CircadianLab Walkthrough: Free Lighting Calculator for Foot-Candles, Glare and Melanopic EDI
A full walkthrough of CircadianLab, the free lighting calculator that runs in your browser. Covers the workspace, room size and ceiling, drawing interior walls, laying out luminaires with a grid array, mountings and fixture details with the IES download, the fixture library of 358,979 IES and LDT files, foot-candles, glare (UGR) and melanopic EDI with the WELL v2 tiers, observers and eye-level targets, colour temperature, groups and light scenes, daylight through windows and skylights, reflectances and maintenance factor, furniture, 3D with the lightmap and ray tracing, VR, saved views, the report, share and review links, DWG export, starting from a scan, a drawing or a Revit model, importing a DIALux project, the AI starter prompt, and phones.
Watch on our site: https://www.innerscene.com/tutorials#circadian-lab-walkthrough
Transcript
Intro
Here is a full walkthrough of Circadian Lab, the free lighting calculator that runs in your web browser.
Open CircadianLab
Go to innerscene.com/tools/circadian-lab. It is free, with no account and nothing to install. It opens on a sample room, lit by two Circadian Sky fixtures.
The workspace
The ribbon across the top holds every tool. The project tree on the left lists the room, the luminaires, furniture, observers and saved views. Properties, on the right, edits whatever you select, and the results dock along the bottom keeps the numbers in view.
Set up the room
Click the room, and type its size. This open office is 32 by 24 feet, with a 9 foot ceiling. Switch between feet and metres at any time.
Ceiling shape and grid
Ceiling sets the shape: flat, gable, shed, or a dropped soffit. Turn on the ceiling grid, and fixtures snap into its tiles.
Draw interior walls
Walls draws interior walls. Click each corner, and double-click to finish. Lengths show as you draw. Walls block light, so the plan shows the shadow behind them.
Lay out the luminaires
Right-click a fixture, and choose Create Grid Array. By Count, two across and two deep, spaces four fixtures evenly. Click a fixture to select it. Drag it to move it, or turn it with its handle.
Mounting and fixture details
Properties sets the mounting: flush or surface on the ceiling, a lay-in troffer, or on a wall. Wall fixtures and cove lighting add from the luminaire list. Details shows the photometry, and downloads the IES file at the colour temperature and dimming you have set.
The fixture library
Browse Library holds 358,979 IES and LDT files from 202 manufacturers. Search by name, and open a fixture to see its candela curve and output. Add it as one fixture, a row, or a grid. You can also import your own IES or LDT file.
Foot-candles, glare and mel-EDI
Pick Footcandles to see the light on the work surface, with the average, minimum and maximum in the results. Glare shows the Unified Glare Rating at eye height. Offices aim for 19 or less. mel-EDI is the circadian measure from CIE S 026. The dashed line marks 136, the WELL v2 Tier 1 target, and the solid line 250, Tier 2. View the vertical planes facing north, east, south or west, or the highest of them.
Observers and eye-level targets
WELL measures mel-EDI at the eye. Add an observer, then set the posture, sitting, standing or lying, and the direction they face. The results dock shows each observer's mel-EDI and glare, and checks them against the WELL targets.
Colour temperature, groups and light scenes
Circadian Sky fixtures start at 40,000 kelvin, the colour of a clear blue sky. Drag the colour temperature down to 3000 kelvin, and the mel-EDI falls with it. Put fixtures in groups, and save their dimming and colour temperature as light scenes, like a bright morning and a warm evening, then recall each one with a click.
Daylight
Window adds daylight through a window or a skylight. Pick a date and time, June 21 at noon, and the sky: clear, hazy or overcast. The sun follows the city you choose, and the compass turns the building to face the right way.
Calculation settings
With nothing selected, Properties holds the wall, floor and ceiling reflectances and the maintenance factor, set the way DIALux sets them.
Furniture
Furniture lays out desks in rows and columns, and the furniture library adds 495 models: chairs, sofas, beds and more.
3D, walk, lightmap and ray tracing
Switch to 3D to look around, or walk through the room at eye height. Light paints the calculated light onto every surface. Ray traced renders a room physically and refines it while you watch, here with furniture and people standing, sitting and lying down.
View it in VR
File, then View in VR headset, gives a code. Type it into the browser on a Quest or Vision Pro headset, and walk the room at full size.
Saved views
Views, then Add standard set, saves a foot-candle, a glare, a mel-EDI and a 3D view in one click, and Overview shows them side by side.
The report
Report builds a document with the room, the fixture schedule, the results, WELL v2 compliance, the heatmaps, and a page of assumptions and data quality. Print it, or save it as a PDF.
Share, review and export
Share saves the room, and copies a link that opens it exactly as you see it. Share for review sends your saved views to a client. They open the link, and comment on each view, pinned to the plan. Export writes DWG and DXF plans, a vector PDF, and 3D models.
Ways to start
Start from what you have. Scan a room with a LiDAR iPhone or iPad, import a room, or trace walls from a PDF, DXF or DWG drawing. Open brings back scenes saved on this computer. Revit, IFC and DIALux projects open in our free 3D viewer, and Open in Circadian Lab brings a room across, ready for luminaires.
Import a DIALux project
DIALux projects come across too. Open the file in our free DIALux viewer, then Open in Circadian Lab brings in the room, its luminaires and its furniture.
Design with AI
AI gives you a starter prompt to plan a room with an AI assistant, which then builds the layout here.
Phones and tablets
On a phone or tablet, Circadian Lab shows the plan with its results, and the same tools sit in a sheet you swipe up.
Summary
That is Circadian Lab, the free lighting calculator at innerscene.com. Links are in the description.
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