Electric Lighting Help Guides

Introduction – Electric LightStanza

For a 2.5 minute overview of the software, check out this video:

Other LightStanza Help Guides

Tutorial Videos

Support Forums

LightStanza has a community support forum, where users can ask and answer questions.
To ask a new question about LightStanza, click here. To look for existing answers, click here.

Still Have Questions?

If you are unable find the answers you are looking for, feel free to contact us directly.

LightStanza Office: (720) 722-0771 (during business hours M-F 8-5pm MT)
Email: support@lightstanza.com (24 hours, 7 days a week!)

Electric Lighting

Introduction

LightStanza offers a robust way of modeling electric lighting from concept to construction drawings. LightStanza is flexible so there are several workflows design and engineering teams can use. Some teams will prefer to place fixtures in Revit, while others want to augment Revit, SketchUp, and Rhino drawings with fixtures. Drawings that start in Revit format are best supported right now.

Keyboard Shortcuts

When clicking + dragging luminaires:
1. Holding CTRL will let you move on the z-axis (up and down)
2. Holding SHIFT will deactivate the snap feature so you can make more fine-grained movements
3. Holding SHIFT will also deactivate snap when you are rotating a luminaire with the rotation arrow handle
When placing a luminaire:
1. Holding SHIFT will deactivate snap
When selecting luminaires:
1. Holding SHIFT will allow you to select multiple luminaires
While luminaires are selected
1. Use the arrow keys to move the selected object(s)
  1. right/left = move on x (red) axis
  2. up/down = move on y (green) axis
  3. shift + any arrow key = move a larger distance on whatever axis
2. DELETE – will delete

The LightStanza Web Application

Overview

LightStanza is a full-featured electric lighting design and analysis program.

The figure below describes a typical workflow of assigning luminaires to run calculations.

1. Set your calculation mode to electric light only. This should be the default for models that were imported from Revit with electric lighting checked.

2. Go to wireframe mode to see all of your photometric webs and IES files.

3. Assign IES files to your fixtures. The fixtures without IES files an be identified in the 3D viewer by red spheres, and yield symbols in the luminaire manager. Not all fixtures have to be assigned to run calculations.

Once assigned, click the name of an IES file to edit in LightStanza’s advanced IES/Family Manager. Here you can view IES file details, BUG ratings, and photometrics, as well as change LLF (light-loss factors), fixture dimensions, and more (see Luminaire Manager).

4. Create new fixtures online and place them in your model.

5. Mark all fixtures that will contribute to Emergency Lighting mode (and set their dimming/power level).

6. Enter the instance manager to edit individual fixture properties. Here you can change rotations, height adjustments, set individual fixtures to emergency lighting, etc.

7. Run calculations in standard mode

8. Run calculations in Emergency Lighting Mode

Generating Results in LightStanza

To generate faster results, we recommend cropping your LightStanza model to your area of interest for analysis:

Navigate to the Illuminance Grids panel on the left-hand panel. Select the “crop” symbol under the area of interest to crop the model to that space. Uncheck the “crop” icon to return to the whole building model.

The Activity Bar (on the right side of your design screen) is where new activities are started, previous activities are referenced, model edits are listed and comparison reports are kicked off.

Renderings/Animations – These come from individual point-in-time renderings and animations. To play a rendering/animation, click the New Simulation button in the top of the activity menu.
1. Camera Tools – You can customize the way you view your renderings in the 3D viewer with Camera Tools. (Hover over the activity you want to see in the activity menu then click the building icon)
  1. Exposure – You can manually adjust the exposure of your renderings in order to increase or decrease the amount of light per unit area. LightStanza uses Reinhard tone mapping for adjusting exposure.
  2. Contrast – Adjusting the contrast of your image will increase or decrease the difference between light and dark in your renderings.
  3. False Color – In the 3D viewer, you have the option to view your renderings in False Color mode for a more quantitative view of your images.
    1. Luminance Bounds – Changing your luminance sets what luminance values each color in your image represents. Adjust this to focus on very bright or very dark areas.
    2. Log Scale – Adjusting your log scale sets scaling of your false color heat map.
    3. Contour Lines – This is another way to look at your false color rendering. Contour lines trace the different luminance thresholds in your rendering, using the false color legend.
      1. Line spacing – Changing your line spacing sets the density of contour lines in your image.
Illuminance Grids – These come in the form of Point-in-time Illuminance Grids and animations. Clicking one of these activity cards will place the result inside of your 3D model.

