I have been a lighting designer for more than a decade now and I keep using the same software which made all my projects a success. This software is the Dialux. But with the advent of Dialux evo, I said this is my perfect software. Here are the Top 10 amazing features of Dialux evo on my list and why I keep using it.
1. Spotlight on
2. Indoor and Outdoor Calculations
3. High-quality visuals
4. Light Scenes
5. Luminaire Partnership (Lumsearch)
6. 3D object luminaire
7. Daylight calculations
8. Calculation options
9. IFC file import
10. Free!
Spotlight On
This is one of the coolest features of Dialux evo. You can see the effect of luminaire immediately once you selected one luminaire and turn on the "Show Light Visualization" button.
This is very useful when you are working in landscape, retail, and facade lighting designs where you need to see the effect of light on the surface or object at once.
Indoor and Outdoor Calculations
Another amazing feature of Dialux evo is the indoor and outdoor lighting calculations combined. This is where you will see and judge the effect of light from indoors to outside or vise versa.
It is beneficial if for example, you are working on a car showroom project and you are thinking if it is necessary to add a bollard outside the parking or not because the light from the glass wall is enough to light up that area. See the sample image below. In this example, indoor light is enough to highlight the parking in front of the building.
High-Quality Visuals
Gone are the days where the lighting design calculations look like a rigid structure all over. When I first use Dialux and saw the Raytrace image or the Render image, I got disappointed. I said to myself, how come this image will impress the client or the architect or the interior designer?
Nobody will appreciate the light in a cube or rigid structure! Unless of course that is the concept of the building or they are working on a lego project.
Until Dialux evo has released. This software has a combination of Dialux efficiency and AGI32 flexibility. The rendered image and Raytrace pictures become soft and pleasing to look at. It becomes similar to 3DMax software with the precise lighting effect based on the photometric files.
Light Scenes
I love this feature because you can play with light and color based on the given ULD file. You can easily show to the client how the room or space looks once you dimmed down or turn off some of the luminaires.
But of course, to maximize the potential of this light scene, go and check the GIF animation and apply it to your presentation.
You may watch this video tutorial on how to use it.
Luminaire Partnership (Lumsearch)
If you are a beginner lighting designer and you don't know how to select the luminaire yet, you will love this feature.
It's like a filter where you can select the luminaire by categories or by specifications. Once you selected the choices, Lumsearch will give you options from different brands. Then, you can download the photometric file and use it in your design.
You can try it here. https://lumsearch.com/
3D object luminaire
If you want to use light and use its aesthetic body feature in your design, then Dialux evo can do it for you. Compare to other software, ULD file for Dialux evo gives the correct shape of the luminaire while other software will only give you a cube, or a flat circle. See the image below for some of the ULD files with their 3D objects luminaire.
Daylight calculations
This feature is very important if your projects are schools, offices, or any commission which require LEED or BREAM certifications. Even if it doesn't need any green building certification, this daylighting option with become your cutting edge in showing-off to your client that you consider the most efficient lighting design by integrating daylight into artificial light, which at the end of the day will reduce the power consumption which leads to their financial savings.
Calculation options
There, you can select if you want to include the objects in your calculations, or you just want to calculation one room, the flexibility of choosing the calculation options in Dialux evo is really fantastic!
IFC file import
REVIT is a new thing in the design and construction industry. We can now use the object from Revit called IFC file in our lighting design calculations. Compare to .3ds file and .md3 file, IFC file is much lighter and can be modified individually inside the Dialux evo software.
Watch this video to see how cool the IFC file in Dialux evo. https://youtu.be/iah7sIa-lsw
Free!
Well then, nobody can beat a lighting design software that is free to use.
You can download it now for free at this link https://www.dialux.com/en-GB/download
Enjoy learning!
