As a recommendation, DIALux is quite a handy tool for both light calculations and visualisation. It’s completely free, completely easy and you can download it here.
On youtube, there’s lots of fancy videos made with DIALux by some saudiarabian guy, nevertheless I’m going to link to this one called “My first dialux project”, I think one can achieve a similar simulation in a day with default furniture, windows and downloaded light sources that most larger producers provide.
I think the problem with any kind of institutional education is that when you’re being taught something of a great intellectual value and you’re some 20 years of age and have NO IDEA whatsoever how to put this into practice or whatever connection it might have with Real Life, then you just listen and nod your head and forget about the whole thing. This is how we miss all the great chances to become smart in the University.
I eventually realized what luminous flux has to do with luminous intensity. It’s taken me five years to understand this and I feel stupid for saying this. Freshman knowledge, I know.
The luminous flux (measured in lumens) is all the visible light coming out of the source, any direction, any how, any way. When you look at the light from a fixed angle and take all the light in the area of one steradian, you will get the luminous intensity in candelas. In that direction. And reversed, the luminous flux is the intensity*steradians, suggesting that the intensity is even in all directions.
It took me half an hour to get this simple connection, a step closer to understanding luminous efficacy (lm/W) which shows us how many lumens you get from one watt of radiant flux (emitted energy/seconds) of a light source.
You are more than welcome to correct me if I’m still wrong about this.
I’ve been in Berlin for a whole month now and am moving to the centre next weekend. Eventually I will again enjoy the luxury I’ve been waiting for – internet at home. Maybe better blogging coming up as this happens.
With the work stuff it’s going slowly looney. I got moved to another project as the abudhabi-guy clearly has too little time to spank an extra stupid employee on the way. Now it’s a private villa in St. Petersburg and a hell of a crazy thing that is. These people seem to have six cars, all their children need a private bathroom (at least they can share the nanny, the playroom and the music room), there’s a different kitchen for lunch and dining, in the basement you need three different saunas plus a pool the size of the Pacific Ocean. Et cetera. Oh, and their wardrobes (both his and her) are larger than their bedroom. Both.
Only possible in Russia.
So I keep smacking my monitor for displaying the drawing errors I make on AutoCAD while trying to think architectural and at the same time wishing to understand what does this light source think it is. IS it a light source at all? Or am I doing some decoration work really? I think I failed to get the idea of the designer. (WTF is a Meänder? Some greek pattern? And..?)
Multitasking, it is called. If you do it 10 hours a day, you will get smart. Or you will go mad. Let’s see what happens.
I’m really SO BAD on CAD. Need.. to.. get.. better..
The Centennial Light is a 4-watt light bulb which is accepted by the Guinness Book of World Records as having been burning almost continuously at a fire station in Livermore, California since 1901.
Click on the picture for the bulb’s home page :P
I think it’s beautiful!
So it’s been a week now in Berlin. As expected, I’ve ended up with the two heurekas you eventually stumble upon when finding oneself at anyplace new for a while.
a) I’m broke
b) I’m dumb
Despite Berlin is a lot cheaper than Helsinki, Salzburg, Seoul or any other town I’ve been broke in, it’s no champagne and strawberries here either with the internship salary. It’ll get better once Kultuurkapital (the almighty art funding project of Mother Estonia) decides to give me a grant OR the Ministry of Education (after months of deep pondering) decides me worthy of a study loan. But I’ll be really good at cooking pasta in some time.
Nevertheless it’s possible to, for example, get by a Friday night with 3euro-pizza and 4euro-shiraz, unthinkable even in Estonia. I love this town.
The company I work for is quite a scare. Having never really studied, worked on or even witnessed any sort of Lichtplanung, I resemble a sheep gone blind just seconds ago on a sunny day. It’s OK not to know AutoCAD or light calculation programmes. I’ve never needed them yet. What hurts is to find out that there are also yet miles and mountains of Photoshop yet to be discovered I’ve been so far totally oblivious about. My dear friends, you’d shit kittens too when being welcomed to the Real World. The current project is a stock exchange building (two towers, zillion floors) in Abu Dhabi and that’s about all I know of it. You expect some busy bee (these crazy people work 10h-days) to come explaining a sheep gone blind the details of stock exchange? You wish.
P.S. Ze Germanz have z and y switched on their keyboards, what a menace. At least it’s not the scribbled board the French use, I’m glad.
P.P.S. My brain gets all soft and mushy from speaking German all the time. Blargh.
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