View model edits – By clicking the “Show model edits” button at the top of the Activity Bar, you can see edits you’ve made to your model in the left toolbar. You can also revert to previous model states using the revert button on a history card, and you can save any state of your design to a new design using the save button on a history card.
Starting a comparison – By clicking the “Compare Activities” button at the top of the Activity Bar, you can compare two different simulations at once by selecting two activities from the list of simulations below.

Starting a new activity – At the top of the Activity Bar, there is a “New” dropdown menu with the following options:
1. Rendering/Animation – Renderings can be made on the fly or from your list of viewpoints in the left Viewpoints panel. To make renderings on the fly, simply move your 3D viewer screen to the angle and location that you want, and when you start a new rendering at the exact spot. After clicking “Rendering/Animation” in the dropdown menu, you will be presented with a new set of simulation options:
  1. Check the “Emergency Lighting Calculation” box under Simulation Options to create a rendering from luminaires designated as emergency. Leaving this box unchecked will create a rendering of all normal lighting within the set viewpoint.
  2. Simulation Quality depends on a list of Radiance settings. These settings will be shown as a tooltip next to the Simulation Quality setting in the header.
    1. “Draft” quality is good for faster simulation
    2. “High” and “Very High” quality renderings will be more accurate for things like reports.
    3. You also have the option to set “Custom” quality settings. Simply click “Show Quality Details” and edit your Radiance parameters directly. You can hide these details by clicking “Hide Quality Details.”
      1. Camera Settings – These settings allow you to adjust several options for you rendering/animation.
      2. Field of View – Adjusting these settings will change the X and Y lens angles. Both the X and Y default angles are 180.
      3. Super Sampling – Setting this percentage determines the original size before scaling to your target resolution. The larger this percentage, the crisper your images will be.
      4. Resolution – Adjusting of the resolution will change the quality, in pixels, of your renderings.
      5. Section Cut – By simulating with a section cut, you can cut into your 3D model to easily view daylight performance in your building.
      6. Analysis Viewpoint – The analysis will be performed at the selected viewpoint.
    4. Camera Settings
      1. Lens
        Perspective lens resemles the way the human eye would see a space.
        Hemispheric lens uses a wide angle similar to a fisheye lens.
        Cylindrical lens has a panoramic look.
      2. Field of View – Adjusting field of view will change X and Y lens angles. Different lenses (above) will have different default angles. The minimum value for X and Y is 1°. The maximum value for X or Y is 180° for hemispheric and cylindrical lenses, and 175° for perspective lens.
      3. Super Sampling has to do with the original size of your images before scaling to your target resolution. The larger this percentage, the crisper your images will be. For speed, choose smaller percentages.
      4. Resolution changes the quality, in pixels, of your rendering.

1. Grid Illuminance – This option will provide electric lighting calculations.
  1. Simulation Options – Leaving this section at its default will produce a normal electric light calculation. Checking the “Emergency Lighting Calculation” box under Simulation Options will provide an emergency lighting calculation activity card.
  2. Grid Settings – “Unit” will adjust the lighting measurement unit between Lux or Footcandle (FC). “Point Spacing” allows you to adjust the spacing between grid points for the calculation. “Scale” allows you to choose a graphical scale to accompany the results.
  3. Simulation Quality depends on a list of Radiance settings. These settings will be shown as a tooltip next to the Simulation Quality setting header.
    1. “Draft” quality is good for faster simulation.
    2. “High” and “Very High” quality renderins will be more accurate for things like reports.
    3. You also have the option to set “Custom” quality settings. Simply click “Show Quality Details” and edit your Radiance parameters directly. You can hide these details by clicking “Hide Quality Details.”
      1. Camera Settings – These settings allow you to adjust several options for you rendering/animation.
      2. Field of View – Adjusting these settings will change the X and Y lens angles. Both the X and Y default angles are 180.
      3. Super Sampling – Setting this percentage determines the original size before scaling to your target resolution. The larger this percentage, the crisper your images will be.
      4. Resolution – Adjusting of the resolution will change the quality, in pixels, of your renderings.
      5. Section Cut – By simulating with a section cut, you can cut into your 3D model to easily view daylight performance in your building.
      6. Analysis Viewpoint – The analysis will be performed at the selected viewpoint.

