I'm looking for a revit plugin to run daylight simulations that can be submitted for LEED 2009. Has anyone found great software (ideally a free download) that can run LEED compliant simulations? Will Revit MEP work? Also, I've seen some posts about IES - which version of IES are people using: the toolkit? the paid version, Virtual Environment?
Thanks!
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Eddy Santosa
Director of SustainabilityDBR Engineering Consultants
376 thumbs up
January 24, 2011 - 11:34 am
As far as I know, there is no plugin that can give you the daylight result automatically. You can try desktop radiance for free software with older Autocad or you can use radiance. SPOT should work but I never be able to install the software correctly. For REVIT MEP, I don't have any experiences in the software but I don't think they have capability related to daylight.
The previous posts mentioned IES refer to photometric data not software name. Regarding for IES, you need the paid version to complete the LEED compliant calculation.
Jill Perry, PE
ConsultantJill Perry, LLC
LEEDuser Expert
440 thumbs up
January 24, 2011 - 12:24 pm
SPOT does not work for LEED because it requires at least one electric lighting zone.
Eddy Santosa
Director of SustainabilityDBR Engineering Consultants
376 thumbs up
January 27, 2011 - 1:43 pm
Thank you for the information, Jill. I relied on their screen schot information (http://www.archenergy.com/SPOT/tutorial6.html) since I can't install the software correctly.
Jill Perry, PE
ConsultantJill Perry, LLC
LEEDuser Expert
440 thumbs up
February 8, 2011 - 5:29 pm
Thanks Eddy, after reviewing your link, I did some more experimenting with SPOT. I appears that it will produce daylighting calculations after you load it with dummy lighting fixtures (.IES files.) I have not tried to submit these results for the LEED daylighting credit yet. I'll let the group know how it goes if I do. Of course, keep in mind that SPOT will only work with completely rectangular geometry aligned with the cardinal directions.
To clarify, I am not talking about IES as in "Integrated Environmental Solutions", I am talking about "Illuminating Engineering Society" files, the standard for photometric files.
Erin, your wish for a free Revit plugin is most likely in vain as a paid version does not exist yet. Oh how nice it would be though! Sadly, lighting calculation software has not kept up with our needs and desires.
Eddy Santosa
Director of SustainabilityDBR Engineering Consultants
376 thumbs up
February 24, 2011 - 9:50 pm
It is nice that you can run SPOT. It's a good simulation actually but i always got error message in certain step.:(