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Hi,

I'm using archicad version 16 solo with the latest release of the maxwell plugin (installed yesterday). can anyone please tell me if IES lights can be used with maxwell in archicad. i've struggled most of the afternoon to find this without any success.

many thanks
ben

Hi Ben,

Yes it can be used and the process is quite easy to set up. When you create you light material make sure the color of the emitter is not black otherwise it will not be turned on.
Than just pick a Ies profile as usual and you should be done.
Make the emitter surface as simple as possible (don't try applying g this material to a light bulb) like a plane. This should work.

Bernardo

Hi Bernardo,

thanks for this, I'll give it a try...


cheers
ben

Did it work?

I usually apply IES profile to small sphere objects (radius 1cm) modelled in Archicad.
When the IES profile refers to a spot light it is not easy to rotate the sphere inside Studio (after exporting the model from archicad)
We need an object (written in GDL) that could help us to place a rotate easy the IES light inside archicad, before exporting.
I tried to do it in the past but I didn't get the expected result. In fact, after exporting in Studio, the local coordinate system is not kept ...
Any suggestion?

Could you send me a sample file?

Márton

I made some more tests.
Some time ago there was a bug in the plugin. It didn't export correctly the lamps with their local coordinates system. Now it is ok.
The problem is to have a preview of the IES profile inside archicad and a consistent translation to mxs.
How can I attach a picture? It seems I'm not enabled to do it ... Why

Let's try via Dropbox
https://www.dropbox.com/s/o59nbkwu95lsk ... in%201.png
Does it work?

Yes, I can see the image, thanks.

So the problem is, that while we can attach an ies emitter easily to the object, it is very difficult to rotate-position it in Archicad. Am I right?

Márton

Yes, exactly. We need some object that shows a preview of the ies profile inside archicad and that keep the same orientation with the translation into mxs

Some times ago I started using the .ies file format in order to understand whether, making a GDL object, I can read the photometric data and represent it as lines starting from the center of the object along each direction described into the .ies file with a length showing the intensity of the light for that direction ...
This was my idea ... but It remained and it is still an idea ...

it should be something similar to this
http://www.helios32.com/Images/IES_View.jpg

I will check what are the possibilities with this....

Any development on that?
I'm trying to perform a lighting simulation on a huge building.
I put all my spheres in archicad and applied the materials/emitter in Studio ...
When I want to change the IES profile of an emitter, well, it's a nightmare! because some IES are defined using certain axis, other IES using other axis ... editing and rotating in STUDIO it's a nightmare!

It would be great to have a IES object in archicad, specifically coded to pass from Archicad to Studio ...

Ok, I can add an emitter Library object (but it will happen only for V3 plugin versions)
Under V3 we already have some Maxwell specific library parts, I will create something for lights.

Márton

... ok
Before (me) dying along an impossible task ...
is it technically possible to write the code so that it works for AC16 toward MW2.x or is there some limitation in the exporter (from AC16 to MW2.x) that prevent a correct orientation of the IES/emitter object in Studio?