Prepare
Before starting the Import process, it's a good idea to check which Inventory your have active and enabled, and to add the required Fixture Types and Modes

At the very least, enable the inventories where your Fixture Types are stored, so they'll be visible in the Fixture Type matching screen.

It's also a good idea to Activate an Inventory where you have at least "Edit Item" Permissions. This way, if you do need to Add a Fixture Type or Mode, you'll have the correct permissions to the active Inventory.

And finally, we recommend already having the Fixture Types and Modes added to one of your Enabled Inventories. It avoids the potential errors that can come from trying to create Fixture Types or Modes without the correct permissions. Best case: your import will fail entirely, worst case: you'll get a partial import.

You should also find your CSV file and double check that the information exists. Fixture Number is required, and if you are adding fixtures instead of only updating, then Fixture Type is required also. We'd also recommend Position, otherwise every fixture will be added to the active Project Position.

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Import Options
The first screen of the import process lets you choose how you handle your file, and matches the file columns to Fixture attributes.

Use the Back and Next buttons in the top right corner to move to the next screen when you are happy with your options

Replace all existing Fixtures in the show
Wipes all existing fixtures in your project. Useful for your import didn't quite go as expected and you'd like to start from scratch.

Update existing fixtures, matched by fixture number
This option checks for existing Fixtures in your project, and updates the fixtures instead of adding new fixtures.

Fixtures are matched by Fixture Number. Fixture Numbers found in both your Project and CSV file will be updated with whatever info is in your CSV file.

Fixture attributes that don't exist in your CSV file, or are blank in your CSV file, won't be updated.

Fixtures not found in your project will be added to your Project like normal, assuming they have at least a Fixture Type (Updating doesn't require a Fixture Type like normal, letting you update will simple files, with only a fixture number and the attributes you care about)

Skip lines before fixture info starts
How many lines to skip at the top of your CSV file before we start looking for information. This is useful if your file has headers or other non-fixture information you'd like to ignore.

Column Assignments
Here you match the columns in your CSV file to the attributes for your fixtures.

Fixture Number is always required, Fixture Type is required when adding fixtures instead of updating, and Position is strongly recommended to organize your Project.

One the left hand side, the contents of the top cell of each file column is displayed. Generally this would be your file header, but may be the first fixture's information.

Use the drop-down menus in the right column to match the Column to a Fixture Attribute.

You can also select "Ignore" from the drop-down to ignore the column entirely.

Sample Data
The first several rows of your file are shown here, to help you determine the options above.

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Positions
Assuming you have Position information in your CSV file, the next screen lets you match positions in your Project to positions in your file.

The left-hand column contains the unique positions found in the CSV file

The right-hand column has drop-down menus with every position in your Project. Select the appropriate position from your Project for each Position in the left-hand column

The default right-hand value is "Create a Position", which will create a new position based on the text in the left-hand column. This is generally a good default choice, since before any position is created, we look for existing positions to use instead. This means: if you already have a position in your Project that matches the data in your CSV file, the "Create a Position" option will use the existing position instead of creating a duplicate

The only time you should really need to manually match positions is when the positions in your Project are named differently than the positions in your CSV file, and you'd like to keep the position from your Project

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Fixture Types and Modes
Here you match each Fixture Type found in the CSV file with the correct Fixture Type from your inventory. You can also create Fixture Types and Modes on the fly, however you may be trying to add Types and Modes to Inventories you don't have proper permissions in

To avoid skipped fixtures and aborted imports, we recommend making sure you have all the correct fixture types and modes in your inventory already.

Similar to the previous screens, the left hand column lists all Fixture Types found in your CSV file, the next column has drop-down menus containing each Fixture Type found in your Enabled Inventories

We'll try to find a match for the Fixture Type text from your CSV file, and set the Fixture Type drop-down to the correct fixture. If no matches can be found, then we default to "Create New Type", which lets you enter a FixtureType name, a Mode name, and a Mode Footprint to quickly create a Fixture Type

If you do select an existing Fixture Type from the drop-down, you'll see an option to either create or pick a Fixture Mode for the Fixture Type.

Finally, this is the best place to ignore non-fixture information stuck in your CSV file. Select "Ignore this type" from the Fixture Type drop-down to ignore any row of your CSV file with matching Fixture Type text. This is useful if you forgot to skip a header earlier, or if your CSV file from vectorworks contains rigging points and cable marks

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Review and Confirm
Here you can review the final information before importing into your project. Uncheck the checkboxes in the first column to ignore that specific fixture.

Press the Accept and Import button to finish. Depending on the amount of Fixtures in your file, it may be a long process.