On the way to a bigger project, I've written a little 3-D interactive IES file viewer. Is anyone interested in a look at it? Is it useful for anyone's work?
Randolph
Uh, yeah! Bring it on!
···
On Jan 21, 2009, at 10:37 AM, R Fritz wrote:
On the way to a bigger project, I've written a little 3-D interactive IES file viewer. Is anyone interested in a look at it? Is it useful for anyone's work?
Randolph
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I second Rob's comment. I usually have to use AGI to check an IES file's orientation prior to bringing the file into Radiance. Especially when dealing with asymmetric distributions.
Mark
Message: 1
···
Date: Wed, 21 Jan 2009 10:48:48 -0700
From: Rob Guglielmetti <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: [Radiance-general] IES file viewer
To: Radiance general discussion <[email protected]>
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed; delsp=yes
Uh, yeah! Bring it on!
On Jan 21, 2009, at 10:37 AM, R Fritz wrote:
On the way to a bigger project, I've written a little 3-D
interactive IES file viewer. Is anyone interested in a look at it?
Is it useful for anyone's work?Randolph
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End of Radiance-general Digest, Vol 59, Issue 16
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Hi Randolph,
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.
-Greg
···
From: "Mark de la Fuente" <[email protected]>
Date: January 21, 2009 12:36:50 PM PSTI second Rob's comment. I usually have to use AGI to check an IES file's orientation prior to bringing the file into Radiance. Especially when dealing with asymmetric distributions.
Mark
Message: 1
Date: Wed, 21 Jan 2009 10:48:48 -0700
From: Rob Guglielmetti <[email protected]>Uh, yeah! Bring it on!
On Jan 21, 2009, at 10:37 AM, R Fritz wrote:
> On the way to a bigger project, I've written a little 3-D
> interactive IES file viewer. Is anyone interested in a look at it?
> Is it useful for anyone's work?
>
> Randolph
I wrote ltview many years ago, as another ies file viewer (particularly for asymmetric distributions), too. You can download a copy at:
http://www.rumblestrip.org/downloads/files/ltview.tgz
ltview is just a modification of the objview utility that ships with Radiance, and places a light fixture distribution (converted with the ies2rad utility) centered in a box with some parameters crucial to the proper rendering of a photometric distribution preset. The distribution is centered in the box and the view is preset looking along the positive y axis. It's configured for inches as the default units, so if dealing with metric, use "-bs .62" to scale the "box size" to a more proper size.
But I am also interested in seeing this new 3D viewer!!
More info on ltview is located here:
http://www.rumblestrip.org/2004/05/10/ltview-a-radiance-utility/
- Rob Guglielmetti
···
On Jan 21, 2009, at 1:36 PM, Mark de la Fuente wrote:
I second Rob's comment. I usually have to use AGI to check an IES file's orientation prior to bringing the file into Radiance. Especially when dealing with asymmetric distributions.
Oh, my! That's a lot of response. OK, I'll pack it up & get it out.
What I've got plots the photometry diagrams in 3-D like, I believe, the AGI photometry mechanic does. It's a very simple viewer. Unlike the AGI, I don't have an editing capability. There's a text HTML summary facility which "almost" works. I'm not sure where that fits in people's ideas of such things, but it sounds like it's worth bundling up & distributing.
System requirements: I have a Mac application which one can just run on 10.5, or you need python, wxpython, and pyopengl. It works on Mac, sort-of works on Windows.
···
--
Randolph Fritz
design machine group
architecture department
university of washington
[email protected]
Oh, yes! Probably works on any Linux or Unix system that supports OpenGL, but I haven't tested it.
···
--
Randolph Fritz
design machine group
architecture department
university of washington
[email protected]
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.
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: [email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]] 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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[email protected]
http://www.radiance-online.org/mailman/listinfo/radiance-general
By popular demand, PhotomView 0.2 may be downloaded from:
http://students.washington.edu/rfritz/photom_view/
user/password = phoview/radiance
There are three files there:
pvsrc.zip (16KB) contains the sources; as far as I know they'll work on any system that has a fairly recent python and supports wxpy and Python OpenGL.
