BIM Software Tip: How to Address Issues Caused by Numerous Light Sources in Navisworks (NW) Models
After importing an RV model into Navisworks, setting the current view’s light source to scene light source can cause the model’s translation, rotation, and other operations to freeze. However, switching to the head light source restores normal functionality. Why does this happen?
This issue occurs because when exporting the NWC file, the light sources embedded in the lighting equipment families were not disabled. As a result, a large number of families containing light source features from the electrical discipline are transferred into the NWC model. Navisworks supports activating light sources from RV models, so if many lights are included in the original RV model, they will also be active upon import.
When the scene light source is selected, all these lights are turned on simultaneously, causing significant lag and poor performance in Navisworks. Moreover, the lighting effect produced may not even be the desired one, as illustrated in the image below.
There are three effective solutions to this problem:
1. Remove original light source parameters by eliminating the lighting equipment from the RV model before export.
2. Delete unnecessary light sources within Autodesk rendering to reduce the number of active lights.
3. Disable “Use infinite light source” in Navisworks. After disabling this option, Navisworks will only support up to 8 active light sources, effectively turning off the previously imported excess lights.
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