[Radiance-general] Sources for material reflectances

[Greg Ward]

Hi Krystyna,

Google led me straight to a little Radiance material collection at the BPS wiki site:

	http://archbps1.campus.tue.nl/bpswiki/index.php/Radiance

I wish there were more there, but the nice thing about a wiki is that everyone can contribute.  Measuring materials and getting them right in Radiance is time-consuming, and usually tackled on a per-model basis.  As an architect, I'm sure you appreciate how variable even something as basic as gray masonry blocks can be.  Even if manufacturers produced to a uniform reflectance, the material pattern and scale can vary significantly.  Nevertheless, it would be a big help to just have a comprehensive set of generic materials.

We should probably link the above in Francesco Anselmo's wiki site, which is also worth a look

	http://www.bozzograo.net/radiancewiki/doku.php?id=material_collections

Best,
-Greg

> From: Krystyna Zelenay <kzelenay at berkeley.edu>
> Date: April 15, 2011 4:19:10 PM PDT
> 
> Hi,
> 
> I was wondering whether there are any comprehensive sources with
> material visible light reflectances (for a range of construction
> materials)? I have come across publications that have some information
> but they typically contain only a few material reflectances, rarely
> more than 20 and do not go into much detail about anticipated
> variations in material reflectances. I often I have to look up one
> material reflectance in one source and then look for another material
> in another source.
> 
> I looked through the Radiance archives and while the question of a
> database has come up before, it sounds like there is no such database?
> Is there at least a relatively comprehensive source one could
> reference for architectural lighting analyses?
> 
> Thank you,
> 
> Krystyna