Lighting Workflows - Tips & Tricks

[scheerd]

This forum post will be updated now and then with Tips and Tricks to help smooth out your usage of Insight Lighting, to configure custom analysis types, avoid common pitfalls, and help get support.

Please also refer to the ‘Lighting Workflows, Bugs and Wonks’ forum post for known issues and workarounds.  This posting will be updated occasionally with newly-discovered or fixed bugs in new releases.
https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/lighting-solar-analysis-forum/lighting-workflows-bugs-and-wonks-post-...

1. To run an analysis on a custom area:
   Lighting uses all Floor objects on a Level to generate analysis points.
   To analyze a small area of your building:
   Create a new Level at the same elevation as the desired analysis area.
   Add a single Floor on the Level bounded to the desired analysis area.
   Select only this Level in the Run New Analysis dialog.
   
   
2. Daylight Factor analysis:
   Daylight Factor is a general term meaning the percentage of illuminance at a point compared to the illuminance on an unobstructed horizontal plane (like the roof of the building).  It can use any sky or time/date, but is normally done using the CIE Overcast Sky model at the September equinox at noon, for which the luminous distribution of the sky is not affected by time/date.
   Note that there is a bug in the named ‘CIE Overcast Sky’ model, but the Daylight Factor sky model uses the proper CIE sky model.
   
   The Daylight Factor sky in the Illuminance Analysis type in Lighting uses a CIE Overcast Sky model normalized to a constant sky emittance of 100, so the point results values will be a percentage of available illumination, or in other words the ‘daylight factor’ as a value 0-100.  In LAR the values are labeled with the native 'lux' units, but this should be read as '%'.
   
   1. Select Lighting > Run New Analysis
   2. Choose the Illuminance Analysis type, and select the Levels containing interior floors to be analyzed
   3. Select the 'Define Analysis Times...' button next to Date/Time, then select your sky model appropriate for your jurisdiction.
       Date/Time has no effect on the Daylight Factor Sky.  If using another sky model, select one or two date/times.
       Date/time will affect the overall emittance of the sky (except DF Sky) via the values for DNI and DHI. 
       GHI is an internally-calculated value, though you can enter your own known value for documentation purposes. 
       Select 'Use Weather Data' or enter your own values.
   4. Thresholds are used for results in schedules and summary results. 
       Visualization in plan and 3d views use the color settings for the Analysis Display Style, which can be changed after generating results.
       If using the Daylight Factor sky, we recommend setting the lower threshold to your minimum DF (eg '2' or '3' as 'lux' scale). 
       Values in the Analysis Display Style can be set for fractional values.
   5. Run Analysis
   6. When viewing results, LAR defaults to a generic Analysis Display Style in the 3d and plan views. 
       These styles are set up for normal illuminance values, so will need to be adjusted if using a 0-100 DF Sky model.
       If using the Daylight Factor sky, the default style will show all red, as the DF results values are all < 100. 
       Open the Analysis Display Style editor, and adjust the thresholds to identify any lower, upper, or intermediate values you
       want to visualize, and use a 'Ranges' color mapping. 
       Remember that the colors will be used for all point values less than the color value.
   
   
3. Simulation speed, checking run status in detail:
   The actual analysis on the servers is very fast, but with the increasing popularity of LAR, queue waiting times have increased significantly and account for most of the wait time for results much of the time.  Doing runs early morning or night (US time) will have shorter queue times. 
   The Analysis List dialog in Lighting shows how many of the Floor Jobs have completed, but this does not reflect queue times. To check the queue status and progress, go to the online Rendering Gallery (View > Render Gallery), where you can also preview results for each Floor object (ie ‘job’) submitted.  The naming convention is by Revit Model GUID (not user-friendly, but FYI), and new runs will be at the top of the list.
   
   
4. Previewing raw results for free before accepting results in Revit:
   In the online Rendering Gallery (View > Render Gallery), you can also preview raw results with a default color range. It’s not very user-friendly, but often you can identify model problems there before you pay for them in Revit.  The naming convention is by Revit Model GUID (not user-friendly, but FYI), and new runs will be at the top of the list.  Each ‘image’ preview represents one Floor object (ie ‘job’) in your submission.
   
   
5. BIM best practices, materials management:
   https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/lighting-solar-analysis-forum/lar-best-practices-for-bim/td-p/7502514
   Be sure to check out the best practices docs attached and at the post above.  It outlines ways to validate the model before submitting a new analysis, how to manage cloud credit costs, and how to handle and validate materials properly.
   
   
6. Materials definitions:
   In addition to the Best Practices doc above, attached here is an Excel Macro Workbook that will help you figure out the RGB values to use in the Appearance properties for glazing or opaque materials.  Remember that the modeled thickness of the glass in Revit (not the thickness of the glass specification that it represents), and the modeled number of panes in Revit (not the number of panes in the specified window) do impact RGB values.  Enter the modeled values in the workbook.
   Modeled number of panes is almost always ‘1’, and modeled thickness of the glass in Revit should ideally be between ½” and 1” (12mm to 25mm) to get the best resolution/range of transparencies available.
   
   
7. Log file and support requests:
   When reporting issues to the Forum or to Autodesk support, always include the log file from:
   C:\Autodesk\RevitDaylighting folder or
   %temp%\RevitDaylighting folder.
   This helps us see where the process breaks down.  Your account ID, but no password, is in the log file, in case you want to obscure that.
   Note that in some cases this folder is not created due to permissions issues, so if that folder does not exist, manually create the folder, then log files should be generated automatically each time a run is submitted or results are generated.
   
   
8. Sharing results with other users:
   Analysis Results are stored in the cloud indefinitely for past runs.
   Current Analysis Results (last click of Generate Results) are stored both in the cloud and in Revit Extensible Storage.
   Extensible Storage is saved with the model, so the 'current results', which is the run in the Analysis List dialog with the '*' in front of it, can be regenerated from Revit memory any time by any user.
   So to share results with another user, Generate Results for the run you want to share, save the model, then share the model with the other user.  They will be able to regenerate the results, manipulate room schedule properties, etc, indefinitely, until they choose another set of results, in which case the stored Revit results will be overwritten.
   Note:  If the other user runs a new analysis and/or generates results for a different run, the results for runs from other users will no longer be available, as they will be replaced in Revit memory with the new results.  Any non-current results need to be downloaded from the cloud, which requires authentication for the user who owns them.
   
   
9. Visibility of analysis grids:
   Analysis Display grids do not respect section box, so we provided a checkbox in the Analysis Results Properties to control visibility of Level results in 3d views.
   Select the Analysis Results surface.
   In the Properties panel, select the Edit button in Results Visibility.
   Each level has a separate Analysis Results Schema in the list, and a Visible checkbox.  Uncheck levels you are not interested in.
   
   
10. Results units and alternate metrics:
    In the Properties panel mentioned above, you can also choose other results metrics to display using the Analysis Configuration dropdown.
    In the Results Visibility panel, you can choose alternate units, and define different Styles for each Schema/Level.
    
    
11. Grid size:
    The only options for now are 12" and 72" for some analysis types, or defaults of 24" for sDA and 12" for Solar Access.  We've had requests to provide custom grid sizes, but it's a difficult feature to implement, as it intersects the cloud costing and display and results management.
    If you have some specific requirements for your regulatory agencies, let us know the standards, and we may add some other variations.