Light measurement software for measurement of lamps and luminaires for general lighting

General Features

The LMT Light Measurement Software LMT LIMES 2000 is a WINDOWS-based 32-bit software for measurement of photometric data of lamps and luminaires as well as for evaluation of measurement data to produce test reports according to various standards, graphical display of light distribution and calculation of isolux diagrams.

• can be used with the LMT goniophotometers and supports the integration of various other photometric measurement equipments. Various electrical instruments, such as AC or DC power supplies or electrical measurement systems, can be integrated.
• is a completely WINDOWS-based 32-bit software which requires a PC with Microsoft WINDOWS NT 4.0 or WINDOWS 2000 Professional. It can also be used on systems with WINDOWS 95/98, in some cases, however, with reduced performance. The software has been written by using the Microsoft Visual Studio products VISUAL C++ and VISUAL BASIC 5/6.
• is protected by a hardlock to be connected to the PC printer port. Special hardlocks for additional installations at the customer's site, e.g. for data evaluation only, can be obtained.
• supports all kinds of high resolution graphic displays und fully WINDOWS printing. Therefore, all kinds of graphic adapters with at least 800x600 pixels and millions of colors or any suitable printer can be used.
• contains a WINDOWS help information program in German or English language. A printed manual is available and can also be downloaded in electronic format from LMT's web site.
• has to be installed on a PC close to the photometric devices, as it communicates with them through the IEEE-488 Bus Interface. The software supports PC interface boards delivered from LMT for the use with the LMT-GONIO program system for DOS, but also several other boards, such as National Instruments, etc. Drivers for the IEEE-488 Bus Interface are included in the software and are installed in the software setup procedure.
• can take full advantage of networks. Measurements can be remotely controlled from computers at locations within or even outside the photometric lab. In this case, data evaluation or simulation programs can be performed during measurement.
• makes widely use of MS-ACCESS databases which are used for the storage of test programs, test data or system data such as lamps, isolux values or configurations for lighting simulation programs.
• is multilingual and comes originally in German or English language. A built-in routine allows the translation of any item displayed on the computer screen or printed in a report into any other language supported by the operating system.
• contains a report generator which allows the user to customize printed reports according to his own specifications. Reports can also immediately be sent per fax or e-mail from the PC, provided that the proper WINDOWS devices have been installed.
• allows the display of video observation of the sample under test in combination with a video camera and an appropriate Multimedia board.
• allows accustical signals as voice text or sounds (wave-files) for signaling status of measurement or in case of unexpected events.
• is a modular-built software system. Functions not required at the moment of installation, e.g. for support of certain hardware or a certain type of data evaluation, can easily be installed at a later time.
• will also work on future versions of WINDOWS NT and, therefore, will be the future LMT standard software. New releases with enhanced features or new capabilities because of new requirements will be issued frequently and can be downloaded from LMT's internet homepage.

• can be used with the goniophotometer types GO-V 1900, GO-DS 1600, GO-DS 2000, and GO-FI-2000 and supports the integration of various other equipment such as remote controls, AC or DC power supplies or electrical measurement systems.
• uses several import and export functions. It allows the user to import luminous intensity which has been measured and converted to LMT-GONIO ASCII format. Test data files can be exported to a new defined LMT LIMES ASCII format, or other international file formats such as IESNA 95, EULUMDAT, TM14, etc.

• Photometric-controlled burn-in procedure of lamps
• Testing of lamps and luminaires
• Standard measurement programs for interior, road lighting, and arbitrary luminaires as well as floodlights

The LMT LIMES 2000 software contains a database with test programs. The database can be continuously updated by the user. All test data are stored into MS-ACCESS compatible databases and can be converted into any of the available ASCII file formats. Data files available can be imported from any of the available ASCII file formats into the test database for evaluation.

LMT LIMES 2000 Components

The LIMES 2000 Programs are the fundamentals of the LMT LIMES 2000 software. They are installed as executable files with the names limes.exe, limescontrol.exe and items.exe.

LIMES: LMT LIMES 2000 main program module for configuration, data management, database control, test program generation, execution of test programs according to defined functions or for scanning the luminous intensity distribution, file import and export, data evaluation, execution of lighting simulation calculations, printing of test report and graphical display generation, etc. It can be executed on the PC which contains the IEEE-488 Bus Interface card and is connected to the hardware or on any other PC connected to the measurement PC by network.

LIMESCONTROL: LMT LIMES 2000 hardware control program module, movement control of goniophotometers, control of other devices or reading and display of photometric values during operation. For performing measurements, it must be executed on the PC which contains the IEEE-488 Bus Interface card and is connected to the hardware.

