topic Re: LED light trip - can't find it? in Libraries & objects

LED light strip - can't find it?

cocoloco — Wed, 08 Oct 2025 00:21:36 GMT

Hello! As we use LED strips almost everywhere,: every cabinetry, every builds in, every shelf, ceilings, and all, I am looking for archicad object to add them. (ideally they look linear and they can be adjusted in thickness and lenght and represent in floor plan/elevations per settings.

Until now I have been adding them into elevations and floor plan manually (drawing lines) to indicate them but it no longer works this way for me as it's a full time job and hard to keep track on it, especially if something change, I have to adjust both floor plan & elevations manually.

I have seen many posts about led strip lights, but the problem is I can't find any object in archicad library or CI tools library. I tried searching led light, led strip, strip.... and nothing comes out.

Below is how I need them to look (I really mostly care just to indicate them) are and I need this to be a light object so it reflect both in elevations and floor plan as per settings.

Thanks!

Re: LED light trip - can't find it?

jl_lt — Sun, 05 Oct 2025 03:46:52 GMT

why not use a beam with the proper measurements? it will even give you the dashed look you need. i would put them in their corresponding layer too. you can even label it, but specially and i cannot emphasize it enough, youll avoid drawing things in 2d.

Re: LED light trip - can't find it?

Ignacio Azpiazu — Sat, 04 Oct 2025 23:55:48 GMT

A complex profile beam, so that there is no way you can mess up the section, can find-select by profile name, can modify the profile as needed, and if you are particular about it for rendering or whatever purposes you can use a segmented beam with fixed-dimension end segments.

Or if you want to avoid any possible interaction with walls-beams-columns, a railing element with just one rail.

Re: LED light trip - can't find it?

jl_lt — Sun, 05 Oct 2025 01:58:19 GMT

now you mention it, i would definitely go with the railing element

Re: LED light trip - can't find it?

cocoloco — Sun, 05 Oct 2025 15:50:41 GMT

I would find it in railing setting? Could you please elaborate?
Also I will need a lot of them in the project so it needs to be light whatever it is. 😄

Will it have setting to produce light?

I am just confused a bit, because I assumed that led light strip would already be in archicad for at least few years, and I have hard time believing it’s not there and I have to use.. a beam? Or railing element?:D

Re: LED light trip - can't find it?

jl_lt — Mon, 06 Oct 2025 18:59:33 GMT

That is correct, you can use beams or railings as linear light elements which will get you the exact look you need according to your images with the added benefit of annotation, scheduling and even rendering. You are currently using 2d linework, so whats the difference?

what rendering engine are you using? you can assign a light material to them so they can throw some light

Re: LED light trip - can't find it?

mikas — Sun, 12 Oct 2025 23:27:26 GMT

Maybe you could try Area Light and use a shape of the led strip as it's 3D form.

I use area light a lot in renderings, but maybe it could serve you in 2D projections taken from the model. I can't say for sure.

Re: LED light trip - can't find it?

Lee Hankins — Sun, 05 Oct 2025 17:45:39 GMT

I’ve added a wish list request for an LED light strip object.

Re: LED light trip - can't find it?

Ignacio Azpiazu — Sun, 05 Oct 2025 19:16:21 GMT

[There are two aspects to this discussion: 1) is the world not how I thought it would be, really, damn, GS go make that object already; 2) how do I go about it, the world being as it is. For the second:]

Drawing 2D in plan and elevations, which are not lights either, is the worst; beam or railing can give you model, and surface can emit light; if for whatever reason you need a lamp element and there are no cylindrical/prismatic lamp elements out there that could do the job, you could create modules combining a railing/object/beam and a light source lamp (one module for each typical strip length required: strip1800.mod, strip2400.mod, etc.). Sounds complicated, but it is much simpler than 2D, and you control 3D and light; and you have central modeling&light control over all your strips; if for rendering purposes you need to turn on only a few, you could have on and off module variations, and you relink specific modules as needed.

