Illu

uminancce Rende
ering in Revit-Q
Quick Sta
art
This
s quick sta
art guide wiill give you a high lev
vel overview
w for how to
t configure illuminan
nce simulattions
usin
ng the Ren
nder in Clou
ud (RaaS)) features in
n Revit.
What is illuminance and
d why is itt useful?
minance iss a measurre of how much
m
light falls on a surface.
s
It is useful fo
or determin
ning whethe
er or
Illum
not there is enough lig
ght to perrform diffe
erent activities (like reading, office
o
workk, or drafting).
Illum
minance is measured in lux or fo
ootcandles (1 footcand
dle = 10.7 lux).
You
u need approximatelyy 50 to 10
000 lux, or 5 to 100
0 foot-cand
dles for acctivities insside a building
dep
pending on the activityy. An illuminance rend
dering show
ws you whe
ether your lighting design meetss the
requ
uirements o
of the spacce, and it allso helps yo
ou understtand how much
m
of thiss light youll be able to
o get
from
m daylightin
ng.
For a table of illuminance
e values forr common tasks,
t
see the Autode
esk Sustain
nability Worrkshop .
ylighting pe
erformance
e depends on the dessign and th
he day, tim
me, and skky condition
ns. Illumina
ance
Day
rend
derings for represen
ntative time
es offer a way to understand
u
the perfo
ormance o
of a space
e for
day
ylighting. Fo
or example
e, the LEED
D daylightin
ng credit (8
8.1) requires 75% of re
egularly occcupied spa
aces
to have
h
daylig
ght illumina
ance value
es between
n 10 and 500
5
foot-ca
andles in a clear skyy condition
n on
Sep
ptember 21 at 9am an
nd 3pm. Oth
her metricss like Daylig
ght Autonom
my aggrega
ate illumina
ance valuess for
the entire yearr. For more
e informatio
on on meas
suring light, see the Au
utodesk Su
ustainabilityy Workshop
p.
mmary: Illu
uminance Rendering
g in Revit
Workflow Sum
he View ribb
bon
1. 1.From th

sele
ect Renderr in Cloud.

be prompte
ed with the following screen. It may
m take a few seco
onds for the
e dialog bo
ox to
2. You will b
appear. S
Select a 3D
D View for the illuminance rende
ering. You can selectt one or mu
ultiple view
ws to
render at the same time. The 3D
3 views in
n the dialog
g box corre
espond to the
t 3D view
ws you crea
ated
in your project (See Setting Up
p Your Revit Model forr Illuminancce Renderin
ng later in this
t
playlistt).

3. For Outpu
ut Type

select Illuminance.

4. After sele
ecting Illum
minance, yo
ou will be prompted tto select th
he Locatio
on/Date, Sk
ky Model, and
Legend S
Settings. Work
W
throug
gh these tabs to set th
he simulatio
on settings for the rendering.

a.
a Locatio
on/Date
The loccation for th
he illuminance renderring is alwa
ays taken from
f
the Revit
R
Model Location. You
can learn how to set
s the loca
ation for you
ur project on
o the Speccifying the Project
P
Loccation page.
e to be use
ed in the re
endering ca
an be set in
n the dialog
g box. Alterrnatively, all 3d
The datte and time
views ccontain a setting for th
he date an
nd time, and this setting can be used auto
omatically. This
may be
e a setting used
u
from a previously
y conducte
ed Solar Stu
udy , or a date
d
and tim
me used sim
mply
to visua
alize shado
ows in the Revit 3d model
m
view. You can choose
c
to use
u those settings
s
forr the
renderin
ng by checcking the bo
ox below th
he date field. These settings,
s
along with th
he location,, will
be used
d to dictate the positio
on of the su
un in the ren
ndering.
Be sure
e that yourr time is set using th
he 24 hourr clock (i.e. 0:00 den
notes midniight and 15
5:00
denotess 3pm).

