ReLux Vision Manual

Manual

Relux Vision 1.1Manual

© Relux Informatik AG, Dornacherstrasse 377, CH-4018 Basel, Switzerland. Tel +41 61 333 07 70, Fax +41 61 333 07 72, [email protected], www.relux.ch

Concise User Manual Relux Vision 1.1

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Contents I. II. III. IV. V.

Preliminary remark ................................................................ 2 Calculation methods .............................................................. 3 Ray-tracing method Radiosity method Lighting engineering calculations Utilisation method Zonal-cavity method Point-to-point calculation Light simulation Calculations in Relux ............................................................ 10 Relux Professional Relux Vision Entering materials and their colours ..…………...................….... 11 Generate/select new "Material" Calculations ..........................................................…............ 19 'Calculation' dialog page 'Views' dialog page 'Grid measuring areas' dialog page Miscellaneous: 'Additional geometries' Output of results ................................................................. 26


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Preliminary remark Radiance parameters: A revised version of the manual is currently at work. We will publish the final version of this manual at www.relux.ch. This Manual is designed to assist users of the Relux Vision 1.1 light simulation software in familiarising themselves with the field of light simulation. The fundamentals of light calculation and light simulation are briefly explained in order to better illustrate the differences in the way in which these methods are employed. For those making their first move into the field of light simulation, all the steps from the installation of the program through to the output of results are presented and explained in a comprehensible manner. Where mention is made in the text of the light-calculation program "Relux Professional", then this is simply referred to as "Relux", while "Relux Vision" is referred to as "Vision". In what follows, menu entries are designated with � and written in italics, while menu sequences (command sequences) are written with a dash between the individual commands. Mouse commands are designated with � and written in italics. Operating buttons are either depicted in graphic form or designated with � and written out in full between 'inverted commas'. This document is the exclusive copyright of Relux Informatik AG.


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I. Calculation methods Lighting engineering calculations are based on the laws governing the transport of radiation, and hence the transport of energy. Light simulations do not generally employ physically-correct calculation methods. In order to facilitate the user's understanding of the different programs and program functions offered in Relux Professional and Relux Vision, the calculation methods will be briefly explained and their particular features described. Ray-tracing method Ray-tracing attempts to trace the rays of light from a visible section of a picture back to their origin. A picture (view) is divided up into a large number of small elements (picture elements). From a fictitious point of observation, rays are sent from the observer's location (eye) through the picture elements to the surfaces depicted in the scene (room surfaces). The light rays are deflected (reflected) by the surfaces, and then traced further to the next surfaces they reach. This tracing process is either complete when a light source is reached, or is ended once a maximum number of reflections have been achieved.

The picture shows the example of two light rays with their reflections. One of the rays reaches a light source after three reflections, while the other ends on a non-luminescent surface. This means that the first area point in the blue circle is depicted as very dark in the simulation. A greater degree of refinement can be achieved with an increasing number of grid elements (picture elements) and if a greater number of reflections taken into account.


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It is standard practice for this method to be extended in two ways: - By employing scatter, the surfaces can be depicted in a much more natural

manner, making it possible to portray surfaces other than purely reflective ones. This means also observing light rays that fall somewhat outside the direction of reflection to a limited extent. To do this, it is necessary to follow a number of different light rays (splitting) from the point where the light ray hits a surface.

This involves a very pronounced increase in the computation outlay and the number of rays.

- A second way in which the method can be extended is through a division into different spectral ranges; the calculation is worked through separately for blue, green, yellow and red, etc. The consequence is that rays from a blue surface to a red surface are absorbed to a considerably greater extent (lower reflection component) and thus appear darker than the reflection of a light ray from a yellow surface to a white surface.

