Lighting Analysis Add-In for LEED Calculations in Revit

By Nicholas Bowley, IMAGINiT Building Solutions

Autodesk has been working hard creating tools to help architects and engineers make intelligent decisions for more sustainable design. One of these great tools is the Lighting Analysis Add-In from Autodesk.

Using the Lighting Analysis Add-In from Autodesk, lighting calculations can be performed in the Revit model. The results consist of a graphical representation of your results, pass/fail notifications, and a deliverable schedule for your LEED submission.

Go to this page to download the plugin:

http://www.autodesk.com/products/lighting-analysis-revit/overview

Click the download link for the appropriate version of Revit.

Locate the Add-In under the Analyze Ribbon in Revit after install.

Place your cursor over the Lighting Analysis Ribbon and hit F1. The help menus go into great detail how to use the Add-In. Here are some instructions to get you started.

The first time you run the Lighting Analysis tool you will get a popup and links to the help menu to explain in better detail how to use the tools. Review the dialogue box to better understand best practices when using these tools; click continue. Do NOT check the box that says “Don’t show this message next time” because it is good to review each time.

Choose which version of the analysis to run, LEED v4 EQc7 opt2 or LEED 2009 IEQc8.1, and which level, or all levels, to run it against. The Illuminance Threshold settings will change depending on which analysis type you select. You will need to be logged into your A360 account since the analysis runs on the cloud and you may need to use cloud credits. Tip: If credits are required, try doing one floor at a time. It may require 0 credits.

You will get a notification in Revit when the analysis is completed. The Lighting Analysis cannot be run again until the first one initiated finishes.

Click generate results on the ribbon to see how the model performed.

In the properties of the view, you can choose view how to display the results. Click generate results while the view you want to display is the active window.

Click on the style to choose another style or change the settings of the current style. Changing the settings will affect other views using the same style.

The view will display results similar to this throughout the entire view.

Take a look at your schedules list in the project browser. Notice there are two new schedules, Lighting Analysis Floor Schedule & Lighting Analysis Room Schedule. These were created automatically. The Add-In also created new shared parameters and filled them in to generate this schedule.

You will want to check or uncheck the appropriate boxes for “Include in Daylighting” and “LEED Regularly Occupied”. This allows it to appropriately include or exclude the correct rooms when determining Pass/Fail percentages. Click generate results to get an updated Results Summary, you do not need to re-run the analysis.

Export your schedules from Revit for use with your LEED submission.

If/when the LEED Credit Manager is released from Autodesk Labs, it will expand on the Lighting Analysis tool so it would be advisable to get familiar with it. Additionally, it would be good practice to make sure the quality of your model and necessary skills will be up to par and ready to use all of the future features of Revit for LEED. More on this after we see the final release from Autodesk Labs.

https://beta.autodesk.com

https://beta.autodesk.com/callout/?callid=69759F88F0804DBEBDFF922000770693