DIALux is a free program developed by the German company DIAL GmbH. This graphic design and 3D modeling software allows you to plan and visualize lighting for both outdoor and indoor areas, from rooms, art galleries, residential buildings, sports facilities, and offices, to parks, roads, emergency lighting, and more.
Features of DIALux Software
- Indoor Use:This program is easy to use and allows you to plan the points of light necessary to generate visual harmony in your project, whether it is a prestigious apartment building or individual rooms.
- Use in outdoor areas:In order to visualize a project, it is important to take into account all the objects that make up the scene. With DIALux you can design the lighting of outdoor areas such as paths, parks, highways or parking lots, among others.
- Coordination of interior and exterior lighting:Thanks to this system, you will be able to see how the interior lighting interacts with the exterior to create a perfect balance in light.
- Coordination of natural and artificial light:With DIALux you can use different lighting options, combining natural and artificial light in your projects to create the desired atmosphere.
- Light Distribution:DIALux has a series of graphs and information tables that allow you to measure light distribution and photometric values.
- Standards:Since the software is of German origin, it comes by default with the lighting parameters required by the regulations of that country. However, you can modify the lighting level according to your country’s parameters to get official certification.
How to use DIALux?
Once you have downloaded and installed the program on your computer, launch it and start exploring its interface. When you open it, you will see the welcome window, where you will find the options to:
- Create a new project.
- Edit an existing project.
- Choose other functions: select a manufacturer and visit the help forum, a knowledge base and YouTube.
Open the project you’re going to work on, and in the top right you’ll have several menus: Build, Light, Calculation Objects, Export, Documentation, Manufacturer, and Settings. In another menu, further down, you have options for views such as: Plans, Construction Lines or 3D Modeling.
In the Construction menu you will find the tools for plans, terrain, building openings, areas, furniture, etc.
The Light menu has options for planning the lighting of the scene. We recommend that you have downloaded the photometry and luminaires that you are going to use for each area of your scene.
The intensity of the lighting is regulated by standards. In the Summary of results menu, you will see the lighting calculations by space made by DIALux, considering the type of lighting chosen, its quantity and location.
From the Export menu, you can choose the view you want to save or render to make a presentation of your project.
In the Documentation menu, you can access a lighting summary by scene for your presentation, which shows you data such as:
- The description of the premises and the type of geometry, objects, isolines and luminaires.
- The level of illumination to useful plane and light intensity.
- The summary of luminaires, their flux, power and light performance
- The coordinates of the location of the luminaires in terms of the X-Y axis.
5 things you should know about DIALux:
- DIALux is free.
- This program allows your customers to visualize your lighting proposal.
- It is a very versatile program, it allows you to plan lighting in both indoor and outdoor areas.
- The software takes into account both natural and artificial light.
- You will get a complete lighting report of your project: you will see the metrics, luminaires and lighting level of each space.