Advantages and disadvantages of the master lighting program

Lighting professionals understand the indispensable need for software to achieve high-quality lighting design. These programs act as design facilitators, tools for validating calculations, and means for obtaining professional renderings, providing the client with a preview of the end result of their project.

There are many programs on the market, such as Luxicon, Visual, Helios32, Radiance, IES Virtual Environment, LightTool, and TracePro. Each has a purpose and area of ​​expertise. However, focusing on the Mexican market, the most popular are DIALux, AGi32 and Relux, each with their own advantages and disadvantages.

AGI32 It is characterized by its ability to perform accurate lighting calculations and its rapid display. It has been specifically designed for street and outdoor lighting, and is optimized to accurately model lighting effects in such contexts. Although its interface is intuitive, its big drawback is the cost of its license.

relux, for its part, is another valuable tool for lighting planning. It allows catalogs of luminaires from different manufacturers to be combined and integrated into virtual spaces designed for lighting systems. In addition, it facilitates the calculation of energy consumption for lighting design, and is ideal for those projects seeking compliance with energy efficiency regulations or certifications such as LEED.

Deluxe It has evolved over time, establishing itself as a powerful tool for lighting calculations. It offers the ability to import blueprints from AutoCAD, which facilitates 3D modeling. In addition, it has advanced tools for calculating power consumption, simulating dimming, rendering with ray tracing effects, not forgetting the ability to import luminance files.

The similarities between these three programs lie in the fact that, in addition to their use for lighting design and calculations using optical files, they act as a guarantee of compliance with specific regulations. They make it possible to ensure adherence to certain standards and serve as analysis tools for both new designs and existing systems, replicating existing conditions. While each program has a unique graphical interface, they all provide an easy-to-use design environment, making it easy to create realistic digital spaces to accurately simulate the behavior of light.

What makes each of these programs unique? There are crucial differences. For example, DIALux is developed by the German company DIAL GmbH and is very popular in Europe, just like Relux. The AGI32 is a product of American Lighting Analysts Inc. In terms of rendering, DIALux is known for its photorealistic renderings, AGI32 for its accuracy in shadows and reflections, and Relux for its power in this feature.

Finally, licensing is the deciding factor for many. While DIALux and Relux offer completely free, full versions, the AGI32 comes at a cost. Although there are paid plugins for DIALux and Relux also has a premium version, its free versions are usually sufficient for most projects. For its part, the cost of the AGI32 is justified by its advanced features.

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