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Wednesday, April 17, 2019

Introducing the MEPPP Universal Lighting Fixture Family for Revit

We recently rolled out an updated version of CTC Software's MEP Productivity Pack (MEPPP). One significant development on the electrical side is around lighting fixtures. Over the 8+ years this product has been sold, a lot of customers (electrical engineers and contractors) have requested an un-hosted version of the content. I don't like the idea in principle, and we would almost never use them in our multi-discipline practice here are LHB, but there is always the exception (e.g. architect working in 2D AutoCAD). The main issue deflecting effort in this develop was that we would essential need two families for every fixture; face based and level based (aka un-hosted).

I am happy to report we were able to develop a hosted and un-hosted set fixtures in a single family. It even has a native, non-nested, light source to making modifying the photometry simple and facilitate a smooth workflow for lighting analysis (using ElumTools, for example).

BTW, we have been collaborating with Steven Bunker on this content. A electrical engineer and Revit guru I met in an Autodesk beta meeting! He is fairly active in the Autodesk Forums - click here for that.

Keep reading to learn more...

Introduction

This family can represent a hosted, un-hosted, recessed, semi-recessed, surface mounted and pendant light fixture.

Family features:
  • Can be ceiling or level hosted (aka un-hosted).
  • Native light source (not nested).
  • Critical & Life Safety graphics toggle.
  • Type parameter for Surface Mounted and Semi Recessed with corresponding Semi Recessed Depth parameter.
  • Ceiling Height and Suspension Length parameters.

Rectangular Universal Lighting Fixture

The following images highlight this lighting fixture family’s functionality (click to enlarge).



This option shows the fixture hosted to the ceiling, but Surface Mounted. Note, the fixture automatically offsets based on the fixture Height parameter to become surface mounted.



Hosted to ceiling with Semi Recessed checked, which moved the fixture based on the Semi Recessed Depth value.



Ceiling hosted, with a Suspension Length value entered to offset the fixture downward.



The next image produces the same results as the previous example, except the fixture is not hosted to the ceiling, because Place on Level is checked.



This fixture functions properly in ElumTools for point-by-point illuminance calcs as seen the following two images.




Here is a video I made for the user guide, which highlights how this lighting fixture works in Revit.







Industry Standards and MEPPP User Guide

Most of the information above is from the MEPPP user guide. This 270-page guide can be downloaded for free, as I mention in this post: Promoting Industry Standards for Revit MEP plus Free User Guide, Shared Parameters & More.



Manufacturer Partnerships

Speaking of industry standards, we would love to work with lighting fixture manufactures to, both, use these parameters and nest your geometry on a "universal template" we have prepared for just this occasion!

For BIM Chapters updates, follow @DanStine_MN on Twitter or connect on LinkedIn

I also write blog posts for Enscape - a new paradigm in rendering, animation and VR for AEC.
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