Designing Custom Pendant Gymnasium Lighting Fixtures Using Revit

Building Custom 3D Gymnasium Light Fixtures and Power Connectors in Revit

Designing custom light fixtures enhances the aesthetic and functionality of a space, and can be done using Revit. This article provides a step-by-step guide on creating custom pendant light fixtures for a gymnasium in Revit, from creating the 3D components, adding in a power source, to adjusting the voltage and power consumption.

Key Insights

  • In Revit, custom light fixtures are created by first designing the 3D components that make up the light, then loading that into a light fixture family. The light fixture family contains the power source and light source which will illuminate during rendering.
  • The Revit Revolve tool is instrumental in creating round light fixtures. The tool works by spinning a shape around to create the desired light fixture. The completed fixture should be open at the bottom to avoid light sources getting trapped inside solid geometry.
  • In Revit, the voltage and power consumption of the custom light fixture need to be specified. This is important in electrical design as the circuit voltage and the voltage of the fixture need to match for connection. The power consumption of the light fixture can be found from the manufacturer's cut sheet.

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Let's create a custom light fixture for our gymnasium. Let's start by taking a look at that gym. We're going to go to our Project Browser, locate the ceiling plans, and go to our L2 Lighting Plan.

What we see here is the upper level of the gym. This is where we will place our lights. What kind of lights do we want to place? We want to place some hanging or pendant light fixtures for our gymnasium.

The light fixtures will look something like this: a round area to shade the light, some housing, and a cord or hanger wire going up. So that is the fixture. And in Revit, that light fixture also needs to have a power source to connect to our electrical systems.

We'll add in a connector. Revit also allows us to have a light source, which lets this light fixture emit light during a Revit rendering. To accomplish this, we will need to create two families.

The first family will be just the Gym Light Geometry—essentially the 3D components that make up the light. Then we will load that family into our Gym Light Fixture. This Gym Light Fixture family will contain our power source and will also contain a light source, which will emit that light.

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So let's jump in and create this fixture. Now to follow along, in the Downloads folder, there's a BIM 323 gym lights.pdf that contains this information. Let's start by creating the geometry family.

We'll go up to File > New > Family, and let's select a generic family—Generic Model, plain and simple. We'll open that up right away. Opening a family opens several views by default.

We want just the Front view opened up, so we'll click on the Front tab, and then click the Close Inactive Views button. We're just looking at the Front. Now I want to give this family a name.

To do that, I save it. File > Save, and I want to give it a name. Let's call this Gym Light 3D Parts, and save it.

When I click Save, I'll notice that at the top, it now shows the name Gym Light 3D Parts. If I want to go a step further to make it easier to understand which family I'm in, I can rename the Front view by right-clicking in the Project Browser and clicking Rename, and call this Gym Lights Front. Now I have this Gym Lights Front created.

I'll hit ENTER, and I can see that the tab is called Gym Lights Front. Now to see everything together, I'm going to press WT on my keyboard to tile the windows. WT.

Now I can see the gymnasium there, and I can see the lights. I'm going to slide the gym over—I don't need to see that as much—and I'm going to pull this family up so I can see the reference level.

So here's that Front view. Now I want to follow these dimensions. And on your screen, if you don't follow the dimensions exactly as I'm doing, that's okay. You can have a little bit of creative freedom to design the gym light as you wish.

So I'm going to create the housing first. I'll come into this family under the Create tab and use the Revolve tool, which is excellent for round lights. So here's the Revolve tool.

I like to create the axis line first because if I don't, I often forget it. So I'm going to create that axis line—just a line down the center of the light fixture.

Once I'm done with that, I'm going to click on Boundary Line. If I have a three-foot diameter, I want a one-foot-six radius. So I'm going to click in the center and enter one foot six. It looks like we go up 1'-8", 1'-8", and then back. That creates the first shape, and the next shape is six inches wide.

So I'm going to go across three inches. Then I'll draw another line—up three inches—and then go up one foot from there. So from here, up one foot.

Whoops, I got it a little off to the side, so let me select that and click my line again. Here we go—straight up one foot. Then, when I come back, I don't want to go the full three inches. I'm going to go just two and a half inches, then up four feet, and now I can complete that last half inch and return to the starting point.

Okay, that's looking pretty good so far. Now I need this curved line to create the light housing, so I'm going to come in and select the Spline Tool. I'll start right here, click a few points, and then click to end. So there's my housing. With this, I can delete some extra lines I don't need.

For this line here, I don't need it—that was just to get me to where I'm going. I don't need this one here either. Now, I don't want this to be solid, because there's a light source that Revit will place in the light family, and if it's inside solid geometry, it will appear trapped.

So I want to make it more realistic. I want this housing to be open on the inside. To do that, I will use the Offset Command. Press OF on my keyboard to activate Offset, select Numerical, and make the housing a bit thicker than normal to improve visibility.

I'll use a half-inch offset. Make sure Copy is checked because I want to make a copy of the profile, and offset it inward by half an inch. Now that housing is complete.

Next, I can use the Trim Command—TR on my keyboard—to clean up the excess. Since it doesn't work with a Spline, I need to manually adjust. I'm going to grab this, drag it to where it intersects, and then drag the connecting line so the dot snaps to the endpoint.

From here, I’ll draw a new line back to the axis. I don’t need the original guiding line anymore, so I can delete it, then use the Trim Command again. That’s looking pretty good.

Now, to test this, I can hover over the line and press TAB on my keyboard. If I do that, everything should select.

