Creating Solar Studies

Solar studies help you visualize the impact of natural light and shadows on both the exteriors and interiors of projects. Create solar studies to see how shadows from terrain and surrounding buildings affect a site, or where natural light penetrates a building at specific times of the day and year.

Use the sun path and Sun Settings dialog, either individually or together, to create solar studies that suit your needs. When you display both the sun path and shadows, you can view the sun position as well as the resulting shadows.

The following solar study modes are available. The mode determines the values you can specify and whether the result is a single image or an animation, as described below.

Still

Produces a single image that shows the shadows at the project location for a specified date and time. For example, you can view the shadow patterns for a project in San Francisco, CA, on June 22 at noon.

Single Day

Produces an animation that shows the movement of shadows at the project location for a specified date, time range, and time interval. For example, you can track shadows at hourly intervals for a project in London, UK, on June 22 from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM.

Multi-Day

Produces an animation that shows the movement of shadows at the project location for a specified date range, time (or time range), and time interval. For example, you can view shadow patterns at 1:00 PM every day from June 1 through June 30 for a project in Shanghai, China. You can also produce a study for this project that shows shadow patterns at hourly intervals from 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM over the same range of days.

Lighting

Produces a single image that shows the shadows cast from the specified sun position in the active view, rather than a sun position based on project location, date, and time. For example, you can cast 45-degree shadows on elevation views, which can then be used for rendering. Choose a preset for an artificial sun position, such as Sunlight from Top Right, or enter values for Azimuth and Altitude to specify the sun position. The Relative to View option lets you orient the sun to match either the orientation of the view or the orientation of the model.

Note: The times displayed in the sun path and Sun Settings dialog are in local time for the project location. Because local time can vary from solar time by an hour or more (depending on the location), the sun's position in the sun path is shown in solar time to ensure that the sun is directly overhead at solar noon.

Tips for creating solar studies

To produce a series of solar studies, create and open multiple views of a project, and then specify a different solar study period for each view. For example, create separate views for winter solstice, summer solstice, spring equinox, and fall equinox studies. Tile the views to see them all at once.
You can create solar studies for the same building model in different locations. For example, if the same retail store will be constructed in Los Angeles and London, change the project location in the Location Weather and Site dialog, and then export a solar study for each geographic location.