PhotomView.zip (15MB, no, that's not a typo--it's big). A zipped Mac OS application bundle; I expect it to work on any current Leopard Mac--just unzip it and double-click on the app. As far as I know it's complete in itself.
ies_files.zip (29KB)
Operation, I hope, is simple: select the "file>open" menu item and pick an IES file; if it's type C photometry, you'll see a wireframe picture of the photometry (types A and B aren't yet supported). Hold down the first mouse button and drag--you can rotate it. The XY plane is the blue one. If you select the "Window>Show Photometric Data" menu item it shows the photometric data as formatted text. That's the whole functionality.
It's alpha. The biggest limitation, of course, is that it only supports type C photometry. It would be, as we say, A Small Matter of Programming to support types A and B but I'm frying other fish (and being graded on them!) at the moment.
The best thing, I think, in the sources is the iesphotom.py module, which is a general-purpose IES photometry parser. I think it's pretty complete, though some of the odd corners of the 1995 spec may not work. ([BLOCK] keyword, anyone? I did make an effort, but I've no idea if it's complete. And no MGF support--sorry, Greg.) Iesphotom.py uses the public domain markup.py module, which I've included, to generate HTML-formatted photometry output. If you invoke it as "python iesphotom.py file.ies" it will send an HTML-formatted version of the photometry to the standard output.
If you want to work with the PhotomView.py graphical file, you will need Python (2.3.5 or higher) and the wxPython, numpy, and PyOpenGL packages; wxPython is bundled with MacOS 10.5. It has problems on Windows, but does operate with Python 2.5.
(There is no numpy on Windows Python 2.6 yet.) If you try it on *nix, let me know if it works.
Have fun! Let me know about the changes.
Randolph
Hi Randolph,
Interesting little tool!
I tried it in Kubuntu and it works perfectly (I have python, wxpython and
pyopengl aready installed).
Few remarks:
-No About dialog (I saw you haven't put event handler for it). It would be
nice to put some short text.
-Maybe some legend about planes colors should be aded. Maybe in About dialog
or some tool-tip when we are on image.
Otherwise, I think it can be very useful for fast IES files exploration.
Marija
···
On Thu, Jan 22, 2009 at 8:23 AM, R Fritz <[email protected]> wrote:
By popular demand, PhotomView 0.2 may be downloaded from:
Yes, well I was thinking much more along the lines of what Rob has already done, that is provide a means to graphically confirm a luminaire's output distribution in a Radiance context. I.e., it should take ies2rad output, not reinterpret the IES file, as Zack and others have noted that ies2rad itself is occasionally suspect. Also, having the Radiance coordinates as a final check of placement in the scene is often useful.
I don't use IES files that often myself, which is probably why I have never spent much time on this. I just thought a false color fisheye image might be an interesting way to confirm the IES file was being loaded and interpreted and placed correctly. Sounds like there are enough tools out there already, though.
-Greg
···
From: "Lars O. Grobe" <[email protected]>
Date: January 21, 2009 5:52:21 PM PSTHi 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.
Yes, well I was thinking much more along the lines of what Rob has already done, that is provide a means to graphically confirm a luminaire's output distribution in a Radiance context. I.e., it should take ies2rad output, not reinterpret the IES file, as Zack and others have noted that ies2rad itself is occasionally suspect. Also, having the Radiance coordinates as a final check of placement in the scene is often useful.
I agree, it might be nice to simply add a grid to the planes in ltview with some labels on it. As long as the user knows the default view it's self-explanatory, but having labeled grids in the view would allow one to create rendering/snapshots of the distributions for documentation. And yes, that is exactly why I made ltview, is to confirm the ies2rad output. I wanted to see exactly what radiance was going to "see".
