Revit light fixture light source geometry won't go away

[Teresa.Martin]

Can you send me an NWD file to test or post it here?

(You can send it to me directly)
Teresa.Martin@ideateinc.com
Regards,
Teresa

[RevitNinja]

In my quest to formulate a few standard workflows for my users, I have come across this particular problem. As a previous poster mentioned, the problem with light sources seemed to get worse when we upgraded from Revit 2010 to Revit 2011.

There are, in fact, certain light fixtures that won't allow you to access the blob that represents its light source/photometric data. I beat my head against the wall trying to figure this out, and while this is not a perfect solution, it can help in some situations.

In the NW options, click on Model-->Performance. There is a variable there called "Collapse on Convert" and there are five levels under that drop-down. My interpretation of this feature is that it functions as some type of explode. If you change it from "Composite Objects" (which I think is the default) to "None," it seems to break apart the light fixtures one step further, allowing you to select the light source as a generic mesh object. From there, I was able to select all mesh objects and toggle them off.

The downside is that most other objects in your file also get exploded. If you select a piece of mechanical equipment, you might notice that it is now five different solids instead of a single object. I haven't had too much time to come back and revisit this, but I am curious to see what Autodesk recommends...if they recommend at all...

[mitch.cornelius]

I suppose that is a good way to cut out the light source...the downside is in the clash detection process - each of the "exploded" objects will represent a separate clash.

[Teresa.Martin]

I suppose that is a good way to cut out the light source...the downside is in the clash detection process - each of the "exploded" objects will represent a separate clash.

In the test file, I could see the blobs, but if I re-exported the Revit MEP file (with fixture) from 2012, I did not get the blobs (light sources).

It would seem the problem has been fixed in Navisworks 2012.

In regards to choosing "none" on the export, you could export just the light fixtures that are causing the issue as one NWC file and then export the rest as regular geometry. You will then need to create a search/selection set to removed the blob and consolidate the lights to reduce the number of clashes.
You can use the rules in clash detective to do some of this for you.
Regards,

[mitch.cornelius]

Now that you mention it...I don't know that I've seen the light source issue on files exported from Revit 2012 using the 2012 nwc exporter. Maybe this has been fixed?

[RevitNinja]

Now that you mention it...I don't know that I've seen the light source issue on files exported from Revit 2012 using the 2012 nwc exporter. Maybe this has been fixed?

I hope you are right. We are currently using Revit 2011 and NW 2012....but are knee-deep in the company wide upgrade...

[Revit for Breakfast]

What I usually do is tell everyone that the light source is there to clash detect against. Saves the whole "$10000 program and you can't turn offf the lights!?!" conversation.

Use your marketing skills. Convince your coworkers cuz it ain't going away.


Dreaming for Breakfast

[jbish1]

Fixed?... Go into Navisworks 2012 and try to turn them back on!... They are completely gone, and cannot be turned back on! So, now we are missing a reference to the photometric web layouts utilized in Revit. What if we want them for reference to set up visualization of the model?!... Start from scratch with a Revit session open for reference??