Continued part 1, part 2 of ebook Mastering autodesk® revit® MEP 2016 presents the following content: electrical design; power and communications; plumbing; fire protection; managing content; solid modeling; creating symbols and annotations; creating equipment; creating light fixtures; creating a project template;...
Part Electrical Design ◆ ◆ ◆ Chapter 12: Lighting Chapter 13: Power and Communications Chapter 14: Circuiting and Panels Chapter 12 Lighting It may be difficult at first to see a good reason for making the effort to include lighting systems in a 3D building model After all, lighting can be represented by drafting symbols, can’t it? Although that is true, a BIM project is much more than just creating a 3D model The data from an intelligent lighting model can be used for analysis and can aid in design decisions Including light fixtures and their associated devices in an Autodesk® Revit® model will allow you to coordinate your complete electrical design by providing electrical load information They can also be used to develop presentation imagery by generating realistic light in renderings Creating a lighting model with Revit MEP enables you to develop your design while generating the necessary construction documents to convey the design intent In this chapter, you will learn to the following: ◆ Prepare your project for lighting design ◆ Use Revit MEP for lighting analysis ◆ Compare and evaluate hosting options for lighting fixtures and devices ◆ Develop site lighting plans Efficient Lighting Design Let’s face it; ceiling plans are one of the biggest coordination pain points for a design team Nearly every MEP discipline has some type of element that resides in the ceiling Using intelligent lighting families will help you, the electrical designer, stake your claim to that precious real estate Using 3D geometry to represent light fixtures means that you can detect interference with other model elements This does not mean that your lighting fixture families will have to be modeled to show every trim ring, reflector, tombstone, or lens The basic geometry is usually enough to satisfy the requirements for model coordination The intelligence put into your families is what will benefit you the most from an electrical standpoint Photometric data, circuit, panel, manufacturer, model, voltage, and number of lamps are just a few examples of the types of properties that can reside in your fixture families You’ll find an in-depth look at creating lighting fixture families in Chapter 20, “Creating Light Fixtures.” Spaces and Lighting For the spaces in your model to report the correct lighting level, they must be modeled accurately If the height of the space is short of the ceiling, the lighting fixtures will not be 334 | CHAPTER 12 LIGHTING recognized as being in the space and thus no lighting data will be seen or be detectable by Revit for that space The room calculation point feature available in lighting fixture families allows you to associate a fixture with a space even though the fixture is not within the bounds of the space See Chapter 20 for more information on this feature A ceiling can be defined as a room-bounding element, which means that it can define the upper boundary of a space If you model your spaces so that their upper limit is higher than the ceiling heights, you can be sure that you are getting accurate volume information for the spaces When you are placing spaces into the model, set the upper limit to the level above the current level on which you are working to ensure proper volumes If you have a space that spans multiple ceiling heights (or floors), make sure you set the upper limit appropriately, as shown in Figure 12.1 Figure 12.1 Space volume and ceiling relationship Upper limit of space object Ceiling Calculated Volume Know Your Limits Phil is getting some strange numbers from his lighting calculations He checks his spaces and finds that the volumes of the rooms at the perimeter of the building are being calculated not to the ceiling but all the way up to the next level A quick phone call to his architect reveals that the mechanical designer has requested that the ceilings in these rooms be set so they are not room bounding This is necessary for accurate heating and cooling load calculations Phil is glad that his fi le is separate from the mechanical fi le because all he has to is set the upper limit of these spaces to match the ceiling heights, thus allowing for accurate lighting calculations Space volume is important to the proper calculation of average estimated illumination within a room The ability to calculate the volume of a space can be turned on or off to help with file performance If you intend to use Revit MEP to analyze your lighting design, you need to ensure that this setting is turned on Do this by clicking the Room & Area panel drop-down on the Architecture tab, shown in Figure 12.2 EFFICIENT LIGHTING DESIGN | Figure 12.2 Room & Area panel Select the Area And Volume Computations tool to access the settings for space volume computations Choose the setting shown in Figure 12.3 when using Revit MEP