Lighting analysis grids and therefore pricing are generated from Floor objects (offset +30"). The area of the floor objects included in the analysis determines the price.
| To keep your costs down: |
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Choose only the floors you are interested in.
Sometimes we use floor objects to build exterior surfaces, shading devices, etc. To reduce analyses to only those interior areas you want to study, put all other floors on a different Level and deselect those levels in the Select Study Settings screen. Click 'Check Price' button to review the new price after changing settings.
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Choose one Level at a time to confirm model settings before running a full analysis.
If your level's floor area is below the thresholds, you can often run these setup analyses for free. Click 'Check Price' button to review the new price after changing settings.
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Choose low resolution to confirm model settings before running a high resolution analysis.
Low resolution is not high enough for LEED, but it is enough to check your settings and materials and get comfortable with the tool. If your level's floor area is below the higher low resolution threshold, you can often run these setup analyses for free. Click 'Check Price' button to review the new price after changing settings.
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Only run a new analysis when you make an invalidating change.
Once you get analysis data in your model, you can do a lot with the tool without rerunning an analysis. If you modify Rooms, Room Parameter settings, AVF display styles, Schedule layout and column contents or calculated values, or modify or create new 3d views, just click Generate Results to regenerate Schedules and views from the original data. When you change the model geometry or materials or things like Solatube light fixtures, then you should run a new analysis, as the lighting conditions are changed. Most changes are tracked, and you will get a warning to rerun the analysis or regenerate results, depending on which type of change you made.
- Join finish floors to underlying floor layers on the same level so only one layer is analyzed.
Many designers build floors in layers to use different finish surfaces in different areas of the building. Using Floor objects for this means that there are two floors in practically the same place from which analysis grids are generated. This increases your analysis costs and time. Best practice is to use the Modify tab
Geometry Join tool to join the two layers. You will still be able to show or hide finish floors in different views, but if floors are joined, only the top level will generate an analysis grid.