Lighting Softwares - Working

[Charz]

I would like to know how the lighting software such as Dialux works,

Does this software tells the number of fixtures to meet the required lux or do we have to keep inserting luminaires on a trial and error basis till the required lux is achieved?

Which method of calculation is used in these type of softwares, Lumen or point to point method?

 

[Rock86]

Dialux is nice. You can set parameters for the autofill option, for your design. We usually do the calcs based on footcandles, not lux, but you can get whatever information you are looking for.

 

[paulengr]

Lighting is driven by radiosity not just ray tracing. So a light source first illuminates some surface(s) on the first iteration. Then based on their properties those surfaces both absorb and reflect some light so they in turn become additional sources. After a few iterations things calm down but this gives you the idea. Then it’s a simple matter to either run calculations on the FC/lux appearing on a given surface (wall, floor, etc.) or to insert “virtual” surfaces (100% transparent) and use those as “light meters”.

That’s the idea of how it works. Open source radiosity software such as Blender has been around for a couple decades. Using it for lighting design is straightforward. However using software such as Dialux has a very steep learning curve if you aren’t already pretty familiar with 3D Cad and rendering software.

Personally if you are doing a fairly good size lighting project since LED is still very new and the old rules about watts/square foot are meaningless most lighting manufacturers will do lighting design services for good customers.

 

[tortuga]

I have been looking into ods studio https://www.ods-engineering.com/tools/ods-studio/