Upside down lights MEP 2009

[BigBadBIM]

Is anyone else having issues with lights placed in MEP 2009 hosting "upside down"? Even in a preview before loading a fixture family, they are previewing as casting light upward. And no..... I am not looking at up lights.

Thanks

[mjdanowski]

Is anyone else having issues with lights placed in MEP 2009 hosting "upside down"? Even in a preview before loading a fixture family, they are previewing as casting light upward. And no..... I am not looking at up lights.

Thanks

While in a ceiling plan, you want to go to View Properties and then set "Plan Orientation" to "Reflected Ceiling Plan"

[BigBadBIM]

Thanks. I saw in another thread that some folks are having trouble with the idea of a reflected ceiling plan. I get that... but these lights are rendering upside down. (So I've been told. I'm posting for a coleage.) So I understand why in plan, but Why does the light cast up in preview when loading a family? Thanks again for your time.

[kyle.bernhardt]

Most likely because the Light Source Definition is pointing in that direction. Change the Tilt parameter on the Family and see if that fixes it.

Cheers,
Kyle B

[luigi]

I'm sorry, but is that because the light fixture you are using is "face based"? When face based, the light fixtures preview upside down, because the face of the ceiling should be the "finish" face of the ceiling, not the back of the structure (opposite side of the compound ceiling finish)

Thanks. I saw in another thread that some folks are having trouble with the idea of a reflected ceiling plan. I get that... but these lights are rendering upside down. (So I've been told. I'm posting for a coleage.) So I understand why in plan, but Why does the light cast up in preview when loading a family? Thanks again for your time.

[BigBadBIM]

Luigi
I think you're right. Thatmakes sense to me.

[BigBadBIM]

So it seems that when you place a light fixture after setting a work plane that they host to that plane upside down. Does anyone know why that is? When I I host to face and place a light fixture in the ceiling it places correctly. Do reference places have an orientation parameter? Could the refernce plane be "Upside down"? Hmmmmmmmmm...

Also, does anyone know why my lights show as black boxes when rendered? They are obviously emmiting light or the scence would render as black, but why do the light emitting faces of the fixture render black?

[luigi]

When using workplanes, instead of a face, it treats the upper part of the level as the face....

anyways...you can click on the light fixture, and an icon appears with 2 opposite arrows...this will flip the face it is on...it behaves weird with the level offset (must give it a negative to go up) but it works...

HTH

So it seems that when you place a light fixture after setting a work plane that they host to that plane upside down. Does anyone know why that is? When I I host to face and place a light fixture in the ceiling it places correctly. Do reference places have an orientation parameter? Could the refernce plane be "Upside down"? Hmmmmmmmmm...

Also, does anyone know why my lights show as black boxes when rendered? They are obviously emmiting light or the scence would render as black, but why do the light emitting faces of the fixture render black?

[BigBadBIM]

anyways...you can click on the light fixture, and an icon appears with 2 opposite arrows...this will flip the face it is on
HTH

The only problem with that is that there were 600 fixtures placed before the problem was caught. Our workaround was to select all intances>mirror (unselect copy)> and use the plane as the mirror line. I wonder if there is a way to use the "set workplane" feature and still have the fixture be placed in the correct orientation?

[BigBadBIM]

So, I finally understand what Luigi is saying. REVIT treats the UPPER part of the plane as the face. What a PAIN! That means that we have to click the flip fixture arrows for every light placed. To quote my PA, "That don't make NO kinda sense."