Improved IES-EULUMDAT conversion in EulumdatTools 0.13.1.v20141027

A new version of EulumdatTools 0.13.1.v20141027 was published on October 27 at http://www.fold1.com/eulumdattools/.

IES to EULUMDAT and EULUMDAT to IES conversion was improved:

• There was an error in conversion of files with absolute photometry, IES files signal this by having a -1 for lumens per lamp, EULUMDAT files signal this by have a negative number of lamps. The conversion now works correctly.
• As the lighting industry is moving over to SSD lighting at tremendous speed, with resulting lower energy consumption, I found that the old rounding of wattage and power consumption are making conversion inaccurate. The number of decimal places for power consumption and wattages was increased to 2.

Availability

Registered users should install this feature following the steps below, new users should install EulumdatTools first. New users can download an apply for 30 day free evaluation license at the installation site

Installation of EulumdatTools

For use in Eclipse you can use the standard Eclipse update site

• http://www.fold1.com/eulumdattools/.

For stand alone RCP versions of EulumdatTools choose your platform and perform update after installation.:

• Windows 32 bit OR Windows 64 bit
• Mac OSX Cocoa 32 bit OR Mac OSX Cocoa 64 bit
• Linux GTK 32 bit OR Linux GTK 64 bit

Installation of Sandbox Feature

Select menu Help / Install New Software... and choose the Eulumdat Tools Sandbox / Sandbox Feature, press Next

Press Next

Accept the license

Accept and Trust my certificates to install this feature

EULUMDAT refactoring now in EulumdatTools 0.13.0.v20141006

A new version of EulumdatTools 0.13.0.v20141006 was published on October 6 at http://www.fold1.com/eulumdattools/.

The EULUMDAT validator was improved by:

• refactoring of EULUMDAT files, changing symmetry, orientation and mirroring

Earlier I described the feature of finding hidden symmetry in EULUMDAT files, today we talk about fixing that.

Refactoring EULUMDAT files

When photometric data files are converted between IES and EULUMDAT, or when a new laboratory is used, of for other historical reasons it happens that photometric files do not have the correct symmetry or orientation. Public lighting products usually have symmetry on the C90-C270 axis, but there appears to be inconsistency on whether C90 aims at the street or curb. Sometimes there is symmetry in the product, but the data has no symmetry defined.

When that happens, EulumdatTools can come to the rescue, in the latest release, with Sandbox Feature installed you can 'refactor' or modify the photometrics in a structured way. The available options are listed in the 'Refactor' menu, that is shown once an EULUMDAT file is open in the editor.

First step is to 'Unroll' the file, to change it from any Symmetry into a Symmetry NONE file. After that you can apply 'Rotation' for 90° clockwise or counter-clockwise or 180°, 'Mirror' over the C90-270 or C0-180 axis until you have the proper position. The final step would be to 'Reduce' the file to Symmetry on C90-270, C0-180 or both axis, or to make it rotation symmetric. After that the file can be saved again. When you do this in the source page view, all of these actions are Undoable.

Availability

Registered users should install this feature following the steps below, new users should install EulumdatTools first. New users can download an apply for 30 day free evaluation license at the installation site

Installation of EulumdatTools

For use in Eclipse you can use the standard Eclipse update site

• http://www.fold1.com/eulumdattools/.

For stand alone RCP versions of EulumdatTools choose your platform and perform update after installation.:

• Windows 32 bit OR Windows 64 bit
• Mac OSX Cocoa 32 bit OR Mac OSX Cocoa 64 bit
• Linux GTK 32 bit OR Linux GTK 64 bit

Installation of Sandbox Feature

Select menu Help / Install New Software... and choose the Eulumdat Tools Sandbox / Sandbox Feature, press Next

Press Next

Accept the license

Accept and Trust my certificates to install this feature

Exporting UF Tables and new expiry

A new version of EulumdatTools 0.11.1.v20140806 was published on August 6 at http://www.fold1.com/eulumdattools/ to replace the non-working 0.11.0.v20140804. In addition to the existing export of "ERCO-like" E/100lux/m² tables EulumdatTools can now also export "UF" or Utilization Factor tables in line with LiTG publication 3.5 directly from correct EULUMDAT files.