Reflected without colour Scattered without colour Reflected with colour The computation algorithms for ray-tracing prgrams have now been developed to the point where a combination of b and c (scatter and colour) can be taken into account. Computers additionally have sufficient memory and a high enough computing speed to offer. This calculation method is particularly suited to the presentation of scenes involving a large number of reflecting or shiny surfaces. Its major shortcoming is its incorrect assessment of the energy on the reflecting surfaces – no allowance is made for light scatter, or only limited allowance if the extended version of the method is employed. In addition to this, no lighting engineering units are used, making it virtually impossible to come up with a quantitative statement on the brightness (luminance) of the picture points. A further advantage is the high computing capacity required for each new view of the scene. Each presentation (angle of observation) requires a re-calculation. Radiosity method The second basic method employed for calculating radiation processes is the radiosity method. This works on the basis of the energy conservation law (energy balance). In other words, radiation is partially reflected on the surfaces until such time as all the energy has been absorbed by the different surfaces. This method will only work with fully diffuse areas, however, and it is impossible to portray mirroring and clear window and glass surfaces.


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A prerequisite for this calculation is, first and foremost, a very fine breakdown of the individual room areas into small area elements (dA1 - dAn). These area elements are brought together in an n-to-n matrix and the energy exchange between all the elements calculated. The energy exchange, i.e. the light transmission, is established in the form of transmission factor Fij. The transmission factor is the index for the amount of a luminous flux that is refected from an area in a completely diffuse manner and reaches a second area.

This is the double integral over the two areas (Ai, Aj) with the corresponding angle of incidence and angle of emergence for the light (ει, εj) expressed in terms of the mutually visible room angles.

The n-to-n matrix would mean that nn transmission factors had to be calculated. Since area elements Ai, Aj mutually view each other from the same room angle, the following applies:

From this, it can be concluded that only half the matrix elements need calculating and entering on the matrix symmetrical to the diagonal. By feeding in light from a luminaire or other light sources (daylight), a primary luminous flux (power) is calculated on each area element. By solving the matrix equation, each element has an incident power (luminous flux) allocated to it and, by virtue of the reflectance, a radiated luminous flux. The radiated, reflected luminous flux also leads to a reflected luminance; this can be depicted with a view of the scene,

ij2ji

)A()A(iij dAdA)r(

)cos(cosA1F

ji•π

ε•ε= ∫∫

jiij FF =


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and a brightness-oriented presentation is obtained. The drawbacks to this calculation method are the very elaborate establishment of the many transmission factors. When allowance is made for shadow casting with the relationships between the room angles, this even constitutes a long, drawn-out task for present-day computer systems. Apart from this, only areas with completely diffuse reflection (lambertian sources) can be used for this method. It is not possible to make direct allowance for the influence of colours, and the complete algorithm (reflection) must be re-calculated for each colour of a colour system (e.g. RGB, CMYK) which increases the computing outlay many times over. The positive aspects of this calculation method include the fact that it is possible to employ the lighting engineering parameters (luminous intensity, luminance and reflectance), which then leads to a very high-quality statement on the lighting situation in the room in question, providing that the room areas all have more or less the same diffuse reflection. Lighting engineering calculations The lighting engineering calculation methods were developed with a special view to the lighting engineering requirements. These represented a compromise between the desired level of accuracy and the available computing capacity. Utilisation method

The utilisation method is a reduced radiosity method; it uses only the smallest possible number of surfaces in a cuboid-shaped room. The room is divided up into the three areas of ceiling (upper delimitation), reference plane (lower delimitation) and walls (lateral delimitation). The transposition factors can be determined very easily in this reduced model and the illuminances calculated on the basis of the completely diffuse degrees of reflection. So-called utilisation tables were compiled to speed up the process of lighting planning. The luminaires were classified on the basis of luminous flux components, luminous flux upwards, downwards and on the reference plane. Using a characteristic


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value for the room – room index k – and the reflectances it was possible to rapidly determine the number of luminaires for a specific room. Zonal-cavity method This is an improved utilisation model developed for use on computers. The room is described more accurately through three sub-rooms, and the luminous fluxes from