I don't use IES files that often myself, which is probably why I have never spent much time on this. I just thought a false color fisheye image might be an interesting way to confirm the IES file was being loaded and interpreted and placed correctly. Sounds like there are enough tools out there already, though.
Another cool thing would be to create a 3D mesh from the distribution. Several years Erco Lighting did a project where they created volume models of their light fixtures' distributions and then rendered them in Lightscape. It was very cool. I'd assume vwrays could somehow be used to do something similar, but I don't know. Falsecolor fisheye could be useful though, too.
- Rob
···
On Jan 22, 2009, at 9:17 AM, Greg Ward wrote:
Having the ability to look at a 3d web interactively (ie rotate the web or orbit around it) really helps to understand it. On my old version of AGI, (they have probably updated this) I can bring up the 3d web but can't orbit around it. In the render view, where you can orbit around the fixture, the web is not shown. So the only way to look at different parts of the web is to change the view to one of the preset isometric or orthogonal views. This is OK, but not as good as being able to rotate it (or rotate around it).
I seem to remember Lightscape having the ability to display the 3d web of a light fixture. This made it very simple to aim the light properly.
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Thank you--I'm glad to hear it works on Linux. I'll get back to these, but it may be a while.
Randolph
Marija Velickovic wrote:
···
Hi Randolph,
Interesting little tool!
I tried it in Kubuntu and it works perfectly (I have python, wxpython and pyopengl aready installed).Few remarks:
-No About dialog (I saw you haven't put event handler for it). It would be nice to put some short text.
-Maybe some legend about planes colors should be aded. Maybe in About dialog or some tool-tip when we are on image.Otherwise, I think it can be very useful for fast IES files exploration.
Marija
On Thu, Jan 22, 2009 at 8:23 AM, R Fritz <[email protected] > <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
By popular demand, PhotomView 0.2 may be downloaded from:
http://students.washington.edu/rfritz/photom_view/
------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Radiance-general mailing list
[email protected]
http://www.radiance-online.org/mailman/listinfo/radiance-general
--
Randolph Fritz
design machine group
architecture department
university of washington
[email protected]
More Radiance-specific stuff is on the way; this is part of a larger project.
Randolph
Greg, when I get a bit further along, and have a place to integrate these, I'd love to see them!
Greg Ward wrote:
···
Hi Randolph,
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.
-Greg
From: "Mark de la Fuente" <[email protected]>
Date: January 21, 2009 12:36:50 PM PSTI second Rob's comment. I usually have to use AGI to check an IES file's orientation prior to bringing the file into Radiance. Especially when dealing with asymmetric distributions.
Mark
Message: 1
Date: Wed, 21 Jan 2009 10:48:48 -0700
From: Rob Guglielmetti <[email protected]>Uh, yeah! Bring it on!
On Jan 21, 2009, at 10:37 AM, R Fritz wrote:
> On the way to a bigger project, I've written a little 3-D
> interactive IES file viewer. Is anyone interested in a look at it?
> Is it useful for anyone's work?
>
> Randolph_______________________________________________
Radiance-general mailing list
[email protected]
http://www.radiance-online.org/mailman/listinfo/radiance-general
--
Randolph Fritz
design machine group
architecture department
university of washington
[email protected]
I agree with Marija's comment, it is easy to lose your bearings after
rotating the fixture a bit and forget which axis is which. Might be
difficult to do with actual text labels for X Y and Z in a 3D view, but
Sketchup and AutoCAD seem to agree on a red X axis, green Y axis, and
blue Z axis. In sketchup the positive axes are a bolder color than the
negative axes for clarity (of course it's easy to recommend additions to
other peoples work 
Another handy feature would be just to display the maximum candela value
of the distribution, to be able to judge the total output quickly
without going to the "Show Photometric Data" window.
that being said ... it's a great tool, Thanks!
Maybe some legend about planes colors should be aded. Maybe in About
dialog or some tool-tip when we are on image.
···
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