Previz Tips and Tricks for Showcase in Vectorworks Spotlight

Vectorworks Spotlight’s Showcase offers a seamless, real-time previsualization (previz) environment right inside your design file.

Showcase is all about seeing your design before showtime, helping you work smarter, faster, and with more creative control. And while you may know of the feature’s lighting, video, and effects simulations, Showcase also boasts advanced features and smart tricks that can transform your workflow and impress your clients.

Take a look at 10 tips and tricks that can help you get the most out of Showcase.

Since Showcase runs directly in Vectorworks Spotlight, you can keep making changes to your model while Showcase is running, as long as Showcase doesn’t directly control the objects you’re editing.

This means you don’t have to stop your previz session every time you need to tweak a set piece or adjust a non-lighting element, saving you time and keeping your creative flow uninterrupted.

If you’re streaming your previz using Network Device Interface (NDI), always try to use Low Bandwidth mode. Most of the time, your NDI stream won’t fill the entire view pane with pixels, so Low Bandwidth mode gives you much better performance without sacrificing quality.

Showcase’s Hide Lighting Device Geometry command can lead to a significant boost in performance, especially when working with large or complex scenes. This option is ideal when you want to concentrate on your lighting design without the distraction or processing load of rendering the physical fixtures themselves.

You can animate a crowd in front of your stage or scenic design by creating cutouts of audience members and applying DMX transforms to make them “dance.” This adds energy and realism to your previz, especially for concert or festival designs.

You can adjust the Field and Beam spreads of your lights simply by changing their parameters in the Object Info Palette (OIP). This is perfect for blending strip lights or emulating the effect of frost and diffusion filters, giving you more control over the look and mood of your scene.

Showcase makes it easy to manage and rename your DMX recordings. Just go to the DMX Recording Palette, select the dropdown for your recordings, and use the pencil icon to rename them.

 Keeping your recordings organized is essential for complex shows with multiple cues and sequences.

You can also offload the rendering of Showcase animations to the Vectorworks Cloud.

For best results, start by making a low-res movie at five frames per second as a test. Once you’re happy with the result, export the final movie at 30 or even 60 frames per second in 4K. 

The cloud handles the processing, freeing up your computer for other tasks.

Optimize your Render settings in Showcase by separating them between Shaded and Showcase Shaded modes. This lets you fine-tune your visuals depending on whether you’re working on design development or final presentation.

Showcase is the only place in Vectorworks Spotlight where you can set Fog values below one or use fractional settings (like 2.5%). Adjusting the Fog slider in Showcase Preferences changes the amount of fog in your selected Renderworks Background, and you’ll see the effect live as you work.

For a dramatic outdoor night scene, try a Two-Color Background with a dark top color (like black) and a very dark blue bottom color.

To learn more about Vectorworks Spotlight workflows and features like Showcase, check out Vectorworks University. Choose from courses and certifications that will expand your skills, perfect your workflows, and optimize your software for your creative process.