Recommened software for doing the Interior and Daylighting analyses.

I have not used any of the programs you have listed on a regular basis to give you any type of professional assessment. I have been using a program  called LightStanza on a regular basis for our projects attempting LEED. It's a web based program where you can import Sketchup and Revit models into to simulate multiple daylighting metrics. It generates a complete LEEDv4 report for option 1 and 2 and will also do one for LEEDv3.  It has many other options such as animations and single point in time calcs. I like that it has the light redirecting film, such as that made by 3M, as a glazing option. I think its the first program to offer this. 

We are currently advising a project with the intent of following LEED v4 NC and analyzing the possibility of the IEQ Daylight credit but it seems confusing and only limited to the simulation and measurement options.
Is there any additional possibility to analyze this credit 'manually' without the need of extra budget/time of a professional who knows about daylight simulations or for the measurements?

Might sound demanding but... any recommended FREE software (no free trial version) that can run the analysis required for either option 1 or option 2 of the Daylight credit?  Could Sefaira or Insight 360 be the ones?

The only manual method is the measurement method. Insight 360 can do the daylight analysis for LEEDv4. I have talked to autodesk professional and they have indicated that the latest version of it can meet the LEED requirements.  I'm currently running a model through Formit and then into Insight to test the function of it. Sefaira states that it can do sDa and ASE but i have never used it. 

Thank you Todd.

I would highly recommend that you check out LightStanza. They have made great efforts to follow the IES LM-83 modeling standards. Many of the other software packages that you mention do not provide blind controls, which is essential to the definition of sDA. Some software packages do not allow you to model wall thickness, or define multiple window transmittances. LightStanza is definitely the easiest to use and the most versatile software for daylighting that I have experienced. 

Hi all,

We are currently doing some v4 projects daylight simulations for option 2. For all our v2009 projects we used DiaLux software and used AutoCad to get compliant area. We successfully achieved this credit that way. However recent client has flagged a question that in V4 DiaLux cannot be used for simulation in option 2. We are grateful if someone could please shed some light on this issue as we are very close to submit our first v4 project design phase.

Thanks in advance.

If anyone has specific questions related to the Autodesk Insight Lighting tool for Revit, I am the primary developer of that tool, and I'd be glad to share tips and information about the tool, engine, and results process.  There have been some great improvements recently to the engine and glazing materials in R19 and R20 to drastically increase speed and usability, and we've updated the sDA dialogs for more flexibility to address LEED changes for v4.0 and v4.1, as well as adding Daylight Factor for BREEAM calcs.

The addin is free at https://insight360.autodesk.com/oneenergy/Landing/Download.

Analysis runs are pay-as-you-go, and there is a free threshold and two levels of detail/price options for sDA/ASE runs.

Hi David, I am trying to run the daylighting analysis LEED 4.1 using Revit. Is that possible? I have updated my lighting plugin for Revit 2019 but I don't see the LEED 4.1 analysis from the menu. Please advise. Thanks

Lighting analysis is currently not built in to Revit, it requires the Insight addin available from https://insight360.autodesk.com/oneenergy/Landing/Download.

Note that the new version uses a new analysis engine with different requirements for defining glazing visible transmittance (TVis) than documented for prior versions of Insight Lighting in the Forum.  Default Revit materials are a very good start, but when you want to define very specific glazing performance, please refer to the Forum post here:

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/lighting-solar-analysis-forum/critical-up...

Thanks for your response David, I have the latest version of Insight on my Revit 2019. I have cleaned up floors and rooms and sent the model for LEED v4.0 ASE and sDA analysis, however after multiple time of trying it keeps getting errors and I am not able to get any results. Do you know what might be the solution and how I can find out why this is happening? Is there any way that we can troubleshoot this?

Thanks,

Zahra

Hi David, I have tried using the Insight plug in on a number of projects. It works great but I seem to get a lot of errors where it charges me cloud credits but does not actually generate the results. Some of the projects have been large and I am wondering if there is a recommendation to only do one floor at a time? I see the most potential for our workflows in Insight, but I cant get over the burden of spending cloud credits only for the analysis to not work. There seems to be no reimbursement method available. Is there someone, maybe you, that I could have a phone call with to talk through best practices?

Question for David, The insight plugin works great for LEED specific criteria. Any plans to a a CHPs profile or even allow a custom run for sDA / DA max?

Thank you David. We are doing a LEED project and would like to get the daylight credit. We understand the Insight plug-in is free but we need to pay for each analysis download. May we know the what fee schedule is ?  Thanks

Hi @David

 We are having trouble with a daylight analysis (getting reasonable results ) using Insight on our revit model and I wondered if you may be able to have a look

This hasn't been updated for a number of years, and I'm finding daylight analysis to be more and more important. Here's the list I've assembled so far and looking for more:

Climate Studio (Rhino), Insight (Revit), Cove.tool (Revit), LightStanza (Revit). Sefaira still seems to be a thing, but these other are on the rise.