Creating new lighting fixture families from a base file

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MARTHA HOLLOWELL ORCUTT: Creating new lighting fixture

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families from a base file.

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In this video, we're going to create two separate but similar

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lighting fixtures using a face-based family

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file that's been set up with the correct parameters.

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We will nest in the fixture geometry

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and apply the correct photometric IES file

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to complete the fixtures.

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I have two lighting fixture families open

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that contain just the fixture part of the element.

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One has square geometry and the other

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has some circular geometry to it.

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Now I want to create new lighting fixture families

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by nesting in the geometry families

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into a previously created base file.

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So I have here my template file as you can see here.

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This contains the light source, the electrical connector

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as well as the necessary parameters.

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So first of all, I'm going to save as, file save as a family,

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and I'm going to go ahead and name it lighting fixture

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circular surface mount.

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I'm also going to go ahead and open the raft level

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view before I do anything else.

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Next, I'm going to go into my circular fixture geometry

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and loaded into the project.

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So in the load into projects dialog box,

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I select my new name, click OK.

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And you can see, it always wants to place it

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on the vertical face, not sure exactly why.

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But what I want to do in this case

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is place this fixture on the work plane.

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So I come in here and I'm clicking on my intersections

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and click Modify.

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And you can see in my front view that I

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do have my electrical connector in the right place

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but I know my light source isn't right yet.

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So first of all, I need to place the light source

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on the edge of the light fixture.

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The light source won't go through any kind

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of solid geometry.

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So I am going to align that, I'm clicking align,

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selecting the top of my lighting fixture,

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and then I'm pressing tab to make sure

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that I'm getting the shape handle

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or the reference line of my light source.

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And then I'm going to go ahead and lock that into place.

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The next thing I need to do is actually change

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this light source.

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I'm going to light source definition

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and I want this to be a photometric web.

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So I'm going to select that and click OK.

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It's still not quite right and what I need to do

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is assign the correct web.

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To do that, I go into family types,

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scroll down to my photo matrix, and select my photometric web

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file, and click the browse button.

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This opens a list of the IES files that come with Revit.

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IES files are typically provided by the lighting manufacturer

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to match the specific fixture you're creating.

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The IES file includes the intensity

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of the light source and the geometry of how the light comes

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out of the lighting fixture.

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Now I happen to know that I want to use this particular fixture

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right here so I'm going to go ahead and select that one

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and click open.

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I'm going to click apply so you can see the photometric web

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file.

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It's not in the right angle so I'm going to come and change

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my tilt angle to negative 90.

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Remember that when you're working

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with a face-based family, you're kind of upside

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down so I apply that.

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And yes, that's got the right place so I'm going to click OK.

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You can check my raft level.

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I'm going to also look at my 3D view of this.

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So I now have my first light fixture

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that has all the different parts set up so that I have my model,

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I have my photometric web file set up, I have my connector.

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Everything's ready for this particular one

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so I'm going to go ahead and save it.

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So let's start another one.

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It's going to be very, very similar to this one

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so I'm going to file save as this family

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and I'm actually going to come in here

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and change it from circular to square so my lighting fixture

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square surface mounted.

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Next, I'm going to unlock the light source

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from the nested light fixture and then

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I'm going to delete the light fixture.

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I'm going to go into my square fixture geometry,

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copy that into my new family file,

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place it on the work plane, and let's

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take a look at the front view.

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There it is, I want to go ahead once more

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and align this so I'm going to select

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the top of my light fixture, my light source,

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and lock that in place, save it.

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And I've actually got my next light fixture already

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because it uses the same light source photometric file.

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Now you can see how efficient it is

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to create light fixtures using a face-based template base

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file that includes the light source, electrical connector,

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and necessary shared parameters.

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And then you can nest in the appropriate fixture geometry.