6. Navigating Activity Panel Tools – The top of the Activity panel holds several buttons to compare, view, and edit your model.

1. Compare Activities – This button allows you to compare two separate 2D reports of simulations that have been run.
2. Intelligent Perspective/Section Cut – This button will allow you to toggle Smart Camera Position and Smart Section Cut on and off for easily viewing grid-based simulation results within your 3D model.
3. Revert Model to Previous State – When selecting this button you will be prompted to select a model state to revert to represented by history cards in the Activity Panel. Once you revert to a previous model state, this action cannot be undone.
4. Make a Copy of Your Design – This button will create a new copy of your model in its current state in the 3D viewer (so if you are viewing a previous state in the model history, the copy will have the properties of that previous state). After selecting this button you will be prompted to name your new design before continuing.
5. Show/Hide Simulation Results or Model Edits – Here you can show/hide cards in the Activity Panel that represent Simulation Results and/or Model Edits.
6. Filter Activities – This button will allow you to filter cards in the Acitivty Panel strictly by the Simulation Type.

7. Viewing Previous Activities – Each card in the activity bar is an individual activity. The cards consist of a few basic navigational elements.

Luminaire Manager

This panel allows users to create and add fixtures, assign and adjust IES files, and set up Emergency Lighting in their model.

Each fixture type in LightStanza can be addressed through this panel.

Access the Luminaire Library
Access the IES Library
Create new light fixtures — ideal for those designing in LightStanza
Fixture type name — can be edited
Number of instances of that fixture type
Adjust the LLF of all fixtures in that family type

Adding a Fixture

Fixtures can be created in LightStanza in various ways:

1. Importing lighting families from a Revit model

2. Creating a new lighting family (without fixture geometry) to hold an IES file – ideal for those that wish to design in LightStanza, regardless of where the model geometry is imported from

3. Adding a fixture that was previously saved into the family library

4. Adding more instances/copies of a fixture already present in the design (via one of the above methods)

Placing Fixtures

You can create, delete, and move fixtures in LightStanza. The following figure illustrates these steps:

1. Navigate to a 2D lighting plan view (recommended – you can edit and create luminaires in any view mode). Use this dropdown menu to navigate between model levels.

2. Click on the fixture you want to move. Right click lets you delete it.

3. Use your keyboard to move the fixture. See keyboard shortcuts above.

4. You can also add and remove fixtures using the top menu and batch selection.

Use an adjustable grid to assist placing light fixtures in the model:

Toggle between 2D plan and 3D model views.
Toggle the grid on and off. Adjust the spacing of the grid.
Move and align the grid while this button is active.

IES File Assignments

You can directly upload an .ies file into LightStanza or choose one from your team’s online library. Upload and assign fresh .ies files, or store them in your LightStanza library for easy assignment and management.

Instance Manager

Each fixture instance in LightStanza can be individually addressed through this panel.

Emergency Lighting

Emergency Lighting is set in the Luminaire Manager to be “on” or “off”. If “on”, you can also assign the output power when in emergency lighting mode. Individual fixtures can be assigned to emergency lighting in the instance manager. Specify regular or emergency lighting simulations in the simulation set-up dialog – easily identify these settings in your results and reports.

Rotating/Moving Fixtures

Individual fixtures can be rotated and moved in the Instance manager, by using the arrow keys (see Keyboad Shortcuts above) or in the model viewer using the colored rotational arrows in the x,y, and z-axes.

IES/Family Manager

This panel allows you to customize your IES file and make adjustments to light source position/orientation within the family.

Features Include:

Candela Distribution viewer
Luminaire classification system viewer
Photometric web viewer
Light Loss Factor: directly enter the number in this field or click on the pencil to get a detailed list of factors to modify
The rotation and location of the light source within the family, and the IES luminous dimensions to match the family

Working with Illuminance Grids

Importing Illuminance Grids from Revit

1. Horizontal illuminance grids will be generated in the LightStanza model per Rooms or Spaces assigned in Revit.

2. Create vertical illuminance grids on the walls of each room or space.

A horizontal illuminance grid will be created in the LightStanza app. You can adjust the height of this using the editing tool in the Illuminance Grids Panel.