for lighting analysis Figure 12.3 Areas And Volumes setting Required setting for lighting calculations You can practice placing and manipulating spaces by completing the following exercise: From www.sybex.com/go/masteringrevitmep2016 download the following files: ◆ RMEP2016_Ch12_Dataset.rvt ◆ RMEP2016_Sample_Architecture.rvt Open RMEP2016_Ch12_Dataset.rvt The sample architecture file is linked using the methods described in Chapter 4, “Project Collaboration,” which also describes what to if the link file does not display From the Electrical Discipline of the Project Browser, open the floor plan LIGHTING First Floor Check that the property of the linked file is set to Room Bounding by selecting the link, clicking the Edit Type button in the Properties palette, and selecting the Room Bounding box 335 336 | CHAPTER 12 LIGHTING Click the Space tool on the Analyze tab On the Options Bar, set Upper Limit to Second Floor and Offset to 0’-0’’ (0 mm), and place a space in the large curved room at the right side of the building Create a Building Section view looking north through the large room Open the section view, and select the Space object (You may have to hover your mouse pointer on the room edges.) Notice that the upper limit is below the Ceiling object in the room Check the instance properties of the space, and verify that the volume is computed under the Dimensions group If not, go back and set your model to compute volume by adjusting the Area And Volume Computations settings on the Room & Area panel of the Architecture tab, as previously indicated in Figure 12.3 10 Once again, with the Properties palette showing the properties of the space, change the Limit Offset parameter value to 4’-0’’ (1200 mm) and examine the Volume parameter value of the space You may need to click the Apply button on the Properties palette for the change to take place 11 Change the Limit Offset parameter value to 6’-0’’ (1800 mm), and note that the Volume parameter value stays the same This confirms that the ceiling is acting as a room boundary 12 Open the LIGHTING First Floor plan view, and click the Space button on the Analyze tab to place another space in the room located in the upper-right corner of the building Before placing the space, on the Options Bar, set the upper limit of the space to Level 2, and set the Offset to 0’-0’’ (0 mm) Then click in the room to create the space 13 Create a section view of this room, and select the Space object Notice that the space extends beyond the ceiling This confirms that the ceiling is not set to be room bounding 14 In the section view, select the Space object, and use the grip arrow to stretch the top of the space beyond the Second Floor Notice that the space does not come past the Second Floor Slab, indicating that the floor is correctly designated as room bounding 15 Continue placing spaces in the model, and examine their properties based on the settings you choose on the Options Bar for placement The Reflected Ceiling Plan The first step in creating a well-coordinated lighting plan is to ensure that your reflected ceiling plan is properly set up to display the model in a way that allows you to see all the items necessary to coordinate as you design Adjust the view range settings of your view so that all ceilings are clearly visible, and turn on any worksets or component categories from other disciplines that may contain items in the ceiling You can set the categories from other disciplines to halftone to see your lighting layout more clearly If you are linking in files from MEP consultants, use the visibility control options for linked files to achieve the desired result If you intend to display the ceiling grids on your lighting construction documents, you have to make visibility adjustments to ensure that the building model is displayed correctly Remember that with a reflected ceiling plan, you are looking up at the model, so certain EFFICIENT LIGHTING DESIGN | elements, such as plumbing fixtures or windows, may not appear as desired until you adjust the view range and the Visibility/Graphic Overrides Stairs also display differently in reflected ceiling views than they in normal plan views Also, consider that the order of objects is different than in a plan view A fixture shown below an object in a plan view appears to be above the object in a reflected ceiling plan view This may have an adverse effect on your construction documents Another method for displaying ceiling grids on the construction documents of your project is to create a reflected ceiling plan view that shows only the ceiling objects This view can be placed on a sheet in the same location as the lighting floor plan view When placed onto a sheet, the view can be snapped to the same location as the floor plan view so you can be sure of the alignment This allows you to display the model correctly as a plan view and still be able to see the ceiling grids or surfaces For best results, you should place the ceiling plan view on the sheet first and then the lighting plan view on top of it There is often debate between architects and electrical designers