• Export of UF tables with user selectable reflectance triplets for Ceiling, Wall and Working Plane.
• Changed the hard coded expiry date for this version to 2015-01-01.
• The version number was updated to 0.11.0.

The Utilisation Factor method uses the following formula to calculate the illuminance E_N: $$E_N = \frac{ LLF . n . \phi . UF }{a . b}$$ The required number of luminaires n can be calculated with the following formula: $$n = \frac{ E_N . a. b }{\phi . UF . LLF}$$ Where

E_N

Illuminance in lux

LLF

Light Loss Factor

a

width of space

b

length of space

\(\phi\)

Luminous flux of luminaire

UF

utilization factor from table

n

number of luminaires

Registered users should upgrade using Check for upgrades. New users can download an apply for 30 day free evaluation license at the installation site

Installation

For use in Eclipse you can use the standard Eclipse update site

• http://www.fold1.com/eulumdattools/.

For stand alone RCP versions of EulumdatTools choose your platform and perform update after installation.:

• Windows 32 bit OR Windows 64 bit
• Mac OSX Cocoa 32 bit OR Mac OSX Cocoa 64 bit
• Linux GTK 32 bit OR Linux GTK 64 bit

Differences in IES format 1995 and before versus 2001 and later

IES files contain 3 number for luminaire luminous length, width and height. By changing sign or setting to zero more shapes than rectangular can be described. In the standard for IES files for 2001 and later the definitions changed. Below is a comparison.

Differences between 1995 and before and 2001 and later IES files.

width	length	height	IES1995 and before	IES2001 and later
0	0	0	point	point
+w	+l	0	rectangular (implied)	rectangular
+w	+l	+h	rectangular (default)	rectangular with sides
-d	0	0	circular	UNDEFINED
-d	-d	0	UNDEFINED	circular
-d	-d	+h	UNDEFINED	vertical circular cylinder
-d	0	+h	vertical circular cylinder	UNDEFINED
-w	-l	0	UNDEFINED	ellipse
-w	-l	+h	UNDEFINED	vertical ellipsoid cylinder
-d	-d	-d	UNDEFINED	sphere
-w	-l	-h	UNDEFINED	ellipsoidal spheroid
-d	+l	-d	UNDEFINED	horizontal circular cylinder along photometric horizontal
0	+l	-d	horizontal circular cylinder along photometric horizontal	UNDEFINED
-w	+l	+h	ellipse allong luminaire length	UNDEFINED
-w	+l	-h	ellipsoid along luminaire length	horizontal ellipsoidal cylinder along photometric horizontal
+w	0	-d	horizontal circular cylinder perpendicular to photometric horizontal	UNDEFINED
+w	-d	-d	UNDEFINED	horizontal circular cylinder perpendicular to photometric horizontal
+w	-l	+h	ellipse cylinder along luminaire width	UNDEFINED
+w	-l	-h	ellipsoid along luminaire width	horizontal ellipsoidal cylinder perpendicular to photometric horizontal
-d	0	-d	sphere	vertical circle facing photometric horizontal
-w	0	-h	UNDEFINED	vertical ellipse facing photometric horizontal

Inconsistent gamma values in EULUMDAT (and IES) files.

When we look at the definition of a C-gamma distribution, we can conclude that gamma angle 0° for each C-plane points in the same direction: straight down. Similarly the gamma angle 180° points straight up, for every C-plane. Consequently it should be considered an ERROR in the file when the luminous intensity values for these coincident angles in either cd/klm, candelas, or footcandles are different! Yet there are many files that have this error! What would be the value you use to calculate glare in that direction, or the illuminance? I think these problems result from the measurement protocols, where the anomalies of temperature variation or impact of orientation during measurement is not properly post-processed. In the next release of EulumdatTools these errors are caught, so that they can be manually corrected.

Using the EulumdatTools Validator to check 4000+ files (How To video)

To illustrate how to use the validator part of EulumdatTools to check the Manufacturers name in a large set of files I created below video.

You will find ready to install downloads for Windows, Linux and Mac OSX both 32 and 64 bit at the download site. 30 day free trial after registration!

