Photometric Power Tools
Photometric Power Tools was born through communication with several of our manufacturing customers bogged down by changes in their IES files as a result of evolution in component technology. LED’s and electronic components are changing rapidly requiring changes to published performance data. Many manufacturers have written custom spreadsheets to try and handle the myriad of changes required. Some have their own software, but focus groups show that they are still not handling all the tasks required quickly and efficiently. Photometric Power Tools handles the necessary modifications easily, quickly and eloquently freeing time and saving money for your manufacturing business.
Two Dialog Interface
The Photometric Power Tools interface consists of two independent dialogs with different, but interdependent functionality. They can be separated on a large monitor or split between two monitors. This allows the dialog sizing to be maximized to display the most data while you work. When Photometric Power Tools is launched you will see the two dialogs, one on top of the other as shown.
To begin working in Photometric Power Tools select the File menu in the Viewer/Editor dialog. You can either open files from within a folder using standard Windows techniques; drag a window, shift-select or ctrl-select, or you can open all files within a complete tree of folders by simply selecting the top folder. These commands are respectively: Select Files and Load/Append, and Select Folder and Load/Append. Notice the commands both have the ability to be employed multiple times if you like, thus the use of the term "Append". The result is you can open as many, or as few photometric files as you like at one time. Once familiar with the operation of Photometric Power Tools you will find a little planning is appropriate to make your work most efficient.
The File Viewer/Editor Dialog
The File Viewer/Editor is a launching point for all of your Photometric Power Tools sessions and the control point for saving all completed modifications. The Viewer/Editor also serves as an easy place to make simple one-off changes to various files as you scroll through them.
The first step toward any data modification using Photometric Power Tools is to open the files you wish to work with. This is done from the File menu. Photometric Power Tools can open IES (*.IES) or EULUMDAT (*.LDT) format files.
Opening files in the Photometric Power Tools is a bit different than other software you might work with regularly. Using Photometric Power Tools you will be leveraging the power of batch modification to make changes across literally any number of files. It would not be uncommon for you to apply some operations across a few hundred files in one session. Generally speaking, your typical sessions are going to most likely work with a smaller number of files to more easily manage your work.
Photometric Power Tools allows you to open selected files with the Select Files and Load/Append command using standard windows techniques in a specific folder (drag a window, shift or Ctrl select). Or, open an entire folder tree using the Select Folder and Load/Append command by selecting the top level folder. Using wither command you can repeat the operation to append additional files as desired.
With files loaded you have easy editing capability for any of the loaded files. All files are numbered for identification. The Viewer/Editor is handy for simple changes to descriptive information such as correcting typos. Simply place your cursor anywhere in the file contents on the left side and that specific file will be loaded on the right. Make your changes on the right side, then click Apply Changes in the lower right corner for each file you edit. Note that once you start making changes to a file you cannot move to a different file without clicking the Reset Selected, Apply Changes or Cancel buttons. Once you select Apply Changes, the changes are highlighted for all files modified but nothing is saved to disk at this point.
To save your changes you must select one of the save options from the File menu. You can Reset all changes at anytime by clicking the Reset All button, this includes changes made in the File Functions dialog.
The Viewer Editor is primarily a control point for Opening and Saving files. The simple editing can also be handy but the batch editing power of the software is all controlled from the File Functions dialog.
The File Functions Dialog
The File Functions Dialog is where you will do the heavy lifting with Photometric Power Tools. This dialog provides several tabs that facilitate common operations you may use to maintain your data. Generally, they have unique functionality, however, we have been redundant in some operations as you may find it convenient to access things like filename or keyword changes while using a specific function tab.
Factor Files
The Factor Files tab is primarily used to factor (scale) your photometric files for changes in technology. The loaded files are arranged in a flexible worksheet where you can edit in batch, individually, or both. Keywords can also be displayed as selected as these are often subject to edit when files are factored. For example: the keyword [ISSUEDATE] should be updated when modifications are made.
You can select from different methods to apply lumen factors: apply to the candela multiplier or to candela values directly. Rounding can also be included. You optionally have the ability to "clone" files by creating a number of copies of each loaded file. These copies can be modified individually in terms of lumen and watts factors and renamed as necessary.
Global Keyword Editor
The Global Keyword Editor tab loads one instance of each unique keyword found across all loaded files. It is designed to globally change a specific keyword, for example, change your company name by editing the [MANUFAC] keyword. You can add a new keyword to all files, remove a keyword from all files, or edit a keyword response for all files.
Candela Modifications
The Candela Modifications tab provides several functions to be applied to all loaded files:
- Round all candela values to a selected number of decimals, this is useful for unrounded, raw datasets.
- Remove candela multipliers by multiplying all candela values, setting the new multiplier to one.
- Convert Type C photometric reports to Type B (floodlight specific), or the inverse operation (B to C).
Keywords, Data and Calculated Metrics
The Keywords, Data and Calculated Metrics tab is typically used to examine the loaded files for commonly calculated metrics such as BUG Rating, LER, and roadway classifications such as Type II, Short. You can sort by columns to reveal those files with the lowest BUG Rating or highest LER for example. This information can be exported to an internal spreadsheet format which can be printed or saved for use on other software such as Microsoft Excel.
This tab also provides some functionality to batch modify files in terms of keywords and data. You can convert all files from Absolute to Relative notation for example. Some of these capabilities are redundant for functionality on other tabs for convenience purposes.