luminaires to the surfaces are calculated on the basis of their light distribution curves. Proceeding from a standard luminaire configuration (positioning), the luminous fluxes to the floor, reference plane, ceiling and walls are calculated, together with the luminous fluxes upwards and downwards. These luminous fluxes are used to establish so-called "effective reflectances" for the luminaire plane and the reference plane. These values are established by a "utilisation method" (radiosity model) for sub-rooms 1 and 3. As the final step, a utilisation calculation is performed for the space between the luminaire plane and the reference plane, and the effective luminous flux onto the reference plane is calculated. The luminous flux onto the reference plane then gives a "mean illuminance" over the entire reference area. Extending this method, Relux additionally converts polygonal rooms into the equivalent rectangular rooms. These calculations provide an approximate guide to the number of luminaires required. It should be noted here that no allowance is made for shadows or for different degrees of reflection from partial surfaces in Relux. Point-to-point calculation The basis for the point-to-point calculation is, once again, a reduced radiosity model. Not all the inter-reflections are taken into account, but just a limited number. Here again, the reflection is based on completely diffuse surfaces. The calculation runs through one or more iteration steps, starting from the direct illuminances on individual surface elements; the smaller the surface elements, the more precise the result. With the advent of computers, it also became possible for engineers to calculate light distribution, although only in rectangular, non-furnished rooms to begin with. The rooms and room surfaces were divided up into rectangular elements and the central


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point of the elements defined as the representative measuring point.

The direct illuminance (luminous flux) on the surface elements is calculated on the basis of the luminous intensity distributions of each luminaire positioned in the room. Assuming a surface with completely diffuse reflection, it is then possible to establish a luminous intensity (secondary radiator) for this surface element . This luminous intensity is used to calculate an indirect illuminance on all other surface elements. Depending on the number of cycles in the indirect calculation, highly precise results are obtained for the illuminances on the part surfaces.

In order to calculate polygonal rooms with furniture, it is also necessary to make allowance for the shadows that are cast. Apart from this, the part surfaces are not all rectangular, which calls for additional calculation steps. All these factors also led to a considerable increase in the computing time. Major improvements were achieved through a large number of programming refinements and additional memory. This is currently the most common method for calculating lighting systems (simulation). Colour-dependent multiple calculations were also developed here by way of an extension to the computation model. The vast computing times involved, however, have not so far permitted cost-efficient use in planning offices (computation programs).

As a further extension to the method, computation models with surfaces that were not fully diffuse were developed. Not only were the direct illuminances calculated but also the incident direction of the light in relation to the different illuminance components. It was then possible to present the luminance of the surfaces as a function of direction on the basis of reflection models. The resultant indirect illuminances are thus similarly dependent on the incident direction of the light.

The reflection was divided into a completely diffuse, reflected component and a scattered, reflected component. Despite this, no information is available on the reflected object for a presentation, and no object is visible in a mirror. Considerably smaller part surfaces (details) need to be taken into account before this becomes possible.


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Light simulation Light simulations are intended to calculate pictures of buildings/rooms that come as close to reality as possible, and also present them on a screen or print them out on paper. None of the methods referred to so far are capable of doing this, and hence different combinations of these methods have been developed. Mention can be made of:

(1) Ray-tracing with energy observation (2) Radiosity with supplementary ray tracing (3) Lighting-engineering point-to-point calculation with energy-related ray-tracing

Re (1) Ray-tracing with energy observation: Ray-tracing is eminently suitable for high-gloss and reflecting surfaces. An energy observation brings further improvements but this cannot be used to describe scatter on surfaces. Re (2) Radiosity with supplementary ray-tracing: The energy-related observation of areas with a completely diffuse surface will not work for describing reflections; ray-tracing that depicts these surfaces will only show insufficient results for glossy surfaces or areas that are reflected in these. The presentations are already considerably more natural than pure ray-tracing presentations, but will not permit a correct statement to be made on brightness (luminance). Re (3) Lighting engineering point-to-point calculation with energy-related ray tracing Point-to-point calculations with the extensions for colour and directional scatter referred to above are capable of making allowance for a large number of materials in the calculations but only additional ray-tracing will permit the depiction of pure mirrors and transparent materials.