as to whose model should contain the ceilings Ceilings are not always required in early project submittals, so the architect may not get around to modeling them when the electrical designer needs them This may prompt the electrical designer to create ceilings in their model in order to begin the lighting design, which can cause coordination issues after the architect begins designing the ceilings in their model Having duplicate information in multiple models can be a recipe for error The electrical designer would have to keep the ceilings in the electrical model coordinated with the architect’s ceilings and would have to ensure that all model views were displaying the proper ceilings This extra effort defeats the purpose of using a BIM solution such as Revit MEP and hampers the effort to achieve a coordinated project delivery because it adds another level of manual coordination that creates more opportunities for error You may use the option of creating reference planes in your model to host your lighting fixtures temporarily When the ceilings are placed in the architectural model, you could then re-host your fixtures to them Another option is to use nonhosted families in your project Because you cannot replace a nonhosted family with a hosted one, you have to make the decision to use hosted or nonhosted Lighting fixtures that are modeled in the architectural model are another thing to consider Many architects like to create lighting layouts for their design to get a feel for how the rooms will look with lighting fixtures in the ceiling or to create renderings If the architect uses 3D families to represent the lighting fixtures, this can cause problems for the electrical designer when it comes to using the linked model for hosting Lighting fixtures in the architectural model will most likely cut a hole in the ceiling where they are placed An electrical designer who attempts to put a light fixture in the same location as the fixture in the linked file may not be able to so because there won’t actually be a ceiling there There is also the chance that a face of the fixture in the link hosts the fixture in the MEP file So if the architect deletes the fixture in their file, the fixture in the MEP file will not have a host and will not respond to changes Early in the project, the architect and electrical designer should agree on who will model the ceilings and in which model they will reside They should also coordinate which types of families will be used if the architect intends to place lighting fixtures in the architectural model If they need to be modeled in one file initially, they can be copied and pasted into another file if necessary Another option is to use the Copy/Monitor tool to copy the lighting fixtures from the architectural model The ultimate goal is to have one ceiling design that all disciplines can use for layout and coordination 337 338 | CHAPTER 12 LIGHTING Lighting Worksets When you’re working in a model file with other MEP disciplines, it is best to create a lighting workset to distinguish model elements that would belong to that design system It may even be necessary to create multiple worksets for lighting systems Doing so will allow you to divide your lighting design into separate systems (such as interior and exterior) or by floor levels This can aid you in controlling the visibility of groups of model elements and can also help multiple users work on different sections of the lighting model at the same time without interfering with each other’s designs Lighting Analysis Because you are placing light fixtures for the purpose of a layout that is coordinated with other disciplines, you can also get design information that will help you make decisions on the types of lights to use You can use the power of the scheduling capabilities of Revit MEP to create a schedule of the spaces in your model that shows the lighting fixtures used and the lighting criteria in which you are interested You can review this schedule as you place lights into the model to see whether you are making the right choices for lighting fixtures Figure 12.4 shows a simple version of this type of schedule The last column is a calculated value that shows the difference between the required lighting level and the actual level We’ve applied conditional formatting so that a difference greater than foot-candles causes the cell to turn red Because there are no lights in the model yet, none of the spaces has the required lighting level, so every cell in the column is red Your goal as a designer is to achieve a schedule with no red cells in the final column Figure 12.4 Sample lighting analysis schedule Prior to using this schedule, you should assign a target lighting level for all the spaces that you will analyze Create a project parameter to be used for your targeted lighting level This should be an instance parameter so that it can vary from space to space Set the discipline of the parameter to Electrical and the type to Illuminance Group the parameter in the ElectricalLighting group so that it can be easily located Give the parameter a name such as