Learn / Electrical Workflow Videos
Using a Light Switch
Electrical · Lighting System · 3m
This lesson teaches you how to effectively use light switches within Revit, focusing on the parameters that define switch zones and IDs. You'll learn how to pair switches with light fixtures and ensure that their subscripts and IDs match for optimal functionality.
Key topics include assigning switch IDs, managing switch zones, and troubleshooting common issues that arise when these elements are not aligned. Gain confidence in creating efficient lighting systems in your projects.
Transcript
Alright. Using switches, you have to keep a couple things in mind. So this family has two parameters, one for showing what the switch zone is, and then the other one is the one to communicate the switch ID to the light fixtures. So one is not tied to the other. So what I can actually do is the subscript here, I can type a different letter in here, and you can see that now this will have a a zone c designation.
However, the switch ID is still a. So let's let's pair this switch with these light fixtures, and I'll show you how this can kind of go sideways if you don't do it right. So in order to assign a switch to a lighting fixture, basically, you select the two lighting fixtures you want on the switch, and then I'm going to click the switch button. Now a switch system has been created. We can select the switch that I wanna use, and you can see here that our labels have these switch IDs built in.
The difference between what this is reading versus what this annotation is reading is that this annotation is a light fixture. The light fixture gives me the option to look for a switch ID, whereas a switch will not allow me to look for a switch ID within itself, which is an odd feature of Revit. So what I can do here, as you can see, I have zone a, zone a. But then here, this switch, you have to make sure that the switch ID and the subscript match. So I'm gonna put a and a, and there we go.
So what you can do, though, is when you change this let's say I actually do wanna make this switch to zone c. So as long as I switch the switch ID to c and then change the subscript to c as well, and I hit apply, you can see how it actually updates the light fixtures for me. So this that's where the power comes in. You just have as long as you make sure that the subscript and the switch switch ID are the same, then this will function very well. So we can go ahead and start making this downlight or these downlights into a separate switch system.
Gonna select this, and then it'll go right here. So there we go. I'm gonna change this back to a just because it makes sense to be a and b. Okay. And there we go. So we have our two center lights on zone a, and then the outer lights are gonna be on zone b. That's how you use the switches.