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II. Calculations in Relux Relux Informatik's entire product range currently takes in three computation applications and a number of additional programs: - Relux Professional - Relux Vision Relux Professional Relux Professional is a free-of-charge version. This additionally incorporates planning facilities for sports fields, and can also compute daylight, daylight efficiency, sun-position diagrams and insolation. The furniture database that is additionally supplied can be extended by the user's own furniture collections, while a bitmap of the room plan can be deposited under a floor plan, and other helpful features are also incorporated. This serves as the basic program for the Relux Vision simulation module. Relux Vision Relux Vision is a program for calculating and depicting realistic lighting simulations on the basis of the "Radiance" software developed by EPFL (Lausanne) and the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory (USA). This program has the same user interface as Relux Professional and works in "Point-to-point calculation mode with energy-related ray tracing". Relux Professional already offers input facilities for the spectral reflection properties of surfaces and material allocation for reflecting and transparent elements. The calculation supplies either highly realistic simulation pictures and illuminance diagrams. These calculations can be run through with artificial light and daylight under different sky conditions. Furthermoere get the Relux Professional a new tool to calculate UGRs (UGR = Unified Glare Ratings) from varible positions.


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III. Entering materials and their colours In "Relux Vision", projects are worked on in the same way as in "Relux Professional". A new project is thus set up by pressing the � button in the top left-hand corner:

A floor plan can be generated by pressing either buttons 7 and 8 (see screenshot) in the top toolbar: � 7: Compile a floor plan for an interior room � 8: Compile a plan an outdoor area � 9: Compile a plan for a road project (no material needs to be entered for Vision)

The dialog that follows for entering the room and area dimensions already requires the initial input of a material/colour. In the further course of work on the project, it is possible to specify the material/colour for all the actual room elements. The topic of material and colour will be covered first in what follows. In the case of Relux, materials are entered with their reflectance and their colour. Vision, however, offers further options for materials. If no materials have been defined in the Vision project as yet, the difference will only be visible from the additional � 'Edit materials' button. This appears in each object dialog that describes surfaces in "Vision".


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Relux Vision

In both programs it is possible to generate a so-called diffuse material by specifying a reflectance and the colour. Any change in the colour will automatically entail a change in reflectance. Note: the reflectance can also be entered directly into a colour field via the keyboard in the colour dialog. The corresponding colour change is then seen after leaving the field.

Colour selection is identical in both systems. Six systems are available for colour selection and more details will be given of these later: - Palette - selection from standard colours - Colour selection - definition of the colour on the basis of the RGB system - Spektral distribution - specification of the spectral reflection curve


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- spectral bar chart (switchable) - RAL colour - selection of the colour from the classical RAL colours

- selection from the RDS colours (switchable)

In order to edit the materials in "Vision", you must first generate new materials by selecting � 'Edit materials' and specifying the physical properties: colour, reflectance, gloss and roughness, or you can select materials from the library that contains the basic materials.

NB:

In "Vision", it is possible to specify different material definitions for all new projects in the � Setup-Options-Defaults dialog.

The "Select material" dialog has two separate areas: On the left is the area with the material list and, on the right, the area for the colour indices and the material values. To begin with, only diffusely-reflecting materials are available in the Vision program, for the "Standard light calculations" of the Relux programs.

Material values

Material list

Colour indices


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Generate/select new "Material" In the material dialog, the the two buttons � 'Add material ...' and 'Select material ...' lead to the same selection dialog. The difference is that for � 'Add material ...' a new material data record is set up while, for � 'Select material ...' the marked material is modified.

Different materials systems are available in the left-hand field in this selection dialog: Simple Basic materials from the "Radiance System" are made available

without any further possibility of intervention Standard materials

A branched selection tree appears; next step: - Material types (e.g. metals, woods, glass, etc.) - Application fields (e.g. wall, floor, windows, etc.)

Internet database

For downloading material definitions from Relux Informatik's homepage

Favourites Materials can be preselected here in order to speed up the selection process for new projects (in the same way as for the materials under � Setup-Options-Defaults)

Last used This provides rapid access to the last materials that were used Let us start with the first material list (see screenshot above). This lists materials that can be used via a very simple structure, or via very simple input parameters. None of the materials with the exception of the last one, 'Picture', involve any further-reaching structures. They are selected from the list and the dialog closed with � 'Select'.