Essentially, it needs to be a complete, uninterrupted line all the way around the shape—and it looks like it is. That’s our goal. If we’ve achieved that, we can click the green checkmark to finish, and Revit will revolve the shape and create our light fixture.

There it is. Let's check it out quickly in the 3D View. I'll go to the top and click the house icon to open the Default 3D View, and I’ll change it to Shaded View.

If I spin around, I can see it's a light fixture that is open on the bottom. That’s exactly what we’re going for. If yours doesn’t look exactly like mine, that’s okay.

We’re creating a basic light fixture housing. I'm going to go back to the Front view and close the 3D View for now. I'm going to save this, and now I need to start another new family.

To do that, I’ll go to File > New > Family and scroll down. This time, I want to create the actual light fixture—Lighting Fixture, just a standard one—and click Open. Again, it opens many views, but I don’t need all the extra views.

I can come up to the top and click the Close Inactive Views button, and now I'm at the Ref. Level of this family. Yours will be named "Family" followed by a number, depending on your Revit session. I want to give this a name. I do that by going to File > Save, and this time I'm going to call it Gym Light Fixture.

Gym Light Fixture, and click Save. Now notice at the top, it says Gym Light Fixture. I can also rename the reference level if I'd like. Right-click Gym Light Fixture, choose Rename, and call this Reference Level or Ground.

Either option is fine. I don't need to rename any corresponding levels, so I can click No there. Now with this view opened up, I'm ready to load my Gym Light Geometry into this Gym Light Fixture.

So I will go back to that Gym Light, and I will load it into the project, specifically into the Gym Light Fixture. I'll do that and click OK. Now I notice that I can place it, and I want it to be centered in this family.

Right on the crosshairs of the two planes, I'll click—and there it is, centered. There's the warning we mentioned earlier: “Light source inside solid geometry.” That’s because, at this moment, we’ve placed our light on the ground, and there’s a conflict.

We now need to open a different view. I’ll click the Modify button since we’re only placing one of these. Then I’ll go to the Front view of this Light Fixture family, and there’s that light sitting on the ground. You can see that the yellow light source is trapped inside the geometry.

Revit doesn’t like that. So I’m going to click on our light family and move it up by pressing M on my keyboard. I want to move it above this reference plane.

Any arbitrary amount is fine—there it is, now above the plane.

Now let me create more working space. I can drag the geometry down. Now I can move this light fixture down and lock it to the Light Source Elevation.

To do that, I use the Align Tool—AL on my keyboard. So AL, or under the Modify tab, click the Align button.

First, I’ll click the Light Source reference plane. Then I’ll click the bottom of the light geometry and lock it.

My goal is to make it so that when the Light Source Elevation moves, the light fixture moves with it. We've accomplished that, so we're good to go. And now I have a working light source.

What’s left? I need to add the power source. As we can see here, we need a connector—120-volt, 60 VA—and we already have the light source. So let's do that now.

I'm going to zoom in a little tighter, and I’ll place the connector on the ground floor. It’s going to go back to the Gym Light Fixture Ground, or if you didn’t rename it, it’s the Ref. Level. Double-click there, and under the Create tab, there is a Connectors section.

Depending on the type of family, we have pipe connectors, duct connectors—in our case, we need an Electrical Connector. Then we can place this on a Work Plane.

By default, the placement is set to Face. We don’t want that. We’ll click on Work Plane.

This brings up the Work Plane dialog, and we can specify the work plane. Which work plane do we want? We want the Light Source Elevation. We'll select the Reference Plane: Light Source Elevation and click OK.

And there it is. It placed it right there for us. We didn’t have to do much beyond that.

If I go back to my Front view here, it's a little hard to see because it's all overlapping, but there’s a tiny symbol that looks like an outlet or a power plug—and that’s the connector. It appears in green. Now I can select it and adjust its properties.

With it selected, I can change the voltage. We’ve decided to set it to 120 volts. Why is that important? This is critical in electrical design.

If we didn’t set this voltage and tried to add this to a circuit in our classroom building—in the gymnasium—it wouldn’t attach, because the circuit is at 120 volts. If this were at 0 volts, it would not connect. So let's set it to 120 volts.

Next, Revit needs to know how much power this light fixture consumes. We don’t know the exact number, as we’d typically get that from the manufacturer’s cut sheet.

We’ll estimate for now and start with 60. That’s a reasonable number for this light fixture. With these settings complete, we’re all set.

We can save this family. This is the family we now want to load into our gym project. So let’s go ahead and switch views.

We can see the gym project right here. Here’s the gymnasium in our main project, and here is the Light Fixture family.

Now we can click the Load into Family button. I’ll move it into my BIM 323 project. And there it is.

I’ll be ready in the next video to place all of these light fixtures.

photo of Reid Johnson

Reid Johnson

Licensed Architect | Contractor | CAD/BIM Specialist

Reid isn't just someone who knows CAD and BIM; he's a licensed architect and contractor who deeply integrates these technologies into every facet of his career. His hands-on experience as a practitioner building real-world projects provides him with an invaluable understanding of how BIM and CAD streamline workflows and enhance design. This practical foundation led him to Autodesk, where he shared his expertise, helping others effectively leverage these powerful tools. Throughout his professional journey, Reid also dedicates himself to education, consistently teaching university courses and shaping the next generation of design professionals by equipping them with essential CAD skills. His unique blend of practical experience, industry knowledge gained at Autodesk, and passion for teaching positions Reid as a true specialist in BIM and CAD technology, capable of bridging the gap between theory and real-world application.

Credentials:

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  • Autodesk Revit Certified Professional
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  • Licensed Architect
  • Licensed General Contractor

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