New version of EulumdatTools 0.9.10.v20121130 released

A new version of EulumdatTools 0.9.10.v20121130 was published on November 30th at http://www.fold1.com/eulumdattools/. Improvements and bug fixes are as follows:

• Significant speed improvements in the validator by saving all workspace update events (IWorkspaceRunnable & IResourceProxy) till after update.
• Speed ups in some of the QuickFixes that can be opened from the Problem View by executing them directly in the background instead of opening (too) many editors. This is most notable in the Manufacturers Name quick fix that now performs effortlessly using very large (4000+ files) file sets. Further focus will be on improving all checkers this way.
• Numerous small bug fixes that produced errors.
• EVAL licenses have all options of a FULL license during the trial period, except that most batch operations like conversions and quick fixes are limited to max 20 files. UNLICENSED or EXPIRED users will have no use of the validators at all.

Current users of EulumdatTools can use the Check for Updates… menu as described in the below HowTo video.

Apply for 30 day free evaluation license at the installation site

Installation

For use in Eclipse you can use the standard Eclipse update site

• http://www.fold1.com/eulumdattools/.

For stand alone RCP versions of EulumdatTools choose your platform and perform update after installation.:

• Windows 32 bit OR Windows 64 bit
• Mac OSX Cocoa 32 bit OR Mac OSX Cocoa 64 bit
• Linux GTK 32 bit OR Linux GTK 64 bit

New version of EulumdatTools 0.9.9.v20120615 released

A new version of EulumdatTools 0.9.9.v20120615 was published on June 15th at http://www.fold1.com/eulumdattools/. We fixed a bug with the conversion of absolute photometry IES to EULUMDAT where the LOR was calculated incorrectly. This conversion utility is also available free of charge at ies2eulumdat.appspot.com. Apply for 30 day free evaluation license at the installation site

Installation

For use in Eclipse you can use the standard Eclipse update site

• http://www.fold1.com/eulumdattools/.

For stand alone RCP versions of EulumdatTools choose your platform and perform update after installation.:

• Windows 32 bit OR Windows 64 bit
• Linux GTK 32 bit OR Linux GTK 64 bit
• Mac OSX Cocoa 32 bit OR Mac OSX Cocoa 64 bit

New version of EulumdatTools 0.9.4.v20110729 available

A new version of EulumdatTools 0.9.4.v20110729 was published today at http://www.fold1.com/eulumdattools/. We added the conversion of Type B photometry IES files to EULUMDAT to the existing conversion of Type C files. We also hardened the parser so more files with errors can be opened and displayed, so they can be corrected. We extended the hardcoded expiry date of this release to well in 2012.

Some background theory

The photometric intensity distribution in EULUMDAT files is similar to that a Type C IES file. The center of beam is straight down (or up) and there are vertical (IES: lateral) planes rotating around this central down axis. In each vertical (IES: lateral) plane there are a number of vertical angles. For more info see AGI32 website.

Trigonometric conversions

To determine the intensity at a pair of the C and γ angles, we need to interpolate at a corresponding pair of B and β angles. The corresponding B and β angles can be found using these formulas:

tan B = cos C * tan γ

sin β = sin C * sin γ

We added some extra logic to handle the determination of the right quadrant.

Interpolation used

Interpolation is done using standard lagrange over 3 planes and then over the 3 resulting points.

More info

See this book for more details.

Installation

For use in Eclipse you can use the standard Eclipse update site http://www.fold1.com/eulumdattools/. For stand alone RCP versions of EulumdatTools choose your platform:

• Windows XP 32
• Windows Vista & 7 WPF
• Linux GTK 32 bit
• Mac OSX 32 Cocoa bit
• Mac OSX 64 Cocoa bit

New online IES to EULUMDAT Converter now also handles Type B photometry

A new version of the free online IES to EULUMDAT Converter was published today at http://ies2eulumdat.appspot.com/.

We added the conversion of Type B photometry IES files to EULUMDAT to the existing conversion of Type C files.

Some background theory

The photometric intensity distribution in EULUMDAT files is similar to that a Type C IES file. The center of beam is straight down (or up) and there are vertical (IES: lateral) planes rotating around this central down axis. In each vertical (IES: lateral) plane there are a number of vertical angles. For more info see AGI32 website.

