess (pure speculation) that together WYSIWYG and ESP Vision comprise >50% of the market share.  Not sure which of those two is the more dominant, probably WYG.

See also Lighting Visualization Software - ControlBooth.  I think most have been mentioned here.

clswenson said:

Does ETC have a recommended program that interfaces best with ETC consoles?

Not speaking for ETC, but...

They seem to like Capture for their console demos. 

As for "interfaces best", visualizers are designed to accept DMX (or Art-Net or other DMX over Enternet scheme) from any console.  Some visualization software does work better than others with offline console software, either on the same or networked computers.

clswenson said:

So...if you had to say, what is the industry standard for pre-vis software?

I would guess (pure speculation) that together WYSIWYG and ESP Vision comprise >50% of the market share.  Not sure which of those two is the more dominant, probably WYG.

See also Lighting Visualization Software - ControlBooth.  I think most have been mentioned here.

clswenson said:

Does ETC have a recommended program that interfaces best with ETC consoles?

Not speaking for ETC, but...

They seem to like Capture for their console demos. 

As for "interfaces best", visualizers are designed to accept DMX (or Art-Net or other DMX over Enternet scheme) from any console.  Some visualization software does work better than others with offline console software, either on the same or networked computers.