TRANSLATOR: LMT LIMES 2000 translation program module, translation of screen or printed text from LMT LIMES and LIMESCONTROL programs by using the text items database of these programs, modification of existing text or creation of new languages. Can be installed independently from LIMES or LIMESCONTROL on any PC.



The LIMES 2000 Programs consists of various program modules which perform the different tasks in a LIMES program. Program modules can be standard (available in every LIMES program) or optional (available only if especially ordered).

Program modules are not individual files and cannot be simply copied to a disk. Optional program modules can be installed and used only if the LIMES programs are available.


LIMES 2000 Hardware support modules are program modules which allow the integration of other measurement and control hardware into the measurement system, e.g. electrical power supplies or measurement instruments, remote controls, or LMT photometric equipment like retro reflex measurement units, colorimeters, luminance meters, etc.

LIMES 2000 Hardware support modules contain interface drivers for these intruments, as well as the extension for the software to configure and manipulate the intrument's parameters, perform automatical measurements or produce special measurement reports.

Like other program modules, the LIMES 2000 Hardware support modules can be standard (available in every LIMES program) or optional (available only if especially ordered).

LIMES Hardware support modules are also not individual files and cannot be simply copied to a disk. Optional modules can be installed and used only if the LIMES programs are available.

LIMES 2000 Packages

LIMES 2000 Packages consist of the LIMES Programs and selected Program and Hardware Support Modules for a certain application, usually in connection with a certain goniophotometer type. LIMES 2000 Packages can fulfil the basic tasks a laboratory usually requests for this application.

LIMES 2000 Packages can be upgraded with optional Program Modules and Hardware Support Modules at any later time.


The LMT LIMES 2000 Program Modules allow the measurement and evaluation of lamps and luminaires. The described functions can only be used if the corresponding hardware is available at the user's and if the corresponding hardware support module is installed. It contains the functions for creation and execution of test programs (extension to LIMES and LIMESCONTROL), and the functions for data evaluation (extension to LIMES).


GO-DS Photometry: Measurement of luminous intensity distributions of lamps and luminaires with goniophotometer GO-DS 1600 and GO-DS 2000. Measurement selectable on C-planes or cone surfaces with free selectable angular steps of planes and angles within planes. Default configurations for up- and downlights, interior luminaires, road luminaires, narrow and wide beam floodlights or lamps. Integration of luminous flux of lamps and luminaires by fast direct measurement and from evaluation of luminous intensity distribution. Data evaluation with graphics and tables, file import and export.

GO-FI Photometry: Measurement of luminous flux of lamps or luminaires and luminous intensity distributions of small lamps and luminaires with goniophotometer GO-FI 2000. Measurement selectable on C-planes or cone surfaces with free selectable angular steps of planes and angles within planes. Integration of luminous flux of lamps and luminaires by fast direct measurement and from evaluation of luminous intensity distribution for small lamps. Data evaluation with graphics and tables, file import and export.

GO-V Photometry: Measurement of luminous intensity distributions of lamps and luminaires with goniophotometer GO-V 1900. Measurement on C-planes with free selectable angular steps of planes and angles within planes. Default configurations for up- and downlights, interior luminaires, road luminaires, and wide beam floodlights or lamps. Integration of luminous flux of lamps and luminaires from evaluation of luminous intensity distribution. Data evaluation with graphics and tables, file import and export.

B-Beta conversion: Conversion of C-Gamma measurements into B-Beta system, extension of ASCII file formats with cpability to save the data in B-Beta format (where applicable, e.g. in IESNA)


Data Evaluation Calculation, display, and printing of luminaire and lamp data sheet containing intensity distributions, zonal luminous fluxes, glare evaluations, utilization factor tables, isolux or isocandela diagrams, etc. Presentation of graphics or text report. Import and export of various file formats.

Diagrams: The following functions allow the display of graphics in a screen window or the printing to a Windows printer. Each graphic can be saved as a Bitmap file (extension .bmp or .jpg). Existing graphic files can be imported for display and printing. The diagram layout can be widely controlled by the user. The user can change foreground, background and line colors, font sizes and styles, select components like labels, grids or scales. Diagrams can be scaled manually or automatically.

