Renderings in Revit too Dark?

If you have spent any time rendering, you probably have discovered that the entire process requires a lot of time and patience. After spending a considerable amount of time perfecting your settings and running many test renderings, nothing can be more frustrating than having lighting issues. If your renderings in Revit are too dark or completely black, you should look at some key lighting settings to determine if they are the root cause.

Here are four things to check:

1. Verify that you have the appropriate Lighting Scheme selected for your view (Revit offers six Lighting Schemes). For example, if you select the scheme called ‘Interior: Sun only,’ you will not be able to render your view with any artificial light fixtures.                                                                                               
   
   
2. Verify that your Light Groups are turned on with a checkmark and that dimming is set to 1. Keep in mind that you can only select Artificial Lights when a Lighting Scheme contains Artificial Lighting. For example, if you select the scheme called ‘Interior: Sun only,’ you will not be able to select any artificial lights fixtures. 
   
   
3. Verify that you have selected the appropriate Daylight Portal options for sunlit interior renderings. To select the Daylight Portal options, click EDIT under the Quality setting of the Rendering dialogue box, which will open the Render Quality Settings dialogue box. Next, select which rendering quality you want (Draft, Low, Medium, High, or Best). Click COPY TO CUSTOM. This option will allow you to select the openings you would like to have daylight come through.
   
   
4. If your Artificial Lights are turned on but little to no light is coming out of the fixture, check to see if your lighting fixture family has geometry, such as a diffuser, that is blocking the light source definition. If there is a diffuser, check to see if the diffuser material has a transparency. If the transparency is not selected, or the percentage is very low, you will see little to no light emission from your fixture.
   
   

For more tips and tricks, read our blog posts. For more information on the software solutions, training and consulting IMAGINiT provides, visit the IMAGINiT website.