What were some of the overarching goals of this latest software update?
“To start 2025, we’ve taken a bold new step into the world of cabling. It’s a complex and ambitious feature, but an essential one; no lighting design software feels truly complete without the ability to plan and calculate cabling requirements. While there’s still more to come, this addition already marks a significant leap forward for WYSIWYG, greatly expanding its capabilities and strengthening its position as a comprehensive production solution.”
What advances have been made to the Cables feature and how will this aid end users?
“The new Cables feature gives users the ability to easily add Single Cables, Multicables, and related components, such as twofers, quad boxes, and breakouts to their WYSIWYG projects. Each cable object is driven by a Profile, which defines its attributes and properties. These Profiles can be saved for future use, shared across multiple WYSIWYG installations, and only need to be configured once. Built-in options for Tolerance and Rounding allow for precise cable length calculations within the Cable Spreadsheet, while a convenient Daisy Chaining tool, designed much like a Quick Tool, makes it easy to link fixtures together. Altogether, these tools form the foundation of the first release of the Cables feature.”
How will this benefit the user experience?
“A variety of nearly 60 new, realistic people models have been added to the Library, featuring different poses and styles of clothing. New Particle Effects have also been added to the Library, including confetti, spark machines, and multiple types of fireworks, such as Comet, Flash Pot, Gerb, Glitter, Multi-Mine, Multi-Fx, Sparkle, and Starburst, delivering a unique and dynamic visual effect. These effects enable you to plan and visualise more of the production experience by providing an extra layer of realism and visual flair. To further enhance usability, the animation of Particle Effects can now be paused, enabling users to capture precise, high-quality screenshots. Altogether, these updates contribute to a richer, more immersive design environment and give users even greater control over how they visualise and communicate their creative ideas.”
Which standout features will lighting designers and operators enjoy experimenting with?
“Highlights include the visualisation enhancements, the new Color Sketch option, improved truss exports to DWG, and the ability to add textures to Library Objects.”
What has the response been like?
“The feedback has been very positive. End users who have commented on the new Cables feature acknowledge that there’s still room for growth, but they appreciate its current functionality and see strong potential in its flexible and intuitive workflow. One user even remarked, ‘You’ve given me a very dangerous tool here, Dany!’ – ‘dangerous’ in the sense that they now find themselves happily spending even more time working in WYSIWYG!”