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List of the "simple" materials with their settings: (an RGB colour setting with the resultant reflectance/transmittance is available for all materials) Designation Decription Parameter Description Standard dialog element: colour Colour:

red, green, blue

Reflection and transmission components set via a slide control or numerical input

Gloss Mirror component of reflection with a maximum share of 7-8% of the reflectance

plastic Simple material with generally highly-diffuse reflection properties and low glosss

Roughness Glossy component set either as pure mirroring or scattered reflection (unless the gloss is set on 0%, the roughness setting will have no impact)

Gloss High gloss component in excess of 50%

metal High-gloss material with minimal diffuse properties Roughness Generally a low scattered

gloss component, up to a max. of 20% in most cases (ground surfaces) (Unless the gloss is set on 0%, the roughness setting will have no impact)

glass Extremely thin (infinitely thin) glass surface in which no calculation is performed and no absorption takes place

Transmission Please note that there are two parts to the colour setting: the transmission and reflection on the pane gives the transmissivity (= specifed in the material property)

Refractive index

Window glass 1.52 Plastic PC 1.6 PMMA 1.7 Water 1.33

dielectric Transmitting, clear material with an absorption and inter-reflection component in the glass pane.

Hartmann constant

Change in refractive index in the wavelength interval relevant to lighting engineering

Gloss See metal Roughness see metal Transmission Share of overall

transmittance/reflectance (see colour) transmitted through the pane

trans Partially transparent material with additional scatter

Transmitted gloss

At 100% and with 0% roughness, corresponds to a clear pane


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Designation Description Parameter Description mirror Pure reflection, no

scatter at the surface Reflection conditioned only by the colour

Picture Incorporation of a

picture as a surface definition for the Vision presentation (the calculation is performed with the averaged colour values)

A number of dialogs guide the user through the different settings: Selection of picture file; selection of the picture section; dimensions; rotation, presentation with contrast, brightness and saturation (with influence on the calculation parameter of reflectance in each case)

Gloss: the bigger the gloss component, the longer the depicted indicatrix

Roughness: the higher the roughness, the greater the diffuse reflection component and the wider the gloss indicatrix

Transmission: Share of overall transmittance/reflectance (see colour setting) transmitted through the medium

Gloss: The higher the gloss component, the longer the depicted indicatrix

Colour setting: red, green, blue Reflectance and transmittance

Material designation

Surface properties: Gloss, roughness Transmission properties: Transmission, transmitted gloss


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A number of standard materials are already available as a material library, and the surface parameters either cannot be processed or can only be processed to a limited extent. It is not possible to describe all materials here, particularly since Relux Informatik AG will be constantly adding new materials to the standard library as they become available. NB:

• The materials are always accompanied by a short descriptive text. • The possible settings always depend on the basic material whose properties are

stored in a definition file. • The formats of material definition data can be found in the Internet under

"http://radsite.lbl.gov/radiance/refer/ray.html"

To conclude the section on editing the material, a number of details will be given regarding the topic of colour or colour selection. Nearly all the materials apart from a few from the material library, can be allocated any desired colours from the RGB colour space. The "Relux" package offers six different selection processes for this, as already mentioned.

The 'Palette' colour dialog contains a number of prepared colourshades

Colour selection' incorporates three scales: • on the bottom left the colour scale

(colour circle) from red via orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue and purple and back to red

• beneath the colour section colour controllers for the colour selected in the colour scale

• to the right of the colour section Controller for the percentage colour brightness, corresponding more or less to the reflectance


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The 'Spectral distribution' colour selection system has slidable markings (red points) for adjusting the setting. The spectral distribution is defined as a "continuous distribution".

The second display in 'Spectral Distribution' is activated with the � 'Bar spectrum' control button. A narrowly-delimited line characteristic can also be portrayed in this dialog.

For the RAL colours (RAL = State Committee for Terms of Delivery), different colour zones were allocated to numerical groups (RAL groups). A total of 194 colours were defined and allocated four-digit numbers and colour names.

