Lighting an Interior Nighttime Scene Using IES Lights - Photographic Rendering with V-Ray for SketchUp - page 87

Illuminating Engineering Society ( IES ) are in fact the originators of the IES file
format. The file type was created as a means of digitally profiling the photometric
data for any light fixture as well as then having the ability to both easily view and dis-
tribute the data to anyone who wanted or needed it. The IES format is widely used by
many of the industry's leading lighting manufacturers at the time of this writing and
has become one of the, if not the industry standard in photometric data distribution.
Because they contain a digital profile of a real-world light unit (in 3D software pack-
ages that support them), the IES files can be used to create light sources that have
physically accurate energy distribution and throw patterns attached, giving them an
extremely realistic look and feel when used inside our 3D scenes.
Downloading and viewing IES profiles
One of the brilliant things about IES files is that lighting manufacturers such as
ERCO often make them freely available for the light fixtures that they create. This
of course is extremely good news for 3D artists and lighting engineers, who can put
them to very good use on both visualization and lighting analysis projects.
Note
Visit http://www.erco.com for more details.
Take a look at the following screenshot: