ETC Riser Tools are available through the MYETC page of the ETC website. You need to contact Vicki Lessard at vicki.lessard@etcconnect.com to get access if you don't already have it.
Actual, maybe that's not what I'm looking for. We are in the planning phase of a new theater, and we're trying to work out what type of fixtures would work best in our space, and to work out their positions. I use Visio at work (in a completely different industry), and its the devil I know. If there is some other tool, possibly 3D available (and free would be nice) to help with this lighting design, that's probably closer to what I'm looking for. Any thoughts anyone?
[edited by: dpc78 at 9:48 PM (GMT -6) on Fri, Dec 21 2007]
"Free" isn't going to happen unfortunately - lighting visualisation software is extremely difficult to write and thus the packages tend to be fairly expensive.
The two main 'market leaders' in this field at present are CAST's "WYSIWYG", and Capture Sweden's "Capture 2005".
Both of these products include simulations of the majority of popular lighting fixtures, so you wouldn't need to download anything else. They also can be used live with a lighting console.
They behave differently and have different primary strengths - Capture (currently) has a much better live visualisation, while Wyg can render better still images.
Both these products are available in a freely downloadable demo format - I believe that neither of them permit you to save in the demo version. I quite like Capture, but I know many people who love WYSIWYG.
I'd suggest downloading the demos of both packages and seeing if either will meet your needs.
Google has a wonderful program called Google SketchUp. It works awesome, and there are a few pre-made ETC products in the 3D warehouse. Its absolutely free for the full version (there is also a $ pro package). Its not the best for plotting and lighting work, but I use it to get a good idea of sets and spaces before they're built/I have access to them.
