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Created	2006-08-11	Views	4584
Modified	2008-02-20	Id	1
Author	Todd Saemisch

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Summary:
AGI32 (and all other Lighting Analysts products) follow the format for photometric explorations as outlined in the IESNA document LM-63-2002: Standard File Format for the Electronic Transfer of Photometric Data and Related Information regardless of the format indicated in the actual IES file due to shortcomings in earlier versions of LM-63.

More Information:
Earlier versions of LM-63 (91 and 95) had ‘loose’ definitions for photometric explorations that were addressed in the current version (LM-63-2002). These definitions allowed for incomplete explorations (in some cases) putting the burden on the software developer to decide what to do with the incomplete sections. AGI32 has always required complete explorations regardless of the LM version in order to eliminate any ‘guess work’ and assumptions.

For example: In LM-63-95, the requirement for the last horizontal angle for Type C – asymmetric files was stated as ‘*** - where *** is greater than 180 and less than or equal to 360’. So that means you could have a legitimate asymmetric file with horizontal angles 0 to 181 degrees! What happens between 181 and 360 degrees?! Is there a shield, a black hole or did someone just get lazy? Who knows? Note: We have actually seen files very similar to this!

The IES recognized the shortcomings of the earlier versions of LM-63 and revised the requirements for photometric explorations to not allow incomplete explorations. This puts the burden where it should be, on the supplier not the software developer. The current requirements are:

Vertical Angles:

Type C: The first vertical angle shall be either 0 or 90 degrees, and the last angle shall be either 90 or 180 degrees
Type A or B: The first vertical angle shall be -90 or 0, and the last angle shall be 90 degrees

Horizontal Angles:

Type C: The first horizontal angle shall be 0 degrees, and the last angle shall be 0, 90, 180 or 360 degrees
Type A or B: The first horizontal angle shall be -90 or 0, and the last angle shall be 90 degrees

Note: The ToolboxPro program will ‘repair’ files that have incomplete explorations in order to use them in AGI32. The repair is based on assumptions that are presented to the user so he or she is aware of what changes were made to the file.

Applies To:
AGI32 – All versions
ToolboxPro – All versions
FlashTools – All versions

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