Lighting questions? Start here

scheerd — Fri, 06 Dec 2019 23:57:23 GMT

Here are some common things to check:

Use the latest Insight (v4.040 as of 11/15/2019)
Get the latest Revit patches for R19 and R20, which fix a bug in the 'new' Glazing UI
ALWAYS run a low-resolution Illuminance analysis type on a single Level first to check that the model is working properly and the materials, Rooms, Floors are working as expected. A small run like this should be free, so you can iterate before risking many cloud credits on large runs like sDA and whole building.
Do not ignore dialog windows from Lighting that show up during the process. These occur when model settings need to be checked or errors likely exist in the model that should be fixed.
Phase and Design Options are important. The _InsightLighting Model View is the controlling view for analysis runs. The visible geometry and the Phase of this view will be used to set the model export and the Phase of the InsightLighting results views (plans, schedules). Only Rooms in the active Phase will be used to process results.
Important: Review the new materials documentation:
Glazing Materials changes for Insight Lighting v4 and later versions
Check that all materials intended to have transparency are defined with 'Glazing' and not some other Appearance asset with a Transparency property.
Important: Check materials 'in use' for Appearance property of 'Self Illumination' turned on. This will provide artificial light to the space.
Review materials visual Appearance by any of all of the following methods:
- Set the '_InsightLighting Model View' to 'Realistic' view mode to show the Appearance properties in the Revit window (other view modes show the 'Graphics' properties of materials).
- Do a RenderInCloud of the '_ILMView' view to review the materials colors and apparent transparencies for free at low resolution.
- Iterate and experiment using a low-resolution Illuminance run on a single Level, which is cheap or free.
All Rooms for the schedules and floor plans must be bounded (have area), checked for Include in Daylighting, and in the main model (not linked).
Only Floors in the main model (not linked) and on Levels selected in the Run New Analysis dialog are used to generate analysis points.
Areas that have a finish Floor element over a main slab Floor ('layered' Floors) will generate double-points for analysis if the Floors are on the same Level. Best is to create a separate Level for finish floor overlays, then do not include that Level in the analysis run.
Floors that are modified with either a slope or Shape Editing points will be flattened (then restored) for generating the analysis points, as we cannot generate sloped point grids.
It's common to use Floors elements for exterior site surfaces. These should normally not be included in a daylighting analysis, and including them will lead to very expensive runs on points that are irrelevant. Best thing to do is to create a new Level for exterior surfaces, move exterior Floors to that Level, and do not include the Level in the analysis
For clerestories, it's typical that designers expect more light than clerestories provide with default settings. To review,
- Change the analysis display style to show the illuminance values below the lowest threshold (default styles show one color below the low run type threshold).
- Experiment with the clerestory transparency and area. Typically clerestories are much more transparent than other windows.
- Change the colors of the ceiling, walls, floors to higher reflectivity For example, changing ceiling from 50% reflective to 80% reflective (more typical) can be the difference between almost no effect of clerestory and lighting more than half the space.

Managing and budgeting costs:

Illuminance jobs, and simple 2-date/time jobs like LEED 2009, LEED v4o2, and Daylight Factor are 1 credit per ~3500 sqft (and free below 12,500 sqft). Low-resolution is 1/3 the price and free below 12,500 sqft.
Solar Access and SDA Preview runs are about 15% more than that (1 credit per 3000 sqft).
Full sDA (LEED v4o1) is about 2.5x of that (1 credit per 1200 sqft).
See #12 and #14 above. All Floor elements on selected Levels will be used to calculate the area for credit cost.

Hope this helps.

David

topic Lighting questions? Start here in Lighting & Solar Analysis Forum

Lighting questions? Start here