The second RAL system was only established in 1992. This has 1688 colours. The colour code is made up of three groups: • three-digit colour code:

000 grey shades, the remaining colours are taken from the colour circle, starting with red and going via orange, yellow, green and blue to violet

• two-digit brightness value • two-digit colour value (saturation)


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IV. Calculations The preparations for a visualisation in "Vision" involve the same steps as those for a light calculation in "Relux":

1. Set up a project 2. Enter the floor plan 3. Develop the layout of the room with furniture and the design of the wall

surfaces (windows, doors, pictures) 4. – For artificial light calculations: the selection and positioning of luminaires

– For daylight: at least one window or a skylight

The project shown in the diagram above will be taken as an example here. This is a rectangular room with a window, a door, a desk with a wooden working surface, and an office chair, a glass partition wall and, behind this, a second desk with a superimposed "virtual measuring surface" and a spotlight directed at the glass wall. Once the layout of the room – the scene – has been completed, it is possible to call up the visualisation with � 'Light calculation Relux Vision'. Further inputs are required here, in the same way as for light calculations.


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'Calculation' dialog page

After the calculation has been called up, the above dialog will appear. This incorporates a button to switch on the extended settings (marked with the blue line). Let us first cover the standard settings, starting with the type of calculation: Lighting Artificial light Only luminaires are calculated as light sources

Windows are depicted as black (night)

Daylight Only the light coming through windows and skylights and not affected by shadows from other elements is calculated

Artificial light and daylight

All artificial light sources and daylight are taken into account

Next come the settings for the daylight calculations with the different sky conditions, together with the date and time. The time is converted into so-called "true local time" using the date and the longitude entered in the Relux Project. This essentially determines the position of the sun and hence the luminance distribution of the sky.

Eleme

nts of

the e

xtend

ed di

alogu

e


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Sky type Clear sky according

to CIE Only the radiation of the sky is taken into account, without the radiation due to the sun CIE Publication No. 22 of 1973

Intermediate sky according to CIE

A partially overcast sky with the components of overcast and clear sky being determined on the basis of the sun probability and additional weighting factors. CIE Publication No. 22 of 1973

Overcast sky to CIE The CIE defines an overcast sky with an uneven light distribution here, deviating slightly from DIN 5034 Part 2. CIE Publication No. 22 of 1973

Uniformly overcast sky

This sky type has been described in DIN 5034 Part 2 with a specific luminance for all directions, i.e. determined solely by the angle of the point in the sky to the zenith

In the extended dialog, it is additionally possible to switch on the calculation 'with sun'. The setting for 'picture quality' determines the resolution of the presentation.

• The 'low' setting only uses the number of pixels entered on the � 'Views- Size of picture' filing card. The 'Inter-reflection' entry for the program to calculate the diffuse area brightnesses is not evaluated.

• On 'medium' resolution, the program calculates a higher number of pixels and then adjusts these downwards to give the required resolution. The 'Inter-reflections' are additionally taken into account in the calculations.

• The best possible quality of representation is achieved with 'high'. A

considerably greater number of pixels is calculated, which also requires a considerably longer period of time; it is also possible to work with more than one 'inter-reflection' here.

Setting low medium high Computing time without

additional geometry and details

Factor 1 appr. 15 sec

Factor 5 1min 40sec

> 2.5 h

Computing time with additional geometry and details

Factor 1-2 appr. 20sec

Factor 6-8 2min 10sec

> 4.5 h


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In the extended dialog, the settings 'Picture quality' and 'Basic setting' are additionally available. By pressing the checkbutton � 'with outside wall surfaces (for outdoor views)' it is possible to have all the walls shown for the views. If the point of observation is not inside the room, then only the outdoor view is calculated. The following two checkbuttons � 'Generate additional geometry' and 'Generate picture quality' relate to additional geometrical features provided by the program. This gives the presentations a considerably more natural look. 'Picture Quality' covers additions to the scene in the form of window and door handles, while 'Additional geometry' adds window and door frames to the scene. Other settings for these two topics can be found under 'Other additional geometries'. In the 'Background brightness (ambient)' field, it is possible to enter a value that reflects the natural ambient brightness. The user must then set which calculations the Vision module is to carry out; only the calculation of views, i.e. presentations, and/or the calculation of the illuminances as selected in the filing-card 'Grid measuring areas'.


