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Thread: Placing Light Fixtures On a Reference Plane

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    Default Placing Light Fixtures On a Reference Plane

    For those of you who have found out that a Link model of a reflective ceiling plan does not host light fixtures, you need to create a reference plane at the elevation of the face of the light fixtures. WARNING!!!.......Draw the reference plane from right to left and NOT left to right, otherwise the light fixtures will be placed upside down

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    Default Re: Placing Light Fixtures On a Reference Plane

    Quote Originally Posted by paulb.194993 View Post
    For those of you who have found out that a Link model of a reflective ceiling plan does not host light fixtures, you need to create a reference plane at the elevation of the face of the light fixtures. WARNING!!!.......Draw the reference plane from right to left and NOT left to right, otherwise the light fixtures will be placed upside down
    That's good to know, thanks for sharing!

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    All AUGI, all the time mwiggins121466's Avatar
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    Default Re: Placing Light Fixtures On a Reference Plane

    You can also create your familys as face-based to mount on the face of the ceiling.
    Margaret Wiggins
    Revit MEP 2006 and Greater
    Electrical Designer
    Detroit, Michigan
    wigginsm@yahoo.com

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    Revit MEP Moderator mjdanowski's Avatar
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    Default Re: Placing Light Fixtures On a Reference Plane

    Paul,

    Are you having issues with standard Revit lighting fixtures from Autodesk? Ceiling based fixtures haven't been around in a long while with Revit MEP.

    As mwiggins said, face based fixtures should be able to host on a ceiling in a ceiling plan. If you are still having trouble placing them on a ceiling make sure you:

    A) have the "Place on face" selected instead of "Place on vertical face"
    B) have the plan underlay set as "Reflected ceiling plan" in the view properties.
    C) make sure that your view depth is set correctly. This is the one that seems to get me the most, especially on projects with varying levels.
    Matthew Danowski, PE, LEED AP BD+C
    Project Electrical Engineer
    Baltimore, MD

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    Default Re: Placing Light Fixtures On a Reference Plane

    Quote Originally Posted by paulb.194993 View Post
    For those of you who have found out that a Link model of a reflective ceiling plan does not host light fixtures, you need to create a reference plane at the elevation of the face of the light fixtures. WARNING!!!.......Draw the reference plane from right to left and NOT left to right, otherwise the light fixtures will be placed upside down
    I posted a thread about this a while ago.

    I did discover that if you draw your plane from right to left the "bottom" is down. It's related to the way Revit draws anything. Walls drawn right to left have the ext down (in plan) drawn left to right the ext is up.

    In the above post our client was having issues with the system family "ceiling basic:generic" which it turns out is a ceiling that is just basically a plane. Even face hosted objects host upside down to this. Like levels, "ceiling basic:generic" has it's "face" up.

    You can read more about it on my blog here and here.

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    Default Re: Placing Light Fixtures On a Reference Plane

    Here is a quick video that tries to explain what happens with the refernce planes.

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    I could stop if I wanted to Simon.Whitbread's Avatar
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    Default Re: Placing Light Fixtures On a Reference Plane

    I think you guys are missing the issue here.

    Just as YOU want a good model from the architect, he in return should be able to have the same back.
    Using reference planes to place lights just isn't best practice and you should be looking at 'face' or 'workplane' based families.
    The example content supplied by Autodesk has gone away from the specific 'ceiling' mounted families for this very reason. Plan your families well, and they will work for most situations without the need of reference planes

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    Default Re: Placing Light Fixtures On a Reference Plane

    If you link the architects drawing into your file, the lights do NOT recognize the ceiling so you are faced with a dilema, copy the ceiling into the new drawing (duplication), redraw the ceiling (slower duplication), insert on a plane (it's an answer), or create and insert unhosted lights. The next option is to add the lights to the architects file and have them copy them into the central file.

    Any other options???

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    Default Re: Placing Light Fixtures On a Reference Plane

    Quote Originally Posted by darin.marsden View Post
    If you link the architects drawing into your file, the lights do NOT recognize the ceiling so you are faced with a dilema, copy the ceiling into the new drawing (duplication), redraw the ceiling (slower duplication), insert on a plane (it's an answer), or create and insert unhosted lights. The next option is to add the lights to the architects file and have them copy them into the central file.

    Any other options???
    This is one of the reasons Autodesk introduced a large range of FACE BASED families - see my examples

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    Default Re: Placing Light Fixtures On a Reference Plane

    Quote Originally Posted by darin.marsden View Post
    If you link the architects drawing into your file, the lights do NOT recognize the ceiling so you are faced with a dilema, copy the ceiling into the new drawing (duplication), redraw the ceiling (slower duplication), insert on a plane (it's an answer), or create and insert unhosted lights. The next option is to add the lights to the architects file and have them copy them into the central file.

    Any other options???
    The lights do not recognize the ceiling as a "ceiling", but they do recognize it as a surface. When placing face hosted families don't forget to select the correct face option (see screen shots). When trying to place your light on the reflected ceiling use "Face" not "Vertical Face".
    Attached Images Attached Images

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