You can run Solar Radiation analysis on different 3D views of the same Vasari document. The analysis settings for each view are remembered independently.
To interactively see the effects of sun on solar radiation, enable the sun path and use its on-screen controls. Note that analysis results update quickly when sun settings change because most aspects of the analysis are precalculated for the existing model geometry.
See Using the Sun Path to learn more about Sun Path functionality.
If you want to analyze whole days in Single day and Multi-day modes, make sure ‘Sunrise to sunset’ is checked.
The Solar Radiation feature uses the Analysis Visualization Framework to display solar radiation results directly on mass faces. A default analysis display style is created for Solar Radiation, but you can easily modify this style or add your own styles. See Display Styles for Analysis Add-In Applications to learn more about the Analysis Visualization Framework and creating and manipulating analysis display styles.
You can use an analysis display style of “Colored surface” type to display a graphical results overview on all selected faces or “Markers with text” type to see accurate results at each calculation point.
The legend displays a summary of results and colors corresponding to values and is drawn to sheet scale. If the legend is too small or too large, or the text is not legible, you can change the Project scale to properly resize the legend and marker text.
In still sun mode, cumulative values reflect hourly incident solar radiation. In single day and multi-day modes, cumulative values are calculated over the time range specified. Therefore it is possible to get smaller cumulative values for a short time sample in single day mode than in still sun mode.
Changing the display settings does not require the analysis to be recalculated. Complete result values for Cumulative, Average, and Peak are stored for each analysis, and can be quickly toggled.
You can delete analysis results by selecting the analysis result element in the view and clicking the Delete button.
When ‘Automatically update results’ is selected, any changes in the model geometry trigger a new analysis. This includes adding, modifying, moving, deleting elements.
If you modify a mass element in a view that has analyzed faces, the faces are reanalyzed and results are updated. You may need to use Tab selection to pick the mass element when there are analysis results overlayed on the mass.
When the Solar Radiation dialog is closed, analysis results will remain in the Vasari view, but the dynamic update functionality will no longer be available. In order for results to update, the Solar Radiation dialog should be reopened.