As lighting designers, we need to provide lots of information in the form of lighting plots and paperwork. That hasn’t changed since the days when I was in college. But these days, two-dimensional drawings are not enough. We have to be able to draw in three dimensions, turn on the lights, capture cues as photo-realistic pictures, and we have to do this in the same amount of time it used to take to produce the light plot alone.
Fortunately, lighting design software has come a long way since my college days. In fact, lighting design software didn’t exist back then. We learned to draft by hand, and used Microsoft Excel to try to manage our paperwork.
One of the major challenges of working that way was remembering to update all the documentation whenever you’d make a change. If a color changed in a fixture, you would have to change it on several schedules, on the plot and on all the detail drawings. Today’s software lets you make changes once, and all of your paperwork and drawings get updated automatically.
The latest version of Design and Drafting’s LD Assistant integrates the drafting and the paperwork in a comprehensive program. But the basic elements for creating the plot and paperwork are only the beginning.
At its heart, LD Assistant 08 is a CAD (computer-aided design) program that uses an Autodesk AutoCAD engine for third-party developers. LD Assistant 08 starts with the basic platform of lines on the virtual page used to create sophisticated drawings and expands to other levels to allow the designer to produce 3D renderings of the lighting design, connect a lighting console and pre-visualize your show, and even add real time video projection as well.
The program has a suite of drafting tools that are common to all CAD programs, 2D and 3D drawing tools. The software also works in native DWG format so any drawings you get from the architect can be opened without having to import the file. That can reduce the risk of losing valuable information like blocks — pre-drawn items stored in libraries (which can be real time-savers when creating a design) or dimensions.
The program has all the tools required for a complex drafting project, but you don’t need to be a CAD wizard to produce good results. It has some built-in features to make lighting design easy, including several drop-down menus just for lighting and production applications. In these menus you will find tools to help create professional looking drawings with minimal training.
LD Assistant comes with an extensive library of ready-to-use blocks, and there are more are available online. These let you, for example, drag a truss block onto the page, set the height then drag in fixture blocks and snap them to the truss.
Each block has associated attributes that can be edited and used in the report generator. Take a fixture, for example. Certain attributes are already supplied, such as “Type,” “Frame Size,” “Candle Power,” etc. Other attributes require your input — “Filter Color” and “Channel,” for example. These details will automatically appear in your reports, and attributes like color will also show up in your renderings.
You can also add a stage, curtains and set pieces and also apply images to the surface of any object. To render a stained glass window, for example, you can draw the shape of the window, take a picture of the real thing, apply it to the object and it will look real. It’s a feature that works especially well for backdrops or corporate logos.
Once you have the 3D model constructed, you are ready to turn on the virtual lights and use the really fun features that differentiate this program from a standard CAD program.
After focusing your virtual lights, putting in color and possibly gobos, you are ready to start pre-visualizing your cues. You do this by using the LD Control Window with a built-in fader console that allows you to create scenes and record cues for playback just as if you were actually in the theatre. If you have a DMX interface, you can connect your lighting console to the computer and record the cues directly to the console. The program supports eight standard interface devices.
Video projection that has become an increasing part of our designs, and this software lets you drop a video projector block onto the page and attach a video file, which will play back in real time. In the time it takes to read this paragraph you can have a projector playing back video in your visualizer.
After you have a series of cues, you can add an audio file, capture the cue sequence as you walk through the space and save it for playback as an animation file. This software gives you plenty to work with, and it will take some time to fully realize its potential.
LD Assistant 08 is a feature-packed program that starts with drafting and ends with full motion video movies of your design. The program can be used by people well trained in CAC drafting to create sophisticated drawings, or by up-and-coming designers with limited training. The tools are available for the novice to start producing designs quickly, but it also has powerful features for pros.
What is it: A CAD program for lighting design, documentation, presentation and pre-visualization.
Who it’s for: All levels of lighting designers, event planners, scenic designers and technical directors.
Pros: Built-in content library, great rendering capability, native CAD files and Autodesk CAD engine, powerful features.
Cons: Needs a good “Dummies”-style how-to book.
Retail Price: $2,495.
