[Radiance-general] IES file viewer

[Zack Rogers]

Hello, I would definitely like to see some more photometric friendly
features with in Radiance.  As it is, I typically go to other programs
when dealing with photometric files.  FYI, they are:

1) There is a free version of the Photometric Toolbox available here,
http://www.cooperlighting.com/content/design/etools.cfm 
I believe this is just an older version of the software created by AGI
but provided for free by cooper.  I do not think it has all the features
that the new Lighting Technologies Photometric Toolbox has but it
definitely has some nice features, including a nice 3d photometric web
and 2d plot options for comparison with published data.
2) Visual 2.6 also has some nice photometric features including a
photometric web.  I believe this is available in the free "Basic"
version, it is definitely available in the "Pro" version.

I have heard of some efforts to link softwares with online photometric
databases to help avoid the cumbersome and mistake prone process of
finding the correct IES file for the luminaire (w/ options) that is
being modeled.  For example, Visual comes with all Acuity brand
photometrics already in the database - not sure if it can be updated
easily.  There is also a new xml format being developed by IESNA for the
transfer of Luminaire Component Data, separate from photometric data.
Part of the intent with this format is to link it more directly to
manufacturers.  Just thought I'd throw that out there as we discuss any
new photometric tools for Radiance.

Regards,
Zack

-----Original Message-----
From: radiance-general-bounces at radiance-online.org
[mailto:radiance-general-bounces at radiance-online.org] On Behalf Of Lars
O. Grobe
Sent: Wednesday, January 21, 2009 6:52 PM
To: Radiance general discussion
Subject: Re: [Radiance-general] IES file viewer

Hi Greg!
>
> What are the system requirements for your interactive viewer?  Would 
> people like to have something that generates falsecolor plots?  I 
> don't think it would be terribly difficult to create a script for
that.
I have been looking in that, too. I think a great solution would be a
tool that converts IES into

a) .rad: "wireframe" geometry, a bit like what genworm does, normalizing
the dimensions so that one scale it according to luminous output and
place it in a scene to explain light sources' qualities.

b) .meta: polar line plots like the common diagrams we get, which is
what we are used to look at. This would provide an easy way to compare
the data we get in our IES with the data the manufacturer published in
print.

I think both is doeable even using nothing but shell scripts, genworm
and the various plotting utilities coming with radiance. The problem I
was facing was the IES format, with all its variations. To create a
parser that really handles all IES luminaire distribution formats seems
to be not that easy, especially if you want to extract metadata, too
(which would be nice to have included in the plot in case b) and as
comment lines in the scene in case a).

Maybe these two could also be just options for ies2rad...

CU Lars.

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