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'Views' dialog page'

The 'Views' dialog page has the same structure as the 'Variable 3D-view' in Relux. It also offers the possibility of defining additional views, as well as containing the setting for the 'Picture size' of the visualisations and a preview button in order to test views. With the � '+' and '-' buttons, it is possible to incorporate and delete additional views. Once a new view has been added, it can be modified with the six movement buttons (lower-higher; left-right; backwards-forwards) and the angle settings (below and to the right alongside the presentation. The values can also be entered numerically directly into the individual fields, however. Once a calculation has been performed, the calculated views are marked in yellow and can be blocked with the � 'Lock calculated views' button. This means that they will not be calculated again during the subsequent calculation run, but the pictures will be retained in the project until the room geometry or something else is changed. In this way, it is possible to calculate different views (or calculation settings) one after the other. This marks a major advantage for time-intensive calculations in particular.


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'Grid measuring areas' dialog page In order to calculate illuminances on surfaces behind transparent objects and under the influence of reflections, the Vision module has a grid dialog � 'Grid measuring areas'. This is used in the same way as in Relux; the measuring surfaces contained in the project are listed in the dialog and the basic settings for the number of points in the X and Y direction, and the corresponding intervals betewen points, are visible. By pressing the � '...' button, the extended dialog for selecting the additional "vertical illuminances" is activated (see screenshot below)


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Miscellaneous: 'Additional geometries' The Vision module incorporates facilities for generating and allocating additional geometries for wall elements (windows, doors, pictures). Additional geometries are elements such as window frames and window sills, etc. The input dialogs for the wall elements contain not only the material selection for the element itself but also a selection box for the desired additional geometry; the � '...' button is used to open a separate dialog for editing and compiling the additional geometries.

The parameters are aligned to the element type in question (window, door or picture). If no additional geometry is selected for the element, then a simple hole in the wall is generated. These elements can then also be switched on or off in their entirety for the calculation in the Relux Vision calculation options. NB: It is now also possible to enter doors with a height above the ground in Relux for planning multi-storey buildings.


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V. Outputs The visualisations of the selected views are displayed as a Relux window immediately the calculation is completed. They are additionally available as options under � 'Output-Vision Results' or 'Output-All Outputs' in the left-hand field under 'Vision-Results'.

In the example that has been given, all the calculations and visualisations have been performed. In most cases, not all the outputs will be available to you in the output dialog. With the outputs for the glare rating, in particular, it is important to note the difference compared with calculations in Relux. In the example, the glass wall is in front of "desk 2" and the spot light behind this is directed straight at the desk. NB: In Relux, the glass wall is regarded as a black wall, opaque to light, for purposes of the glare rating and for calculating the illuminances. Please note that, in cases such as this, you will obtain completely different results from the two programs.


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Two possibilities are available for the output and further processing of the visualisation: - Open the presentation in Relux ( � 'Output-Vision-Results') and generate a

Bitmap file via the menu � 'File-Print-To File'. (The file contains a full printed page with project data, the minimum and

maximum luminance and a footer; i.e. the file size is some 30 MByte) - Have the presentation displayed and, using the right-hand mouse button, �

call up the 'Context menu'. The options 'Copy picture' and 'Save picture' are available in the context menu. The picture size corresponds directly to the number of pixels specified in the calculation ('Light calculation-Relux Vision-Views').

Copy picture: Places the picture in the Windows clipboard and can be

incorporated in other programs as a graphic with the command 'Insert'

Save picture: A dialog is opened for the input of a file name, and a number of different picture formats are available for saving the picture;

The context menu � additionally contains the 'Exposure' command for setting the brightness. The dialog has a sliding controller which can be used to adjust the brightness in the same way as for adjusting a film speed or exposure time when taking photographs. Negative values reduce the brightness while positive values increase it.


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Adress Head Office Switzerland Relux Informatik AG Dornacherstrasse 377 Postfach CH-4018 Basel Switzerland Tel. +41 61 333 07 70 Fax. +41 61 333 07 72 Web. www.relux.ch e-mail [email protected]

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