Any progress on Lighting Control Panels?

[dtiemeyer]

It has been a couple years since there has been much discusson on here about lighting control panels. Has the software made any progress, such as in v2016r2? 

Does anybody feel they have a 'elagantly functional workaround'?  If so, please describe/post/etc.

Thank you!

Dustin

[alan.quinn]

I understand that development is looking into many of the open limitations with panels. If you can supply more information I will try to narrow the field to a particular case and report back. I'm not aware of all the changes in 2016V2, but again if I can zone in on a particular limitation I'll let you know.

Thanks for posting.

[dtiemeyer]

Hi Alan,

At the most fundamental level, we need to be able to have & easily access multiple connectors in a family. Such as a 2 gang switch box where each switch controls a different group of lights that may or may not be on the same circuit.

Then, we also need to be able to have lights be able to be powered by both their primary power source and an alternate 'emergency' power source. Ideally this can happen on the same connector.

As far as "Lighting Control" panels, I'm not really the right person to ask.  A lighting designer can tell you the specifics of how these work. I'm just a CAD/BIM Manager trying to make a 'smart' piece of content that can be schedule in a way that is 'data driven' and not just a dumb-autocad-linework schedule inside Revit.

Cheers,

Dustin

[alan.quinn · Accepted solution]

Thanks for the additional information. All of what you want/need are currently logged and development is looking for ways around these limitations. I'm assuming most will require code changes, some form reading the internal notes a lot more than others.

Like the plumbing part of MEP the lighting side has come a long way and its only going to improve more as time goes on. Unfortunately for now we need to play the wait and see game. I understand this is not idea but at the moment its all that I can offer. Please let me know if you have any follow up questions or comments.

[Anonymous]

Our workflow is this: I created two families, one "Lighting Control Panel" and one "Lighting Control Relay". Both are lighting devices. I place 'x' number of relays on the face of the panel, creating a new unique type for each panel. I then circuit/switch the relays as though they were standard wall switches and use a lighting device schedule filtered by Type Name so that it includes only the relays associated with that panel. The rest of the fields in the panel (other than panel/ckt) are text fields or y/n parameters that identify the various functions and area served of the system (eg. occupancy y/n, photocell y/n). Not perfect, but it works.

[dtiemeyer]

Hey @Anonymous,

I agree that probably there is no 'silver bullet' inside Revit for LCPs right now. I actually went a slightly different direction, I didn't bother with linking the relays/switches at all, but instead just created nested families that could generate a schedule as we like to see it. When the 'multiple connectors in 1 family' issue gets fixed by Autodesk, then I can just add connectors to my families, and create a 'true BIM' with it. As of right now, the families generate the schedule but are not linked to the lighting systems.

The solution actually ended in a different post, about schedules, and I've added a link in case you care to investigate:

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/revit-architecture/schedules-with-sub-sections/m-p/6036494#M109004

Cheers.

[Anonymous]

My only objection to that solution is that you misspelled "whisky".