3. Adjust the “Room Type” assigned to the grid by clicking on the light bulb.

4. A “Room Type” for that illuminance grid will be assigned based on the room or space type defined in Revit. An illuminance target and whether that target is an average, max or min will be defined based on that room or space type. These conditions are editable for each illuminance grid imported from Revit.

Vertical illuminance grids have been created on each wall within the imported Revit model. Toggle the vertical illuminance grids on and off to customize your design.

Collaboration

You can tag your peers in your designs and result reports.

Revit Plugin

Overview

The most developed electric light modeling workflow is with the LightStanza Revit Plugin, which can be found on our Plugins Page. LightStanza’s Revit Plugin allows design teams to quickly read out relevant geometry, fixtures (optional) and .ies files from a Revit drawing, load this information into LightStanza, try out different concepts, run calculations, and bring results back into Revit and other reporting programs.

LightStanza Revit Plugin is used for:

Bringing in 3D Revit building geometry
Luminaire layout (can edit and add fixtures in LightStanza too)
Assigning IES Files (optional– this can also be done in LightStanza)
Family geometry filtering to reduce model size and improve performance
Selecting spaces, rooms, or cropped (selection) boxes as the unit of analysis and to improve performance

LightStanza Web Application is used for:

Uploading IES files
Mapping IES files to families
Advanced IES file management and manipulation (LLF, resizing IES dimensions to fixture, etc)
Lighting family management
Rotating/Moving/Changing heights of fixtures. Each family instance can be individually addressed.
Setting Emergency Lighting calculation fixtures and levels
Editing surface reflectance assignments (e.g. 80% Ceiling, 50% wall, 20% floor – these defaults can also be applied automatically)
Running calculations
Viewing results in 2D or 3D
Storing and retrieving results
Tagging teammates, others in your company (even those without LS accounts), or others for instantly sharing or publishing your results on the web

Using the Revit Plugin

Step 1. Put Lighting Families into your Revit model (note: you can also add fixtures directly inside the LightStanza application). The lighting families do not have to have an associated IES file, but these will be included in your export if they are present.

Step 2. Move to a 3D view if you are not in one already. LightStanza will use the current Construction Phase, and will include geometry and other data from associated linked Revit files. You can apply section boxes to crop to any region of the model, or let LightStanza automate this for you in the next step.

Step 3. Click “Export to LS” or “Save to disk” on the LightStanza Toolbar

“Export to LS” (1) will send your model directly to LightStanza, creating a new LightStanza design that will automatically open in your web browser.
“Save to disk” (2) will save a LightStanza Data (.lsd) file to your local disk that can be directly loaded into LightStanza.
- This is most useful to share with someone else who has the LightStanza application (without needing to use Revit).
- You can also use this for when you do not have an internet connection and want to upload later, or to save your design in a specific state.
“Start/Stop Tracking” (3) If this is turned on, changes to your Revit model will be automatically sent to LightStanza to keep the designs in sync.
- If you have exported multiple times, only the most recent LightStanza design is updated.
- Changes made while this is “off” will not be sent when turned back on.

Step 4. Check Options.

Name your LightStanza design (1).
If you want to include electric light information, choose “Include” (2). Click the lamp icon to “Exclude”.
“Calculation Area of Interest” (3) allows you to crop your model to a particular level, room or space before uploading to LightStanza. This can dramatically improve export and simulation times.
“Automatically sync changes from Revit to LightStanza” (4) will connect your newly exported design to Revit so that new changes are automatically propagated, keeping your Revit and LightStanza designs in sync, without having to re-upload. This is useful if you want to create, edit, delete fixtures in Revit and only want those changes to propagate. You can turn this option on later as well.
“Filter Revit Families” (5) gives options to reduce your model size and remove model components not relevant to lighting calculations. If you change your mind later, families can be added to your LightStanza design using the “Send Families” button in the toolbar
Create Illuminance Grids Using Rooms or Spaces (6) gives you flexibility on the unit of analysis
Workplane illuminance grid heights are set here (7) . You can also change them within the LightStanza application.
Export vertical illuminance grids on walls or create illuminance grids on ceilings (8).
Only geometry on the current phase in the 3D view (9) will be exported.

