Recessed lights in a floor/ceiling assembly

[jwilhelm]

Since light fixtures can apparently only be "wall" or "ceiling" based how would one for example place a recessed can into a floor ceiling assembly, that is the ceiling above me is part of a floor assembly. also is there a way to make light fixtures such as say a track attach to a beam?

[PeterJ]

There is an anomaly in the way these things are looked at in more commercial construction and more residential construction. In residential work the ceiling is often a part of the floor assembly having a sound and fire control role as well as hiding floor joists and so on. In commercial construction the ceiling is more frequently a cosmetic element in the building. To address these two divergent situations the ceiling element in revit is divorced from the floor in standard modelling methods, even for residential.

Despite the fact that you can have a sheet of plasterboard as a layer in your floor assembly a standard light fitting won't be hosted by it. To get around this you have a variety of options:

1. Use the ceiling tool in an reflected ceiling plan view, which is very very quick, then apply your light fittings in the same view. You will want to either hide the ceiling in sections or remove it from your floor assembly, whichever suits your situation.

2. Use detail components in any plan. They won't give you lights in your renders and won't, I think, schedule but are quick to apply.

3. Make a generic floor hosted family and then change its family type to a light fitting and it ought to then use the floor as its host.

To deal with your second question you can either make a small section of ceiling to host the light, use a generic model that has a light hiding inside it or run a ceiling through and investigate subcategorising it to enable switching its visibility off.