Required Lighting Level so that the intended use of the parameter is clear You can create this project parameter in your project template file for use on every project if desired Remember that you LIGHTING ANALYSIS | can use project parameters in schedules, but you cannot create an annotation tag for them, so if you want to use the parameter in a tag, use a shared parameter For more information on creating parameters, see Chapter 6, “Parameters.” Once you have established a parameter for the target lighting level of a space, you can create another type of schedule to associate standard lighting levels with certain types of spaces This is not a schedule of building components but rather a key that will assign a target lighting level to a space based on the type of space This is known as a schedule key It is worth pointing out here that shared parameters cannot be schedule keys, so be careful when trying to define these To create a schedule key, you use the same tool that you would use to create a regular schedule and the following: In the New Schedule dialog box, select Spaces as the category to be scheduled At the right side of the dialog box, make sure you select the radio button Schedule Keys before naming the schedule to indicate its use The key name that you choose becomes an instance parameter of all the spaces in the model The parameter is located in the Identity Data group of parameters Choose a name that clearly identifies the purpose of the parameter, as shown in Figure 12.5 Figure 12.5 Creating a new schedule key for spaces Click OK in the New Schedule dialog box to access the Schedule Properties dialog box Key Name is added as a scheduled field by default, as shown in Figure 12.6 On the left side of the dialog box, select the parameter that you created as the target lighting level for your spaces and click the Add button to include it in the schedule These are the only two fields required for this schedule, and there is no need to format them or adjust the appearance of the schedule because it is used only for analysis Click OK to create the schedule The schedule does not contain any data rows At this point, you need to build your key for lighting requirements Click the Insert button on the Rows panel of the Modify Schedule/Quantities tab and select the Data Row button to create a row in your schedule 339 340 | CHAPTER 12 LIGHTING Figure 12.6 Schedule Properties dialog box Change the name of the key in the schedule to that of a common type of building space Add the appropriate lighting level for that type of space in the second column of the schedule, as shown in Figure 12.7 Figure 12.7 Schedule key data input 10 Repeat the process of adding rows, creating space types, and assigning lighting levels until your schedule contains all the space types you require for analysis of your project, as shown in Figure 12.8(a) You can create a comprehensive list in your project template file for use on future projects Also consider adding the actual Space Type parameter as shown in Figure 12.8(b) Whether you add it in your project template or at any stage of the project is entirely up to you Figure 12.8 Schedule keys with required lighting levels (a) (b) 768 | INTERFACE • LIGHT SWITCH SYMBOL connectors, 578–579, 579 parameters, 577–578 interface See user interface interference checking in fabrication, 666 ducts, 284, 284 symbols, 360–362, 360–362 Interior Tick Mark parameter, 707 internal views not for publishing, 683 interoperability, 115 2D data, 116, 116 DXF files, 116–117 MicroStation 2D DGN, 116 plans sections and elevations, 119–128, 121–128 for standard details, 117–119, 118–119 3D data See 3D data Intersections option for pipe routing, 317 Invisible Lines style, 611 IRC files, linking, 106–107, 107 Is Reference parameter, 470, 471, 590, 599 Itemize Every Instance option, 211 J joining geometry, 466 joint fittings, 451–452 junction boxes, 362, 363, 606, 607 Justification Editor, 293, 293 K Keep Readable option, 613 Keep Text Readable parameter, 500, 500, 504 Key Name field, 201 keyboard shortcuts fabrication, 666 overview, 27–29, 28–29 keys, schedule creating, 339–341, 339–341 overview, 201–203, 201–203 L labels See also annotations copying, 504 format options, 511–512, 511 line work, 512–513, 512–513 parameters, 602, 602–603 symbols, 499–500, 500 titleblocks, 637–640, 637–640 working with, 509–513, 510–513 lamps, 569, 572, 577 Larger Of Connector And Calculated duct constraint, 298–299 latent heat gain, 228 lateral movement of ceilings, 344 layers, CAD export settings for, 699–700, 700 exporting, 104, 105 loading, 101–102, 102 layout details, 616 ducts, 285, 289–290 extending, 296, 297 fabrication creating, 669–671, 669–671 editing, 671–679, 672–678 lighting site, 350 Layout parameter, 616 Leader/Border Offset parameter, 704 leaders, tags, 512–513, 513, 602 Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification, 238, 245 Left option for reference planes, 471–472 Left/Right views, 592 legends, templates for, 714 length devices, 591 equipment, 550 fabrication parts, 674, 674 Length Option setting, 669, 670 less than signs (