Discover the intricacies of creating a detailed lighting plan in Revit, including callouts, adjusting view parameters, and using the Wire tool. You will also learn how to annotate your design effectively, providing a comprehensive view of your lighting plan in a typical classroom setting.
Key Insights:
- The article provides detailed instructions on using Revit to create a focused view of a classroom lighting plan, which includes creating a rectangle callout around the classroom and adjusting the scale to zoom into the detailed plan.
- The author explains how to use the Wire tool under the Systems tab in Revit to show how light switches control lights. A step-by-step guide is provided on how to use the arc wire to connect light switches and lights correctly.
- The tutorial also demonstrates how to annotate the design using the "Tag by Category" option to label each light with its type mark, and adding room tags to indicate the location of the plan. This provides a clear and detailed understanding of the lighting setup in a typical classroom.
Note: These materials offer prospective students a preview of how our classes are structured. Students enrolled in this course will receive access to the full set of materials, including video lectures, project-based assignments, and instructor feedback.
Now that we've organized our lights into circuits, let us zoom in and showcase some details of our lighting design. We will start here on level one, and we will zoom in to one of the classrooms in the top left corner, looking for classroom 1507. So here it is, classroom 1507.
To create a more detailed view of this classroom, let's go to the View tab. Here in View tab, I have a Callout option, and I can select Rectangle. I'll draw a rectangle around classroom 1507 going just past its wall boundaries.
I click a second time to set that rectangle, and I can move this bubble up to the top so that it is more out of the way. I can adjust it to make it look a little nicer, and there it is. I've got my view callout.
I can double-click the blue bubble, and that will take me directly to that callout. Right now, it has a pretty generic name, so let's right-click on that name. It's called Lighting Plan Callout 1. We'll right-click and rename, and we'll call this Typical Classroom Lighting Plan, and let's update the scale.
Right now, it's set to 1⁸. We'll click this, and we'll jump to 1⁴, which zooms us in, and we can zoom in as well to fill our screen with this classroom plan. Now, we can make this look a little bit nicer.
Learn Revit MEP
- Nationally accredited
- Create your own portfolio
- Free student software
- Learn at your convenience
- Authorized Autodesk training center
First off, we can adjust the view parameters. Right now, if we go to our View Properties window, we can see that the depth clipping and view range are right here under Extents. I want view range.
I'll click Edit, and I'm noticing that I can see through my lights to the structural decking beyond. To make this look nicer, I can make the top a little bit lower. Right now, it goes to 13 feet.
Let's change that to 11 feet, and the view depth also to 11 feet, and click OK. And now, I no longer see that structural decking beyond. It looks better.
I want to show how this light switch controls these lights. Revit has a tool for that, so we're going to go to the Systems tab, and we'll find, under Electrical, a Wire tool. There are three types of wire.
We're gonna start by using the arc wire, and I'll zoom in even tighter to this light and this switch right by the door. I can click on the right side of that light. That starts the arc.
I have to click a second point to kind of define how that arc will bend, and then I can click the light switch. And our default drawing, typically, we show that line coming into a light switch right to the front of that S or at the top, and if I click and do that in Revit, it will get confused and point an arrow through that light switch, so I need to fix that. I'm gonna go to the Modify button, click on that arc, and I get what's called this vertex, and it's pointed towards the top of that S. I'll drag it to the bottom.
The connector point on the light switch is where the switch meets the wall, and if I connect to that, you can see that vertex is now where it belongs, and I no longer have that weird arrow, and so that's what I want, switch to light. And then I can continue to use that Wire tool. I'll click on this light.
I can click in the middle, that's right where the vertex is. I can set a kind of a trajectory for that arc and click the second light. As long as I click in those lights, Revit will connect them, and I'll do it again.
I'm gonna send my trajectory down this time and back up to that light, and they're connected with a wire. Now I'm gonna go up to this upper string of lights, start in the center here. I'll set my trajectory over to the side and back, and now I've got another line.
Finish up the series here by clicking to each light. Now when I get to the final light, I don't need to go back because I'm simply connecting the switch to those lights, and I am set. I can click the Modify button now to finish that up.
What else can I do to dress up this view? I want to tag these lights. If I go to my Annotate, I can do Tag by Category. I can make sure I have Hide All Leaders selected and click on each one of these lights, and it will pull up that type mark so that it can easily share what type of light this is.
They're all the CG2. I also want to go back to my Annotate tab and add in a room tag, and we'll tag this room right here, Classroom 1507, so we know where this was taken from, and with that, it's looking pretty good. I've got a nice enlarged lighting plan showing how a typical classroom is set up with its light switch.
