Topic: AutoCAD General : Lights are layer-exempt?

[JCTER]

I don't use lights in scenes very often at all, I typically just use the Sun with Sky Illumination and leave it at that.

However, I slapped some lights in, and when I went to assign them to a layer, so I could freeze them at will, I realized they have -no- property entry for layer.

Has this -always- been the case?

Am I going crazy?  Are light objects simply 'there' and not applicable to normal drawing organization/manipulation methods?

[mjfarrell]

YES

Another thing to consider regarding lights in drawings:

Each light you add to the drawing is listed by name and type in the Lights in Model palette (LIGHTLIST). Lights in blocks and xrefs, the sun, and default lighting are not included

notice in the attached there are NO layer properties?

[JCTER]

If you're right... that sucks.  I'd really like to be able to manage multiple lighting methods without having to select individual lights and turning them off.  Some lights don't work well in blocks, either.  I imagine that goes for lights in xrefs too, but haven't tried.  I can think of a few workarounds, but it doesn't really seem worth it.

Seems a rather short sighted implementation, unless I'm just unaware of underlying complications with lighting objects that blocks this feature.

[mjfarrell]

I've found that blocking ALL lights in and out of a file is a fairly easy way to manage multiple lighting schemes within a single file.



Each light you add to the drawing is listed by name and type in the Lights in Model palette (LIGHTLIST). Lights in blocks and xrefs, the sun, and default lighting are not included

[Krushert]

IN a real building, group of lights would be tied to a switch.  Am I understanding correctly that there is no switching in Autocad 3d.

[mjfarrell]

IN a real building, group of lights would be tied to a switch.  Am I understanding correctly that there is no switching in Autocad 3d.

each light can be ON or OFF
however their is no practical way to group the lights by ROOM or AREA.


WOW


I had NOT tried GROUPING  my lights before...DUH....that works really well...a group per room...or per SWITCH..and the group can be on-ed or off-ed all at once!