Setting Up Lighting Systems in Revit MEP: Creating Switch Systems and Power Panels

Welcome back to the CAD Teacher VDCI video course content for the BIM 321 course Introduction to Revit MEP. In the previous videos we went ahead and got our devices for both level one and level two, which were switches, outlets, and those kinds of items. Now I want to go ahead and I'm on the ceiling plan level one and I'm looking at my lighting and what I want to go ahead and do is we need to start to create systems and tie them back to the panels similar to what we did with all of the other outlets.

So I'm going to go ahead, please be on the ceiling plan level one, but as you notice, we do not necessarily see our exact switches and everything here, which we do need to see. We need to go ahead and change our view range. I'm going to come up here to my ceiling plan properties.

I'm going to go down to my view range under edit, and I'm going to go ahead and take this to four feet because I know that's the elevation that my switches are at. So I'm going to click Apply, then OK, and there we are. Now you can go ahead and actually see the individual switches.

Now I'm going to go ahead. We need to take care of some information. I'm going to hide these outlets here.

So I'm going to select one, do a right click, hide in view, and I'm going to choose category. I'm also going to tab select to get the plumbing fixture here, right click, hide in view, category, and there we are. So as you can see, we have all of our information here.

Everything is good to go and looks perfect, which I really like. Now we need to go ahead and start tying these guys back. So there's going to be two different systems we're going to be creating.

We're going to be creating a switch system, and then we're also going to be creating a power that is going to go back to a panel. So to create the first system, I'm going to select all three items, so the lights and the switch that I want. I'm going to go to power here, just like we did with the other ones.

I'm going to go select panel, take this to LP1. There we go. Now I'm going to go ahead and click off. I need to select just the lights, and I'm going to go ahead and create a switch system now.

So I'm going to go switch, select switch, and select the switch there, and there we are. Come down here, select all three items, power. I'm going to go ahead and select panel, and I'm going to take it to panel LP1.

There we are. I'm going to go ahead and click on just the lights now, switch, select switch, there we are. Come here, boom, boom, boom, power, select panel LP1.

I'm going to go ahead and select just the lights, switch to there. I forgot to click on select switch, so I'm going to go to my switch system panel here, select switch, there we are. Now the switch system is routed to that.

Select all three. I'm going to go ahead, power. I'm going to select just the two lights, switch, select switch, there we are.

Here we go. It's kind of a methodical process, but you kind of get in a groove and keep moving forward, and just remember that you just want to keep doing the same thing. So again, I've almost gotten all of these guys done.

So power, select panel LP1, select just the lights, switch, select switch, there we go. I'm going to go ahead, let's hop over to our bathroom here. I'm going to go ahead, and we may adjust these lights here in a second, but for right now, I'm going to go and leave them as is.

I'm going to go ahead and select here, here, here, and here, and this switch. It seems like I might have had something selected that prevented the power option from appearing here. It threw me off for a second, but if I just clear out my selection by hitting escape, I'm going to select these four lights again.

I'm going to select the switch. There's my power. There's that.

I'm going to go select panel LP1. I'm going to select those four lights again, create my switch system, and select the switch here. I forgot to click on the select switch, so I have to go here, switch system, select switch, and pick my switch, and it's already there.

I'm going to go ahead and select these three lights and this switch here. I'm going to go ahead and hit power, select panel LP1. I want to go ahead, select just the light fixtures, switch, select the switch, and there we go.

So, again, switch system, select switch, and there we are. I'm going to go ahead, pick these three lights here, and the switch, power, select panel LP1. I'm going to go ahead and select those light fixtures again.

I want to go ahead, switch, select switch, pick here. Here we go. I'm going to select this guy's switch, and these two wall washers, I'm going to go ahead, go power, select panel LP1.

I want to go ahead now and select just the lights, switch, select switch here. I'm going to go ahead, select these three lights and the middle switch, power, select panel LP1. I'm going to go ahead and now just select just the lights, switch system, select switch, and it was that middle one.

I'm going to go ahead, select these two and this guy, power, select panel LP1. I'm going to go ahead and select just the lights, switch, select switch, and there we go.

Now, we're going to do a little bit different on these ones here. So, I'm going to go ahead, select here, here, here, here, and here, and I'm going to go ahead and select this switch.

Here, the first switch, and the first switch against the door. I'm going to go power, select panel.

Let's go ahead, take this to LP2 because we don't want LP1 to get really full. Then, I'm going to go ahead and select those same lights, go switch. Now, this is the kind of problem that we do have here.

If I select a switch, I can only select one switch per panel or per switch system. I cannot go select another switch and pick the one down here because then it's going to change it. So, it's one of these bugs that Revit knows about, that Autodesk knows about.

We just kind of have to get used to it. I'm going to go ahead. Either of those ones will work.

We just need to make sure that we're keeping the switches straight. I'm going to go ahead and select here, here, here, here, and here. I'm going to select the second switch in, power.

I'm going to go ahead and select panel, take it to LP2. There we go. I want to go ahead and go back and select those same lighting fixtures.

I'm going to go switch, select switch, select my switch. I want to go ahead and select my wall washers up here and the last switch I can pick. I'm going to go ahead, power.

I'm going to go ahead and select panel, LP2. I'm going to select just the wall washers, go switch, select switch, and I'm just going to go ahead and pick on that one there. There we go.

We've almost finished this first floor. The only thing that we didn't do was we need to place some switches in for our other lights here. I'm going to go ahead and place in some three-way switches.

So, I'm going to go ahead and select one of my three-way switches. I'm going to go create similar. There we are.

I'm going to go ahead and place one here and one here. I'm also going to go ahead and place one here and here, and there we go. I'm going to go ahead and select all of the light fixtures in that corridor.

So, I'm going to zoom in to get off the section head there, select all these two-by-two light fixtures and two of the switches. There we go.

Let's go power. I'm going to go ahead and select panel. I'm going to take it to LP2.

There we go. So, if I were to tab select, it would show me which switch I'm going to. I'm going to go ahead and select the light fixtures again and put them into a switch system.

So, I'm going to switch. I'm going to go ahead and select switch, and there it was. Actually, I selected the wrong switch here.

So, I'm going to disconnect the switch. I'm going to go ahead and now select switch again and select the correct one. I'm going to go ahead and now pick the other switch and all the wall sconces.

And then pick my other switch up here. I'm going to go power, select panel, LP2. There we are.

I just need to go ahead and select the wall sconces again. There we go. And I'm going to go ahead and switch.

Select switch, pick the switch I want to take it to, and there we are. And we've set up our system so that we can schedule our panels and everything else for our entire first floor. I'm going to go ahead and stop this video here.

We'll do the same for the second floor, and I'll see you then.