Render Lights from Linked Electrical Model:

[Anonymous]

Hello,

I am trying to set a View Template that will render lights from an electrical consultant model.

Previously, we have had to use our own lights and turn off the visibility of the linked model lights.  I hope to fix that.  

All lights in the consultant model seem to have all necessary parameters (two screen shots attached).  I changed the transparency of a lens material to 100 to see if that helped -- nothing.

There has to be a way, right?  

[cbcarch]

Try using Copy/Monitor of the consultants light fixtures into your model.

[barthbradley]

I'm wondering if it's got nothing to do with the lights, but instead, a host element blocking the Link's lights -- like a ceiling maybe?

[cbcarch]

If possible, open the Linked model and do a quick test rendering. Do the lights render?

Or, if you can't open it--can the engineer do a quick test and render a scene?

Also, try to greatly exaggerate the exposure settings in your view--try using Realistic View mode--under Graphic Display Options, enable Photographic Exposure and experiment with it. Of course, make sure Artificial Lights are

selected under Lighting Scheme.

[Anonymous]

Thank you both for your replies!

No, nothing blocking the lights.

The screenshot attached is a quick render from the consultant model.

I did manage to get something when I changed the lens material to 100 percent transparent and messed around, although the lights seemed to project up.  It might just be the families they are using.  I will continue to play with it and reach out to the electrical consultant and see if they have any luck/ideas for rendering their lights. 

I did try to copy monitor the lights and had trouble selecting the lights.  I could select the grids from the linked model just fine.

I seem to be missing the "Coordination Settings" in the ribbon.  Any ideas on that one?

Thanks again, all!

[cbcarch]

Yes--I suspect it is something with the consultant's light fixtures.

Can you grab one of their light fixture families, load into a New Project, and see if it renders?

[Anonymous]

Yeah, definitely the families.  I grabbed a few of their lights and only one seems to render, but not properly.

There are five lights in the attached screenshot.

I will reach out to the consultant.

Thanks for your replies, Cliff! 

Forest

[cbcarch]

Yes--a lot of times it has something to do with the light source being behind a deflector/lens in the family.

-Check the one that would not render, and try moving the light source.

-Another solution I've seen is to apply a luminous material to the lens--to make it glow in the scene. 

-Could also be a missing IES file with one of the families.

Hope these things help get it sorted out.

[barthbradley]

Could be a Materials thing too. Linked file material definitions and assignments will determine the material appearance in the host project. Maybe transferring materials between projects will resolve. Just a thought. 

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

I bet you their light ins in the geometry of the fixture. Engineers don't care about lights and renders and actually Revit does not really either.

Please attach a screenshot of the geometry or the family itself.

Just looking at their light level (11400 lumen) you can tell this was not meant to be rendered and it contains wrong information. A 4' fixture should not really spit out more than 5000 lumen unless it is industrial or really high.