Creating Single Day Solar Studies

Single day solar studies produce animations that show the movement of shadows at a project location on a specified date for a specified period of time. You can specify a time interval from 15 minutes to 1 hour between the frames in the animation.

To use the sun path

  1. Specify the geographic location of the project.
  2. Open a 2D or 3D view that supports the display of shadows.
  3. Turn on the sun and shadows, and adjust their intensity.
    Note: When you are using a default template, the first time you turn on the sun path, the <In-session, Lighting> setting is specified and Relative to View is selected. When Relative to View is selected, the sun does not display. A dialog displays options for specifying sun settings.
  4. If a dialog displays, click Yes to display the sun using the current project location.
  5. In the drawing area, place the cursor over the ground compass, right-click, and click Single Day.

    The Single Day mode is now in effect, with the In-session preset specified.

    Note: Each solar study mode has an In-session preset. Using this preset, you can specify a temporary setting for the sun in the active view and see changes in shadow patterns. You can then save this sun setting as a preset, so you have easy, repeatable access to this project-wide setting across all views. Presets are available in the Sun Settings dialog. To access this dialog, right-click any element of the sun path, and then select Sun Settings from the context menu.
  6. Use the following sun path controls to specify a sun position, either by dragging the sun within its range of movement or by entering different dates and times. For illustrations and descriptions of these controls, see Using the Sun Path.
    • Daily Path. Drag the sun along its daily path to the desired time within the study period. The sun snaps to the time intervals specified for animation frames.

      Or, drag the daily path to a new date within the total sun area, thus changing the date while maintaining the same time of day.

      Tip: With the sun selected, hold down the left mouse button, and press the Left Arrow and Right Arrow keys to move the sun along its daily path. The Left Arrow key increases the time by moving the sun from east to west. The Right Arrow key decreases the time by moving the sun from west to east.
    • Time. Edit the time range by clicking the relevant time control and entering a new time. Or, drag either end point of the selected time range to increase or decrease the range. Or, drag the entire time range along the daily path to change the start and end times, while maintaining the same time span.
    • Date. Edit the date by clicking the date control and entering a new date.
  7. To save the current sun setting as a preset, see Using Sun Setting Presets.

    8. You can now preview, save, or export the solar study.

To use the Sun Settings dialog

  1. Open a 2D or 3D view that supports the display of shadows.
  2. Turn on shadows, and adjust their intensity.
    Tip: To view the sun position, turn on the sun path as well.
  3. On the View Control Bar, click Sun Path Off/OnSun Settings.
  4. In the Sun Settings dialog, under Solar Study, select Single Day.
  5. Under Presets, select one of the predefined sun settings, and click OK. Or, select <In-session, Single Day>, and complete the remaining steps in this procedure to define your own sun setting.
  6. Under Settings, specify a sun position:
    1. For Location, verify that the correct project location is displayed.

      To change the location, click (Browse), and specify the project location either by searching on the street address or longitude and latitude, or by selecting the nearest major city from the Default City List.

    2. Enter the date of the study.

      The date format specified for your computer’s operating system is applied to the date you enter.

    3. Enter a start time and end time for the study, or select Sunrise to sunset.
      Note: If you enter a start time that is later than the end time, the values are corrected automatically.
    4. For Time Interval, specify the amount of time between images in the animation.

      When you select a time interval, Frames displays the number of individual images that the solar study animation will contain.

    5. To cast shadows on the ground plane, select Ground Plane at Level, and select the level at which you want the shadows to display.

      When you select Ground Plane at Level, the software casts shadows on the specified level in 2D and 3D shaded views. When you clear Ground Plane at Level, the software casts shadows on the toposurface, if one exists.

      Note: The ground plane is not used in rendered views. To cast shadows in rendered views, model a ground plane in the project.
  7. To test the sun setting in the active view, click Apply.
  8. Click OK when done.
  9. To save the current sun setting as a preset, click Save Settings, enter a unique name, and click OK.
  10. Click OK when done.

    11. You can now preview, save, or export the solar study.

Parent topic: Creating Solar Studies