Re: LED light trip - can't find it?

jl_lt — Mon, 06 Oct 2025 14:44:26 GMT

the modules work too, albeit a little bit of aditional hard work. However, i wouldnt go to that lenght for an object that, if designed correctly, should not be visible be it render or real life, just the light it emits.

theoretically we could actually model every light emiting diode within the strip, but should we?

Re: LED light trip - can't find it?

cocoloco — Tue, 07 Oct 2025 19:18:12 GMT

I feel like anything would be better than managing 2D as long as it is easy to adjust in lenght and heights, and is light object - because there is just so many led lights. I will try meanwhile the railway or beam. (whichever will be quicker to customize .

We are using 3ds max (I model in archicad but it is finished/detailed there as far as visuals, and archicad is used for documentation). Speaking of rendering engine, do you work in some free edgine inside of archicad that you would recommend? (it would be cool for ordinary rooms that we don't render in 3ds max and I just need on the go... I tried the generic renderings in archicad but

Re: LED light trip - can't find it?

cocoloco — Tue, 07 Oct 2025 19:19:19 GMT

potentionally - can the line be customized to color and type of line (dotted etc.)? And if so, would it show also from top view or just elevation?

Re: LED light trip - can't find it?

cocoloco — Tue, 07 Oct 2025 19:19:48 GMT

thank you SOOO much! could you share here the link? Would love to give it Like 😍

Re: LED light trip - can't find it?

cocoloco — Tue, 07 Oct 2025 19:21:50 GMT

1 feels best but I get it. 😄 I will be looking into the railing and bean options today and will figure the light later.

Re: LED light trip - can't find it?

jl_lt — Tue, 07 Oct 2025 20:30:27 GMT

Hi. with more reason a humble beam would be more than enough, just make sure you put them in their corresponding layer and with corresponding ID and you wont have any problem. with the adecuate layer combination, youll be able to see them in elevation, section and plan, with the color and linetype you need. In max you just assing any light emiting material to it and that would be it.

For reasonably good and super fast renders, i cannot recommend twinmotion enough.

Re: LED light trip - can't find it?

cocoloco — Mon, 20 Oct 2025 09:43:51 GMT

Hello! I have tried the beams! howeverrr! the aesthetic setting. I have set it up that both floor plan and elevations shows the dashed orange line. It works ok for floor plan but in elevations it shows solid line instead. I checked elevations setting view, model views, and I have no overrides are on.

Could you share if you have some magic setting that could show the beams on elevations dashed instead of solid?

Re: LED light strip - can't find it?

Emre Senoglu — Fri, 17 Oct 2025 20:09:14 GMT

Here's a complex profile I've done for LED Strip: Complex Profile LED - download

It can be used with a column or beam. I found this to be the most useful way of inserting led strips.

I've also done a GDL version of it, but as far as I can see it's kind of half-baked, so don't expect too much: GDL LED - download

It is a light object, so it's not in the objects toolbox but rather in the lamps. I can try to finish the GDL object if there is enough need for it 😊

Re: LED light strip - can't find it?

Patrick M — Sat, 18 Oct 2025 16:30:14 GMT

I almost always only need this for plan views; so a line type is sufficient. if a 3d object is necessary; it would be very simple to script a cube or even just model/save as, or use a beam (complex profile if you really need it to be LOD 350+)

Re: LED light trip - can't find it?

Barry Kelly — Sun, 19 Oct 2025 04:37:54 GMT

Elevations are just axonometric 3D views, and there is no such thing as dashed lines in 3D.

So if you are using a beam to represent the lighting strip, you can not show it as dashed.

You would have to place a separate dashed line.

Or you could script a lighting strip object and that would allow you to script a dashed line in 3D.

Which is actually a trick of dividing the entire line into short lines with gaps.

But if you are not into GDL scripting, I would just add your own dashed line in the elevation.

No, it will not be linked to the light object/beam, but at least you can easily represent what you want to see.

Barry.

Re: LED light strip - can't find it?

Yves — Mon, 20 Oct 2025 09:44:49 GMT

With a Graphic Overrides