DIALux now has an official support board

Mr. Willi Bremecker, the Team Leader for Sales at DIAL – makers of DIALux – has informed me that there is now an official DIALux forum on their website! Hooorayy!!!! While I don’t want to chase traffic away from my blog, as a community leader and a believer in community support, I wholeheartedly recommend everyone register on the forum and contribute your knowledge there, as well as here, in an effort to make DIALux as good as it can be or better. Free programs like this need a chain of quality support sites to help the product develop and grow and to assist the community at large with using a program we all know and love. Kudos to DIAL for taking the next step and I hope to see some first class community support at the forum (but don’t stop contributing here either ) LOL

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Architectural Lighting Blog wins award…sort of…

I got tired of not having awards so I did what I think ALL blog writers SHOULD do….give themselves an award. So I came up with the Self-Awarded Blog Award for 2008 and gave it to the Architectural Lighting Blog. It was a tough choice….it came down to several good finalists but in the end, my desire for shameless self promotion overtook the other competitors leaving the Architectural Lighting Blog with the crown! LOL

So here it is….the winner of the 2008 Self-Awarded Blog Awards…..the Architectural Lighting Blog! Boy am I getting punchy or what?

FREE Commercial Building Lighting Web Tool

The Department of Energy (DOE) has developed an interactive web tool called Commercial Lighting Solutions (CLS) intended to provide “how to” advice about ways to improve interior lighting efficiency and reduce energy consumption for a potential savings of 30% or more in commercial buildings.

The design guidance provided by the web tool will be available free of charge! How cool is that?

The web tool that provides energy savings projections to users based on their choices.

CLS gathers information from users on building type and space description, then allows the user to select their preferred lighting solution, which include performance specifications for lighting equipment and controls, design layouts, and supporting documentation. Also included is detailed technical information aimed at architects and engineers.

CLS will also link users to participating utilities, where applicable, to access rebates and incentives.

A project of the Building Technologies Program at the DOE, the CLS team is currently gathering feedback while the CLS tool is in beta and making changes based on the feedback they are getting from it’s users.

Commercial Lighting Solutions have currently been developed and analyzed for five macro-types of retail stores with more on the way:

• Big box
• Small box
• Grocery
• Specialty market
• Pharmacy

Designed to meet or exceed the savings levels to qualify for Energy Policy Act tax incentives, the solutions are being developed in conjunction with an update to the Advanced Lighting Guidelines.

When it is ready, users of the Commercial Lighting Solutions web site often will have a choice of several design vignettes and lighting control strategies that suit parameters they input for their project.

A solution can be implemented as shown, or it an be used as a starting point for a design that is refined to serve particular corporate branding, architectural or business objectives.

Modeled results for each solution included on the web site must show decreased energy consumption of 30% or greater below a baseline design. Some of the solutions have achieved modeled savings of 50% or more!

Click here to check out the FREE Commercial Lighting Solutions Beta Tool

Originally reported on lighting.com

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Another New DIALux Plugin

Hess has introduced a large DIALux plugin with over 2200 luminaires and variations! Kewl They have mimicked their website’s navigation in the plugin’s user interface which should make for easy browsing.

Click here to shoot off to their website to pickup the plugin.

Let me know how it goes!

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Some more Sketchup & Kerkythea Images

Here are some examples of the power of Sketchup Pro and Kerkythea. Here I have some harware: screws, nuts, wing bolts, etc… that I modeled completely in Sketchup Pro from scratch. The first image in the group shows them rendered in Sketchup Pro. The remaining images were all rendered in Kerkythea using my own custom-created HDRI images for lighting and some basic textures applied. I think the results are stunning. Let me know what you think.

P.s. I have some 3D models I made for sale on my website (these hardware pieces I’ll be giving away for FREE soon). Click here to check them out.

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ERCO releases new 2008 DIALux plugin

ERCO has released their entire lighting products catalog as a plugin for DIALux available as a download or you may request a DVD. All ULD planning data is included as well as 3D models for the luminaires. If anybody uses their luminaires, let me know what you think.

Click here to get the plugin

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I’m back once again!

Whewwww! Finally, I have sent my companies catalog off to our designer after months of compiling data, creating technical illustrations from scratch, coordinating a 3-day photoshoot, writing dozens of applications notes, and countless hours of Photoshopping! NOW, I can get back to doing all the OTHER stuff I do around here like posting on my blogs!

I am getting great feedback from visitors here about the DIALux sections and it would appear that this blog is becoming a good community forum for DIALux related discussion which is FANTASTIC! Keep on discussing!