Architectural_Design_with_SketchUp

Architectural Design with SketchUp
For your renderings, evaluate how a light would look in real
life and adjust the values accordingly. As mentioned, always use at
least a slightly larger number for falloff rather than making both
numbers equal.
IES Lights
Figure 5.51: Spotlight properties
One method for adding realism to a light source without using either
an omni light or a spotlight is to use Illuminating Engineering Society
(IES) light definitions. As long as your rendering software supports
this, using IES lights will immediately provide a high level of realism
because the file that describes an IES light source has been generated
by measuring a specific light fixture’s light distribution. Using
a specific luminaire’s IES data (from an ERCO spotlight, for example)
in your renderings gives you an accurate preview of how the actual
light will look in a scene. (See Figure 5.52.)
Figure 5.52: IES light data (left: data visualization; right: rendering—created with IES Generator 4)
Using IES lights is usually fairly simple. The first step is to get the appropriate IES file for
a luminaire. Nowadays, manufacturers of high-end light fixtures usually allow you to download
one file for each luminaire from their website. The following are a few websites where
you can find IES tools and files:
www.rip3d.net/web/en.html#/free/downloads—This site provides a free IES file viewer and file
creator software.
www.lightolier.com/home/file-finder.jsp?ftype=ies—One manufacturer’s download page for IES
files. Also browse other manufacturers’ websites for their data (e.g., ERCO, Philips).
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