Step 5. Your file is uploaded or saved to disk!

Working Between Revit and LightStanza

Syncing Between LightStanza and Revit

Choosing a Workflow: When adding luminaires to your design there are two workflow options compatible with LightStanza:

1. Add all luminaires in Revit and contniually update luminaires in Revit

2. Add all luminaires in LightStanza and continually update luminaires in LightStanza

After making changes to fixtures that were added in BOTH Revit and LightStanza with syncing turned on, unusual behavior will occur; therefore, it is advised to add and adjust fixtures in only one software.

Placing a Luminaire in LightStanza:

Luminaires can be added as a “new instance” anywhere there is a floor below the intended location
Luminaires may be adjusted (i.e. moved within the model or rotated around any axis)

Once the luminaire has been placed in LightStanza:

The fixture will appear as a “Generic Model” in Revit
The “Generic Model” will appear on it’s associated floor plan and reflected ceiling plan in Revit. Adjust the View Range if the fixture does not appear in either
LightStanza will associate specific parameters under the “Generic Model” properties in order to identify the fixture type:

Utilize the “Generic Model” marker and it’s properties to manually place the proper fixture family in the Revit model

Placing a Luminaire in Revit:

A Revit fixture is contained in Revit by a “host,” meaning that the light must be attached to something in Revit (i.e. a 2×4 troffer is placed on a ceiling when that ceiling is set as the “host”)
Lights will remain coplanar to their host in Revit
Lights in Revit can be rotated along the z-axis

Adjustments made in LightStanza may not register all information back to Revit (when the LightStanza to Revit sync is activated); therefore, certain information has been put into schedule details to address this Revit API issue.

Working with LightStanza Parameters

Proration of IES Files

1. Start by clicking “Load LS Parameters” in the ribbon for the LightStanza plugin in Revit

2. You will see LS Parameters appear in the properties of each individual light fixture. Assign the “LS-Luminous Length” as the intended length of that light fixture type.

3. Navigate to the Type Properties of each light fixture type and under Photometrics, assign “LS-IES Basis Length” as the length of the luminous box of the base IES file that will be used in the calculations.

4. In LightStanza, you will see the “Proration Factor: #.##” for each individual fixture instance. For example, this fixture is 16ft in length with a base IES file of 4ft. The IES file of this fixture has be prorated by a factor of 4.00 to create a 16ft luminous box.

4. In LightStanza, you will see the “Proration Factor: #.##” for each individual fixture instance. For example, this fixture is 8ft in length with a base IES file of 4ft. The IES file of this fixture has be prorated by a factor of 2.00 to create an 8ft luminous box.

Assigning Emergency Fixtures

1. Start by clicking “Load LS Parameters” in the ribbon for the LightStanza plugin in Revit

2. You will see LS Parameters appear in the properties of each individual light fixture. To assign a fixture as emergency prior to interfacing with the LightStanza model, use “LS-Emergency” to designate each fixture you wish to mark as emergency. Adjust the emergency output of the fixture using “LS-Emergency Output”.

Marking fixtures as emergency prior to uploading a model to LightStanza will automatically designate those fixtures as emergency in the LightStanza model. These emergency fixtures will be included in Emergency Lighting Calculations.

Sending Schedules from LightStanza to Revit

On the activity card for the calculation information you wish to send back to Revit, click the icon to create a report.

Once in the report file, navigate to the icon highlighted in red in the image below. Clicking this icon will export scheduled information back to the Revit model. Syncing between LightStanza and Revit must be activated for this to occur.

In Revit, navigate to the “Schedules/Quantities” section of the Project Browser. You will see (2) schedules were created from the LightStanza model:

“LightStanza Luminaires” will provide a schedule of fixtures that were used in the model.

“LightStanza Report” will provide a full calculation matrix of illuminance values generated in the specified calculation.

See the “LightStanza Luminaires” schedule below:

See the “LightStanza Report” schedule below:

Adding Lights to SketchUp, Rhino, and Other Modelers

LightStanza allows you to create and place lights into uploaded SketchUp and Rhino Models. Currently there is limited support for placing them in Ceiling View mode since it does not allow for a height offset. Fixtures placed in this mode get directly attached to the surfaces that are clicked.