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KnowledgeBase: Importing Lightwright data into Eos

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First published by:
Kelsey Aleckson
on 06-19-2009
Last revision by:
Ellen
on 02-28-2013
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KnowledgeBase: Importing Lightwright data into Eos

 

Eos Family Lightwright Import Function

 

File>Import> Lightwright> Location of file to be imported> File name.txt

 

Eos will only display *.txt files in this menu. Additionally, Eos will only successfully import a tab delineated file with windows character returns. If you are a Mac user you must pay close attention to how you export your file from Lightwright.  During the import process Eos is looking from the following column headers; Purpose, Channel, Dimmer, Color, Circuit Name, Circuit#, and Device Type.

Import Map:

 

EOS < ver.1.2.0

Lightwright 4

Lightwright 5

Channel

Channel

Channel

Address

Dimmer

Dimmer

Text 1

Circuit#

Circuit#

Text 2

Circuit Name

Circuit Name

Text 3

Color

Color

Text 4

Purpose

Purpose

Notes (not a query field)

Not mapped. If “Light” is in the field, Eos import allows the associated fields to map. REQUIRED FOR IMPORT

Device Type (Instrument type has to be fixture to be marked as “Light” other instrument types will NOT import)

Device Type (all instrument types export as “Light”. Fixtures with multiple attributes only patch the first line. Import will not select your fixture type in patch.)

 

It is extremely important to note that Eos will not import any rows that say anything other than “Light” in the “Device Type” column. Lightwright 4 will change the fields listed in the device type column based on what Instrument type you use. On the other hand Lightwright 5 seems to input “Light” for every instrument type. I have yet to figure out if this “Device Type” field will change under any circumstance in LW5. There is not a direct way to change this field inside the Lightwright program.

 

Where to Begin? The process is different depending on your Lightwright version.

If you have Lightwright 4...

Start by opening the Lightwright Show file you wish to import.

Click on File>Export>Data

This will bring you into the “export options” dialogue box.

From here the simple sure-fire-way is to place a check mark next to every field in the white scrolling window. But you could just select the fields you wish to import. The device type is not optional.

NOTE:  Eos only reads the following fields:

  • Purpose

  • Channel

  • Dimmer

  • Color

  • Circuit Name

  • Circuit#

  • Device Type (THIS IS A REQUIRED FIELD)

Place another check mark in the box next to the following options:

  • Export field labels as first record”

  • Strip channel parentheses ()”.

Additionally, make sure the radio button is selected for “Tab Separated” in the Export File Type box. If you are a Mac user you will have to replace the Mac character returns with Windows character returns. (This is done in the actual Text file and can be a bit cumbersome. LW5 make this much simpler.)

Your window should look like the following screen shot. Then click on “OK”

This should bring you to the Export File dialog box. Here you can give your file a name. It is important to save it with a *.TXT file extension. Eos will not see it otherwise. (It is recommended  that you export it right to your USB drive.) Then Click “Save”



 

 

If you have Lightwright 5...

Start by opening the Lightwright Show file you wish to import.

Click on File>Export>Data

This will bring you into export options.

From here the simple sure-fire way is to place a check mark next to every field in the scrolling window to the left. But you could just select the fields you wish to import. The device type is not optional. It must be selected.

NOTE:Eos only reads the following fields: (note that in LW5 you can order these fields any way you please. Though it has no bearing on how the information will import into Eos.)

  • Purpose

  • Channel

  • Dimmer

  • Color

  • Circuit Name

  • Circuit#

  • Device Type (THIS IS A REQUIRED FIELD)

 

Make sure the radio button is selected for “All Worksheet Data” and “Tab Separated”.

Place another check mark in the box next to the following options:

  • Export field labels as first record”

  • Strip channel parentheses ()”.

  • Mac users will additionally have to mark “Use Microsoft Windows Line Endings”

 

Your window should look like the following screen shot. Then click on “Export the data”

This should bring you to the Export File dialog box. Here you can give your file a name. It is important to save it with a *.TXT file extension. Eos will not see it otherwise. (It is recommended that you export it right to your USB drive.) Then Click “Save”.

The Next Step...

After exporting your Lightwright 4 or Lightwright 5 file, import your file into Eos.

      1.    Place the USB drive that contains your exported *.TXT file into an available USB port on the Eos console.

  1. Navigate in the browser to Lightwright import.

      File> Import> Lightwright

  1. Locate your USB drive and navigate to the file you wish to import.

  2. Highlight the file name and press [select].

 

Congratulations! You are now done importing your Lightwright text fields. 

Recent Comments

By: jeffmbike Posted on 02-02-2011 10:48 AM

I have been having some real trouble importing my test patch.  I use the Data field under the export Tab.   Then I select the All Worksheet Data Window.  Then I use the  Tab Seperate file type.  Then I pick the  Channel Window under the  Sort Data by  I check the  export field labels, strip Channel (), fill in blanks.  Then I select the :Purpose,Channel,Dimmer,Instrument Type, Color,Template and Circuit Name.  But it does not seem to work.  I know I am being a bit of a bone head.  But if anyone can help me I sure would appreciate it.  

Thanks

Jeff

By: 33boardop Posted on 02-21-2011 9:45 PM

Apparently the column order must be as shown above, at least with version 1.9.6.  Also Lightwright 5 uses "Gobo" instead of "Template".  To sum up, you must edit the file in a spreadsheet program to make the file work.  This was the only way it worked for me. I used Microsoft Works 8 with success.

By: Shawn Fidler Posted on 03-14-2011 5:48 PM

Tracy (or another helpful soul),

Could you possibly post a known-good text file for comparison?  I'm trying to create the tab-delimited file from something other than Lightwright, and I keep getting a "load successful" message that imports exactly zero fixtures.  I'm clearly missing some simple bit of formatting, and it would be useful to compare my file against something that definitely works.

Thanks,

Shawn

By: Hans.Hinrichsen Posted on 02-01-2012 12:19 PM

Thank you to everyone for your comments.  We will work on incorporating these requests into a revision very shortly.

By: MRourke Posted on 02-11-2013 11:19 AM

It has been a year since the above comment about incorporating these issues into a revision.  Has that happened?  I am programming on a 6-month-old Ion and can't get a Lightwright patch to import as anything but an ASCII file, which has to be imported to a separate show file (because it wipes out everything else) and then merged into the actual show file.

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