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| FAQ:
Working with Microstation and Photopia |
The
following information may be helpful to those using Microstation
to create 3D models for Photopia 1.5. You should first
be familiar with the information in Chapter 4 of the Photopia
User’s Guide regarding the entity types that Photopia
accepts, the layer naming conventions, surface orientation
and luminaire
orientation within the global coordinate system. Creating Acceptable
Surface Entities:
- 3DFACE
entities in DXF files are equivalent to Type 6 entities
in Microstation. (Note, you can use Ctrl-I to
query a surface type in Microstation.)
- Type
8 entities in Microstation convert to POLYLINE MESH surfaces
in DXF files. Surfaces of revolution can be constructed
using "Construct surface or solid or revolution"
in Microstation (see AutoCAD transition help for AutoCAD’s
REVSURF command). You can create an extruded surface
by using "Place slab" in Microstation (see AutoCAD
transition help for AutoCAD’s TABSURF command). It
is best to construct surfaces that are infinitely thin
so as to create only the inner, optically active surfaces
for the optical analysis.
Layer
(Level) Naming Conventions:
- You
can name drawing levels in Microstation so they correspond
to layer names Photopia will recognize by using View
Levels
-> Add Level Name. Note, this is not required,
but it removes a step in the import process if the layers
can be automatically assigned a type.
Surface
Orientation:
- You
may be able to assign SAIL's to surfaces using Type 3
entities.
Ensure that the Type 3 entity has a linetype of DASHED. If
you cannot make DASHED Type 3 entities, then you may use
the surface activation methods available within Photopia
(the second step in the import process).
Working
with Lamp Models:
- You
can import lamp DXF files directly into your Microstation
drawings. Be sure to scale ALL lamp layers appropriately
if you are constructing your luminaire model in units other
than inches. Note, since you may not know the original
layer names for the lamp levels, you may have to assign
the layer types within Photopia for the lamp levels.
It is only necessary to assign a type to the lamp axis layer.
This is the layer that contains 3 small lines in the center
of the lamp model. Each line is of a different length
and represents the X, Y and Z axes of the model. There
is also a text entity on the lamp axis layer that is the
name of the lamp model DXF file.
- Photopia
1.5 allows you to import lamp models at the same time
that
you import luminaire geometry. This makes it unnecessary
to import the lamps into your Microstation models.
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