Trigonometric conversions

To determine the intensity at a pair of the C and γ angles, we need to interpolate at a corresponding pair of B and β angles. The corresponding B and β angles can be found using these formulas:

tan B = cos C * tan γ

sin β = sin C * sin γ

We added some extra logic to handle the determination of the right quadrant.

Interpolation used

Interpolation is done using standard lagrange over 3 planes and then over the 3 resulting points.

More info

See this book for more details.

New version 0.6.1 of EulumdatTools available

Today FOLD Systems released version 0.6.1 of Eulumdat Tools, the Eclipse based toolset for managing, editing and verifying EULUMDAT photometric files.
This is a recommended update for all users.

Support for Update Site withdrawn

You can check for online updates, but automatic updates do not work yet unfortunately. Instead one must download a complete new version for Windows or Mac OSX.

Converting IES files to EULUMDAT also in EVAL version

You can now convert IES files to EULUMDAT files, by selecting them in Project Explorer and right clicking them. This will be explained in more detail in a separate blog post.

Quick Access to this blog

The help menu now contains shortcuts for going here.

New version 0.6.0 of EulumdatTools available

Today FOLD Systems released version 0.6.0 of Eulumdat Tools, the Eclipse based toolset for managing, editing and verifying EULUMDAT photometric files.

Support for Update Site

You can check for online updates, so you online download and update what has changed.

Foldouts in Project Explorer

You can look at important product details right in the Project Explorer.

More options in Product Properties View

In this view you can examine Symmetry, Gamma (fixed or variable), type of light source, CIE Flux Distribution and Lamp Sets.

Importing files from a ZIP archive

Many manufacturers supply their EULUMDAT photometric data files as ZIP archives. We are going to show how we can import these files directly into our workspace. Eulumdat Tools allows you to import these files directly into the workspace, without first unzipping the archive. Step one is to create an example project in the work space using File/New.../Eulumdat Tools ProjectThen we create a new folder in the project using FIle/New.../Other.../General/Folder and call it eulumdat.
Then we select File/Import.../General/Archive File and press Next.
We browse to an Eulumdat zip we downloaded earlier and select it. We use ERCO data from here.
We can select and deselect individual files in the list before completing by pressing Finish.
Extraction from the ZIP file proceeds.
When new projects or fils are entered in the workspace, they are validated immediately using the current settings.
We can change the settings using Window/Preferences/Eulumdat Tools/Validation and switch off some tests.
Now we are left with a manageable set of warnings and errors and we can proceed to clean up the data.

More details on editing and using Quick Fixes will be covered in a next installment.

Released version 0.5.4 of Eulumdat Tools

Today I released another update to Eulumdat Tools, the Eclipse based workbench for working with photometric files.

Project Explorer (top left side)

On the left is the Project Explorer where we create projects to store the files. The organization per project gives you the opportunity to organize all the files per product range, introduction date, per brand or country. When clicking on a file, it will expand to show the main elements of the content, like product code and name, lamp set and type.

Product Properties (bottom left side)

This view gives you a quick view of product code and name, lamp sets, symmetry and type of the selected file. When you select multiple files in the Project Explorer, all will be shown here. You can use the search field to narrow down and find all files with for example one lamp type.

Outline (top right side)

This view gives you a quick access to a certain line in the EULUMDAT file, so you don't have to count line numbers anymore.
It also shows which lines you can edit freely, and which ones are best left alone.

Editor (top center)

This is a smart Text Editor that knows the structure of EULUMDAT files. Lines are colour code to show the difference between integers, floating point numbers, and plain text. The Editor is shown in Source mode (see tabs at bottom), other views of the same EULUMDAT are also available.

Problems View (bottom right side)

Included with Eulumdat Tools is a validator, that can be configured to check the brand name, lamp type consistency, filled in product codes, and many other checks. When the validator finds a problem, it is shown in the Problems View. Double clicking on the problem will open the Editor with that line selected.

Other features

This workbench comes with many other features, like converting IES to EULUMDAT files, importing from and exporting to ZIP files, creation of images, export to UF or E100 lux tables, etc. All of this will be covered in future blogs.