Luminaire_Define-Configuration Section
As part of the luminaire definition, a luminaire may reference a pole or pendant that is attached to its insertion point. In Plan view, the poles or pendants are not visible and do not change the appearance of the drawing. In Elevation or Isometric view, poles and pendants will make your work appear more realistic. Luminaires without poles or pendants will appear to be floating in space. To use the same photometric file with and without poles (or pendants), simply create two definitions. See the Arrangements section for more information.
Poles and Pendants are physical objects and will participate in the radiosity calculations when in Full calculation mode. The default size for the pole object is 4" square. The default Pendant is 1" square. Care must be taken to apply poles and pendants so as to not block the center of the luminous box. By default, AGi32 does this for you by recommending a minimum Arm length for poles, recommending appropriate symbols and not applying pendants dynamically at Z=0 (user entry is required).
Poles and Pendants can be applied in the Smart Symbols dialog when initially selecting a photometric file. Poles can be applied when selecting the Pole Arm or Pole Postop Mounting Types. Pendants can be applied when selecting the Suspended Pendant Mounting Type.
A "dynamic" pole or pendant will always be attached to the same Z coordinate and will vary in length according to the mounting height of the luminaire. Dynamic is the default behavior for poles and the setting "Attach to Z" (in the main dialog) is set to zero. This allows the pole to be drawn from the ground to the luminaire mounting height specified in the toolkit when placing luminaires.
Dynamic Pendant example: A luminaire with a dynamic pendant attached to the ceiling at 12 feet and mounting height of 8 feet will have a pendant length of 4 feet. The same luminaire with a mounting height of 9 feet will have a pendant length of 3 feet.
A "Static" pole or pendant will always be the same length regardless of mounting height. Static is the default behavior for Pendants and user entry is required for pendant length. A static pendant will be attached to the luminaire and may not be the correct length if the mounting height changes.
Static Pole example: A luminaire with a static pole length of 30 feet, inserted at a mounting height of 25 feet, will have 5 feet of the pole below the Z=0 datum. The same luminaire inserted at a mounting height of 35' will appear to have the pole base floating 5 feet off the ground.