b.
b Sky Mo
odel
The Sk
ky Model tab
t
feature
es 6 differe
ent sky mo
odels for th
he illumina
ation rende
ering, and also
allows you
y to spe
ecify the su
uns intensitty (irradian
nce). Use th
his tab to select
s
the sky
s model that
best suits your nee
eds and en
nter irradian
nce values appropriate to your lo
ocation.
Good sources for weather da
ata with irra
adiance vallues are Grreen Buildin
ng Studio, where you can
ad CSV fo
ormat weather data fo
or your Revit project location, or
o the DOE
E weather data
d
downloa
site. Se
ee more abo
out how to do this in Sky
S Modelss & Irradian
nce Values.
c.
c Legend
d

In the L
Legend tab
b you can set:
Units
s (Foot-can
ndles or Luxx) the me
easure of lu
uminous flux per unit area
a
o Lux
x is the metric or SI un
nit equal to
o one lumen
n per squarre meter.
o Foo
ot-candles is the Engllish or IP unit equal to
o the illumin
nance cast on a surfacce by a one
ecan
ndela sourc
ce one foott away.
Scale
e Range:
o You can choo
ose to speccify the minimum and maximum values
v
o Alte
ernatively, you can se
elect Autom
matic to ha
ave the sca
ales range set based on the
min
nimum valu
ue and maxximum valu
ue (95th perrcentile) ca
alculated in the simula
ation with 10
pro
oportional subdivisions
s
s.
Scale
e Incremen
nt:
o By default, a linear
l
scale
e is used with
w 10 prop
portional subdivisions based on the
t range
cho
osen.
o If y
you choose Logarithm
mic, the sca
ale will be logarithmic
l
c so that you can more
e easily
visually disting
guish betw
ween valuess in the low
wer portion of
o the range while stilll capturing
ues.
verry high valu
o T
This scale is particularrly useful when
w
you se
elect an A
Automatic range
r
beca
ause its
important to
o be able to
o distinguis
sh between zero and 2,000
2
lux fo
or interior lighting design.
W
With a linea
ar scale, the
e Automattic range often
o
renders these crritical values within the
e
ssame color increment.
o T
The human
n eye can fu
unction ove
er a huge ra
ange of illuminance va
alues and
d a logarith
hmic
sscale betterr representts how we perceive
p
levvels of brig
ghtness.
See the A
Autodesk Sustainabilitty Worksho
op for more on measuring and pe
erceiving lig
ght
5. Set the im
mage size to set the
e resolution
n of the ren
ndering. No
ote that the
e resolution
n will influe
ence
how manyy cloud credits the ren
ndering willl cost you. Y
You can fin
nd more infformation here
h
.
u have com
mpleted you
ur selections, select Start Rende
ering.
6. When you
ur renderings are com
mpeted you will be nottified with a pop up window
w
in th
he lower co
orner
7. When you
of the Re
evit screen, and by email
e
if you
u selected that option
n. You can
n view the renderingss by
selecting Render Ga
allery in the View ribbon from Revit.
R
You will
w need to
o login to Autodesk
A
36
60 in
a
the images. Your
Y
Autode
esk 360 acccount is th
he same as
s the accou
unt you use
e for
order to access
Revit.
n re-renderr the same scene usin
ng differentt illuminanc
ce settings directly fro
om the Ren
nder
Notte: You can
Gallery, witho
out using Revit
R
(it will use the same geo
ometry, ma
aterials, and camera view from the
ginal Revit rrender). Se
ee Rendering from the Render Gallery
G
late
er in this playlist.
orig

Topics in this section

Sky Models & Irradiance Values
The validity of any simulation is only as valid as the inputs. This page will describes the sky model
and irradiance inputs available for illuminance simulations in Revit.
Rendering and Re-Rendering from the Render Gallery
After launching a cloud rendering or illuminance simulation from Revit, you can view and edit it
directly from the web on the Render Gallery.
Revit Settings for Illuminance Simulations
How Illuminance Rendering Works in Revit
This is a new technology, heres a glimpse at whats under the hood. Autodesk hopes to release
additional validation studies and documentation as the tool matures.
Electric Lighting Resources
You can use the illuminance simulation engine in Revit to analyze both daylighting and electric
lights. Here are some resources on how to set and control electric lights in Revit.
Using GBS Weather Files to get DNI & DHI settings
You can find valid values for direct normal and diffuse horizontal irradiance values from the
weather files that are built-into Autodesks energy analysis engine, Green Building Studio.
Parent topic: Performance-based Design Studies