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Revit 2017 Switches & Lights

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    Revit 2017 Switches & Lights

    I'm having trouble figure out what is going on 'behind the scenes' with Revit 2017 lights and switches.
    I've read everything I can find but it still isn't clear. I'm doing residential projects with a single panel,
    ceiling lights, and wall switches. I'm not having any trouble with the panel and receptacles and am able
    to chain and populate those so they are assigned to the panel correctly, and the wires display as lines.
    Here are questions for the items that confuse me:

    -The switches available in the provided library do not seem to have connectors. I have added a single
    connector for the single switch. What do I do for a double switch, or a three way switch?
    - When I place a single switch and a single light, I seem to be able to assign an electrical circuit to
    either (or both). The examples I've seen suggest that assigning lights to a circuit is correct and the
    switch should not have a circuit assigned to it. Is this correct?
    - What is going on behind the scenes for Switch Systems? I think this information is kept separately.
    But I can't find anything that displays the information in a table like I can with the load center.
    is there something?
    - Although I can see the dashed line wire from a light to a switch when I select the light then hit Tab,
    I am unable to permanently make it visible (a wire), like I can with circuit wires. How do I do this?
    (Is this possibly a view range problem?)
    - When I place all of the lights for a level, I connect them using one or two circuits. Do I then separately
    connect switches to lights (or groups of lights)? I.E., usually all the lights are on one circuit, but each room
    has a separate light for one or more switches.
    - When I am Editing a Switch System, and trying to select a switch, they all seem to have the same name,
    which is the name of the Switch ID. Can Switch ID's have unique names?
    Thanks much!

    #2
    This is an area of Revit that needs some improvements. I've seen people handle these issues in multiple ways. Here are some of my thoughts:

    1. The default Revit light switch family should contain an electrical connector. It also has multiple types, such as Single Pole, Three Way, Four Way, etc.
    2. I actually like to include the light switch on the same circuit as the light fixtures. I've seen many others do the same. I guess you don't have to though. In projects where I don't have much time, I create circuits and don't even mess with switch systems.
    3. Switch systems do not appear in the System Browser with the other systems. You can create a schedule showing the Switch Systems if needed.
    4. I don't believe you can actually show (wire) the switch systems.
    5. Once again, I add the light switches to the circuits. As for wiring the circuits, you can wire everything together and use tags to indicate switching based on the switch ID. The light fixture and light switch have a Switch ID parameter. If you use this, you will need to create switch systems to get everything to populate correctly. If you don't, there are other workarounds.
    6. Switch IDs should be different. They may be the same if they were copied.

    Comment


      #3
      I would suggest submitting your ideas to the Revit Ideas page so people can vote them up
      Revit Ideas - Autodesk Community
      Dave Plumb
      BWBR Architects; St Paul, MN

      CADsplaining: When a BIM rookie tells you how you should have done something.

      Comment


        #4
        I would suggest submitting your ideas to the Revit Ideas page so people can vote them up
        Revit Ideas - Autodesk Community
        Dave Plumb
        BWBR Architects; St Paul, MN

        CADsplaining: When a BIM rookie tells you how you should have done something.

        Comment


          #5
          Will do... thanks for the reminder!

          Comment


            #6
            Originally posted by jboehning View Post
            2. I actually like to include the light switch on the same circuit as the light fixtures.
            How does one do that? Let's say 1L1 is the name of the circuit between the light fixtures and the panel. How does one assign 1L1 as the circuit for the light switch as well. When I try to do that I get 2L1 instead, which is a different circuit all together with the connected load as 0 A. Moreover, 1L1 is not an option in the circuit selection dropdown as well.


            Comment

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