How to Stay Out of the Dark When Rendering in Revit

For those of you who have spent any time rendering, you probably have discovered that the entire process requires a lot of time and patience. After spending a considerable amount of time perfecting your settings and running many test renderings, nothing can be more frustrating than having lighting issues. As an AEC Applications Specialist and technical support specialist with Ideate, Inc., I have seen many cases in which people complain that their renderings in Revit are too dark or completely black when completed. If you are running into this issue, you may want to look at some key lighting settings to determine if they are the root cause. Verify the following four items and you shall see the light:

STEP 1
Verify that you have the appropriate Lighting Scheme selected for your view. Revit offers (6) different lighting schemes to choose from. For example, if you select the scheme called ‘Interior: Sun only’, then you will not be able to render your view with any artificial light fixtures. 

STEP 2
Once you have determined the appropriate Lighting Scheme, verify that your Light Groups are turned on with a checkmark and that dimming is set to 1. Keep in mind that you can only select Artificial Lights when a Lighting Scheme contains Artificial Lighting. For example, if you select the scheme called ‘Interior: Sun only’, then you will not be able to select any artificial lights fixtures.

STEP 3
Verify that you have selected the appropriate Daylight Portal options for sunlit interior renderings. In order to select the Daylight Portal options, first click the Edit button under the Quality setting of the Rendering dialogue box. This will then open the Render Quality Settings dialogue box. Next, select which rendering quality you want (Draft, Low, Medium, High or Best) then click the Copy to Custom button. This option will then allow you to select which openings you would like to have daylight come through.

STEP 4
If your Artificial Lights are turned on, but little to no light is coming out of the fixture itself, then verify whether your lighting fixture family has geometry, such as a diffuser, that is blocking the light source definition. If you find that there is a diffuser, check to see if the diffuser material has a transparency. If the transparency is not selected, or the percentage is very low, you will see little to no light emission from your fixture.

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Sash Kazeminejad, LEED AP
AEC Application Specialist
Sash Kazeminejad brings proficiency in Autodesk solutions including AutoCAD and Revit Architecture to Ideate customers. His industry experience includes project management, IT, and staff design for Hennebery Eddy Architects in Portland, Oregon. He has completed seven divisions of the Architectural Record Exam, leads Revit workshops, is LEED AP accredited and is on track to achieve California licensure in 2013 with Oregon to follow. In his academic life, Sash was awarded a Montana AIA Scholarship, earned a BA in Environmental Design, an MA in Architecture from Montana State University (MSU) and taught Building Information Modeling (BIM) and related topics at MSU Gallatin College. As a Revit Architecture Autodesk Certified Professional, Sash provides Revit Architecture training and support for AEC firms.

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