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Elumtools Plugin for Revit 2014

3 REPLIES 3
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Message 1 of 4
levitd
1636 Views, 3 Replies

Elumtools Plugin for Revit 2014

I am currently investigating new lighting calculation software packages for our office (we currently use Visual, which is... not so great), just wondering if anyone had any experience/insight into the elumtools Revit plugin (we're in Revit 2014)?


If so, how would you rate it? Does it tend to slow files down? How does it do with worksharing? We primarily have separate architecture, M, E, and P revit files linked in to each other, so I'm a little concerned that working in my E file it won't be able to pull the right information concerning textures and reflectances from the architecture file.


I appreciate any advice you can give. Thanks!

3 REPLIES 3
Message 2 of 4
adam.jw
in reply to: levitd

I have experience with using ElumTools and it is a fantastic add-in. It uses the same engine as agi32, which is Lighting Analysts industry-standard lighting calculation engine. 

 

It beats the pants out of the free alternatives like "LightPro" (hah, pro!) and "Visual Pro" (hah, pro!).

 

So to respond to your questions:


@levitd wrote:

If so, how would you rate it? 


Fantastic. You're lucky that you are looking into it now. The first couple years of its existance were a bit buggy and took some tweaking to get the results you wanted.


@levitd wrote:

Does it tend to slow files down?


It doesn't. Well. Revit slowness can be difficult to diagnose. But upon installing and using it, I haven't noticed any slowness on top of the norm.


@levitd wrote:

How does it do with worksharing


Works fine. If you own an element you own an element just like normal worksharing. By default, it caches calculation results locally in your "C:\Users\*yourusername*\AppData\Local\Lighting Analysts\ElumTools\Calculations" ---- I have not experimented with pathing that calculation folder to a network location that is accessible by everyone, but I am sure it is possible. This could mean more than just YOU would have access to the calculations.

Capture.JPG

 

EDIT:

Turns out you can't put the calculation files on a network directory. Shouldn't matter though. Since the parameters for the calculation (and the last calculation run) are stored in the Space/Room with shared parameters that ElumTools inserts.

Capture.JPG


@levitd wrote:

We primarily have separate architecture, M, E, and P revit files linked in to each other, so I'm a little concerned that working in my E file it won't be able to pull the right information concerning textures and reflectances from the architecture file.


It will work fine. They've really improved things in recent versions (thanks in part to the more developed Revit 2014 API). It should pull the materials from linked geometry without issue.

However, if you do run into problems. My suggestion is to create a seperate model called a "Lighting Analysis" model. Which would be a copy of the architecture model. This will allow you to modify the construction of the model if you ever run into a problem where ElumTools has trouble interpreting geometry (I've seen architects do really weird things to build their models, and sometimes you have to "un suck" what they've done to get ElumTools to work correctly).

 

----------------

 

By far the coolest, neatest, most begged for addition to ElumTools has been daylighting analysis. This is available in regular old agi32 --- but what sucked about it is it required you to learn an entirely new 3d modeling environment to really get the results you desired. Because so much of the work is done for you with a nicely constructed architectual Revit model, those problems go away. You just throw your light fixtures in, make sure you have the correct IES file, double check on the materials and click "Calculate Space/Room" --- it's amazing.

 

Please watch this YouTube video for more information (one of the gotchas is how Revit walls are constructed):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xn2W299mlnM

 

____________________________________________________
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Message 3 of 4
bbrovont
in reply to: levitd

I cannot say enough about the benefits of Elumtools vs Visual!  We previously used Visual for lighting calcs, and I switched completely over to Revit and Elumtools about a year ago.  The one thing to pay attention to is making sure that the materials you are using for walls, floors, etc., have the right reflectance values set.  Another benefit is having renderings of the spaces you are running calculations in, and being able to use those for presentations when bidding jobs.  Also, I have found that with the accuracy of the AGI calculation engine, we are actually installing less fixtures in spaces than we previously did, and our customers are very satisfied.  So, to sum all that up, Elumtools is well worth the investment, and I personally consider it a critical part of my toolkit.

Message 4 of 4
levitd
in reply to: bbrovont

Thank you both for your responses, very helpful! I've been playing around in the trial version and it seems like it could be a very powerful tool. As a newby to the industry, it's great to be able to get an accurate rendering to get a better feel for the space.

 

Another question for you guys: have you had any experience doing calculations on renovation projects? From what I can tell, ElumTools pulls in material information from all phases of the project (demo, existing, new construction), which is, obviously, not good. Is there a way to filter your materials so it only picks up existing and NC? My view that I'm applying the calculation in is already filtered in that way, but for whatever reason it picks up the demo'd walls etc.


Thanks!

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