Light fixtures in MEP 2013 - scheduling and circuiting question

[jonh]

The ideal situation for lighting design, in my mind, would follow the steps below:

1.  Lay out fixtures and switches.
2.  Assign fixture types to fixture symbols on the lighting plans.
3.  Once those fixture symbols have been assigned types, the software would be able to determine each fixture's input watts by referencing a standard table/schedule which we've created beforehand.
4.  Circuit the lighting.  The loads would be carried back to the panels "automatically", derived by the wattage assigned to each fixture type.
5.  Generate a fixture schedule.

So far I can see how MEP generates the fixture schedule in step 5, but am missing the other steps.  Is there a way to do this efficiently?  Or do we have to manually assign loads to fixtures as we go?  Also, can changing the fixture type designation somehow change the wattage assigned to that fixture, so circuiting loads stay correct?

Thanks in advance for any input!

[Joshua.Benoist]

Jon,

The current workflow in MEP would have loads entered as you place a device.  They do not currently derive from an external schedule.  First create and place panels and define circuits on those panels from circuit manager.  Then create and add devices.  You can assign a circuit and load from the property palette when adding a device.  The circuits are logical connections to the panel, now you can add wires to graphically show those circuits.  Add panel schedules and device schedules.  The panel schedules will generate from the circuit data entered.  It does not work in reverse.

You do have some great suggestions and I recommend logging that at the feedback site.  The feedback gets emailed to the product management team direct.

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index?siteID=123112&id=1109794

Hope this helps.

Joshua

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[jonh]

Thanks for your response, Joshua.

Unfortunately, that wasn't the answer I was hoping to hear.  Having our standard light fixtures already defined, complete with their input wattages and specifications, would be a huge time saver; defining them as lighting is laid out is nearly the same manual method previously employed using Excel spreadsheets and manual entry, and very slow and tedious.

Would it be possible to have a separate standard lighting template file, with one instance each of all our company standard fixtures defined/tagged in that file with the following information:

• Manufacturer
• Catalog Number
• Description
• Lamp quantity
• Lamp type
• Voltage
• Input wattage

...then copy whichever of these are needed for the project onto the lighting plan?  Would this approach allow me to generate a light fixture schedule based only on those fixture types included in the current project?  And since these would already have input wattage and voltage included in their definitions when they are placed, would I be able to then assign the fixtures to circuits and panelboards, and have their predefined loads be carried back to the proper panels?

Jon H.

[Joshua.Benoist · Accepted solution]

You could do that right inside your template.  Have one of each typical device with loads, etc defined.

It's not something we build into devices out of the box, but that would work.  Don't forget to log that feedback.  They do listen.

Joshua

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[jonh]

Terrific, I'll take that approach.

And the feedback has already been left.

Thanks again!

Jon H.