This example provides a how-to for a basic interior space using Lumen Designer. For many users, this is the type of project they create most of the time. For these projects, our users just want a quick verification of the number of luminaires and light levels. A rendering is not a primary concern; however, a simple one might be helpful to communicate to the client.
Follow along, as we guide you through this project:
Start Menu |
After Lumen Designer starts, the user is presented with the Start Menu screen. This is helpful to start new projects and open recent projects. For this project, we can use the Quick Start Interior button. |
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Quick Start |
The Quick Start Interior screen is designed to create your project using one screen. The model, the lighting, and the calculation grid can all be created using this screen. Lumen Designer will even determine the quantity of luminaires required to meet your design criteria and automatically create a layout. |
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Lighting Product Selection |
You can also select the luminaire type you'd like to use on the project. Lumen Designer can import all the major photometric file formats (including IES, EULUMDAT, CIE, TM14, etc).
You can also access the included product libraries from participating manufacturers. Designer's product libraries will soon include more than 100,000 lighting products. |
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Quick Start |
The Quick Start screen allows you to select from several footprints and ceiling types. You can specify the average surface reflectances in the room and your target light level.
For the lighting, after you've selected a product to use, you can specify the mounting type - recessed, suspended, or at a fixed height. Designer will place luminaires at the appropriate positions automatically. You also can review the included candela plot and efficiency rating.
You're now ready to create the space, simply click the Create Room & Lighting button. |
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Model plus Layout |
Presto! The room geometry, the calculation grid, and the lighting layout are all created for us.
Lumen Designer determined the number of luminaires required to meet our criteria and automatically created a layout.
The lighting layout in this case is a row/column array that you can edit - changing the quantity and spacing as needed. For this example, the default layout is suitable.
NOTE: If all we were interested in was point-by-point illuminance levels at the workplane, then we'd just click the calculate button to obtain the grid results. |
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Results |
The lighting summary for all the calculation grids in the project are shown at the bottom of the screen.
You can also view the Area Summary for the current room on one of the Designer tabs. This is helpful to track watts per square foot (or meter) and quantities. |
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Optional
At this point, if we're just interesed in the light levels in the empty room, then we're done. However, let's add some more realistic materials, a few interior objects, and render the space.
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Add Object |
Optional: Add an interior object - in this case, a desk.
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Object Library |
Accessing Designer's Object Library, allows us to select from pre-existing objects (desks, chairs, etc).
This library is customizable and can be shared across a network. Perfect for importing new CAD objects. |
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Adding Objects |
Once the objects have been added to our Object Palette, they can be dropped into our room via a mouse click (or two clicks to define a rotation as well). |
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Material Manager |
Optional: Select real world materials for the room. |
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Materials |
If you know what materials are in the room (beyond average reflectances), you can use Designer's Material Manager to select and edit these materials.
This is also allows you to create photo-realistic renderings. The included material library can also be linked to an even larger library on the Internet. Select and download materials online - including entire paint libraries from select manufacturers. |
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Layer Manager |
Access the Layer Manager to tell Lumen Designer which surfaces will use the new materials we selected. |
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Assigning Materials |
In this example, we're selecting the 2'x4' Suspended Ceiling material for our Ceiling layer. |
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Rendering |
Now we're ready to calculate.
Click Calculate using the default settings, wait about five seconds on an average computer, and click the Rendering button. |
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Hybrid Rendering |
This view can be further refined using Designer's Hybrid Rendering feature. This "smooths out the jaggies" to produce even more accurate renderings. |
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Summary
This example provides a how-to for basic projects via the Quick Start screen. In many cases, this allows projects to be created, calculated, and analyzed in just minutes.
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