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Calculate Areas

ElumTools is designed to utilize Revit's bounding elements to define the calculation volume to be used to obtain luminaire positions and relevant geometry. Areas are an alternate choice to Regions for exterior analysis, or to Rooms and Spaces for interiors.

Before using the Calculate commands, luminaire instances should exist in the target Area(s), or Daylighting Mode enabled and set to compute daylight only. You can also use ElumTools Layout Assistant or place luminaire instances manually.

Calculation points should also have been placed in the Area prior to calculation if point- by-point results are desired.

When selecting the Calculate Area command, ElumTools will allow you to select a single Area and proceed to compute the results. Multiple Areas can be computed by selecting the Calculate Multiple version of the command. You may also select as many Areas as you desire in Revit directly, then simply click the main Calculate button on the toolbar.

Area Calculation Procedure (single)

If you have not yet placed Calculation Points in the Areas of interest you may want to cancel this command and do this first.
Select the ElumTools Calculate Area command.
Select the Area of interest.
As the calculation process begins, ElumTools will open a visualization window displaying an interactive rendering for the selected Area.
Calculation Points are visible in the rendered environment if enabled from the Display Options menu. They are also visible using the ElumTools View Results command.

Tips for using Areas

Areas are view-specific in Revit. Using an Area for calculations requires that you have an "Area Plan" (created from Revit's View tab), which will then contain any Areas that you create (from Revit's Architecture tab). You will need to be in the Area Plan view to use the Calculate Area command.

When using Areas for interior work, you will need to set the upper and lower offsets to encompass only the geometry you are interested in. By default, Areas are unbounded in the vertical direction. In a multi-floor structure, calculating an unbounded Area will result in geometry from all floors being included in the computation and rendering.