• Polar diagram of luminous intensity in cd/klm or cd, one or more C-planes or cones in one diagram
• 3D polar diagram of luminous intensity in cd/klm or cd
• Cartesian diagrams of luminous intensity in cd/klm or cd, one or more C-planes or cones in one diagram
• Glare diagrams acc. to CIE or LiTG
• Isodiagrams of illuminance (isolux) or luminous intensity (isocandela) distribution in one plane at a certain distance from the light source
• 3D - Isolux or - Isocandela diagrams

Tables: The following functions allow the display of tables in a screen window or the printing to a Windows printer. The table layout can be widely controlled by the user. The user can change foreground, background and line colors, font sizes, and styles. Each table can be individually saved into an ASCII text file (extension .txt).

• Luminous intensity in cd/klm or cd, table rows and columns selectable by the user
• Zonal flux diagram with minimum, maximum and average intensities, relative and absolute zonal fluxes or ratios
• LiTG Utilization factor tables
• IESNA Utilization factor tables
• CIBSE TM5 Utilization factor tables
• UTE 71.121 Utilization factor tables
• UGR Unified Glare Ratios
• CIBSE TM 10 Unified Glare Ratios

Graphic and text reports can be printed as multipage documents, each page in a user-defined format. Page formats can contain companies' headers and footers, imported from Rich Text Files (.rtf-files), created by a word processing program (e.g. Microsoft Word), or companies' logos, imported from bitmap files in BMP, JPG, GIF or other standard file formats. Page sizes and margins can be defined by the user. All printed pages can be previewed on the computer screen on a virtual printer with zooming capability. Reports can be generated from a single page of a single graphic or table or as a multipage report from any number of files and selected tables and diagrams.

File formats: Data files of luminous intensities can be imported from and exported to the following file formats. Single and multiple file import and export is possible. The additional information required by the file formats is saved with the testdata into the LIMES test database.

• LMT LIMES ASCII
• IESNA 95
• CIBSE TM 14
• CIE Publ 102
• CEN 13032-1
• LTL
• Customer-specified formats (Option)

The LMT LIMES 2000 Hardware Support Modules allow the measurement and control of devices which can be connected to the IEEE-488 Bus Interface. The described functions can only be used if the corresponding hardware is available at the user's. Each hardware support module consists of the necessary functions for communication with the hardware (extension to LIMESCONTROL), and for the corresponding functions for data evaluation (extension to LIMES).

Goniometer: Control of LMT GO-V 1900, GO-DS 1600, GO-DS 2000, or GO-FI 2000.

Photometer: Photometers of all goniophotometers, LMT system-photometer S 1000 for reading of luminous intensity produced by the test sample

B-Plane Adapter: B-plane adapter to measure intensity distributions in B-planes with GO-V 1900. Conversion of B-plane system tables into C-Gamma system.

Flux Integrator: Luminous flux integrator to measure luminous flux of lamps with GO-V 1900 and attached lamp holder. Measurement of total and zonal fluxes of lamps, luminous intensity distributions for small lamps in short photometric distance.

Telecontrol: Remote control for all goniophotometers

Lumen: Integrating sphere photometers U 1000 for measurement of luminous flux of lamps

Color: Tristimulus colorimeters C 1200, C 1210, C 2000, C 2210, C 3300 for color measurement on light sources, with database for color areas acc. to regulations. Measurement of chromaticity coordinates or correlated color temperature, graphical evaluation to check whether the color falls into the user-specified limits within the CIE chromaticity diagram

Color Distribution: Tristimulus colorimeters C 3300 for color measurement on light sources with moving goniophotometer, with database for color areas acc. to regulations. Measurement of chromaticity coordinates or correlated color temperature, graphical evaluation to check whether the color falls into the user-specified limits within the CIE chromaticity diagram. Graphical evaluation of the color distribution

Spectral: LMT spectral measurement system for color measurement of lamps in combination with integrating spheres

Power: All Hewlett-Packard DC power supplies (e.g. HP 6038A, HP 6674A), Heinzinger PTN 32-40, FuG NTN 350-35, for supply of test lamps on goniophotometers or integrating spheres. Various electrical measurement instruments for measurement of supply or lamp voltage, current, power or powerfactor of test lamps on goniophotometers or integrating spheres

Flash: Measurement of time function of single flashes in combination with a fast analogue/digital conversion PC-IO-board for any combination of goniophotometer angles, evaluation of flashes, determination of flash frequencies, calculation of effective intensities acc. to Blondel-Rey or form factor method, output of effective intensitiy diagrams and tables equivalent to intensity diagrams for general lighting luminaires



Information about the requirements for the control computer see PC requirements.

Release Information

LMT has released the LMT LIMES 2000 software for general lighting application at the beginning of 2000. Due to technical reasons and further developments, modifications to the capabilities of the software regarding this description are possible in the future.

Further updates of the software are available from the internet and can be downloaded from LMT's web server free of charge.