Elev45shadows.rb help

brodie

My problem is, indeed, identical to RV's problem. I'm on Windows XP w/ SU6. What seems to happen is that the degree of the sun angle will change but from what you've said the location should also change, but it does not. It simply stays at Boulder, CO. I wonder if the script looks for something that it can't find on my computer (like the location of 45 Degree Shadow)? I don't know ruby so I'm just guessing. The script would come in really helpful though if it get's fixed. Let me know if there's any more info I can provide that would help you diagnose the problem.

Thanks,

-Brodie

TIG

The script forces a new place / country and north-angle, + sun=angle so that the shadows work at 45 degrees on that elevation. As I said I can't get it to reproduce here and It's fine on simialr set ups to yours... ???

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brodie

@tig said:

The script forces a new place / country and north-angle, + sun=angle so that the shadows work at 45 degrees on that elevation. As I said I can't get it to reproduce here and It's fine on simialr set ups to yours... ???

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hrm...guess I'll have to settle w/ my ol' 48 degree manual shadows

The other weird thing I've noticed is what your ruby does to the time settings in the shadow settings dialog box. Don't know if this is intentional or not. If you open the first skp file RV posted you'll see that it sets the time to go from 11:10am to 11:01pm. I'm not sure if it's always this range but it is always changed to a very odd range and as I recall this affects all other shadow settings. I'd have to go and verify but I think if you've already got a scene set up, say scene 1. and then you go into scene 2 and apply the ruby and go back to scene 1 the slider is in the same position but since the range changed what was, say 1pm, is now, say, 10pm.

Let me know if any of that make sense or if you need me to go and verify all that stuff. Don't know if it'll help you.

-Brodie

TIG

The script has to (re)set the time (and where north is) to get the sun at the right place in the sky to cast the shadow at 45 degrees on the chosen elevation. If you have several pages (scenes) set up you should ensure that they are saved with the particualr location and date+time etc you desire. Make new page(s) for the 45 degree shadows and when it's done update that too...

You should be able to have several pages each with different times/dates etc...

brodie

I took a quick crack at it. This file has 3 scenes. I created the first 2 w/ shadows on at different times of the day, then created the 3rd one using the ruby (which turned everything dark as it has been). Going back to my other scenes did indeed change the time range back to normal however everything was still dark, weird.

-Brodie

shadow test.skp

brodie

TIG, could you post a skp file w/ a saved scene using your ruby so I can open it and see what happens?

-Brodie

TIG

Here's an example...

A normal scene plus a north and west elevation with 45 shadows. Update each tab as the scene is made and each scene has a different north, date, time, location etc to get the shadows as needed...

45test.skp

brodie

Very interesting. Here's what I'm finding. Using your plugin does indeed change the location in terms of latitude and longitude. What it doesn't change is the name (still Boulder instead of Elevations 45 Shadows or whatever) or (here's the important part) the time zone. Time zone stays at -7 (Boulder's time zone) rather than switching to +0 (the time zone in the skp file you posted).

Starting a new drawing, using your script and then manually changing the time zone produced results identical to the results of your sketchup file.

HOWEVER, when I open your SU file the shadows aren't truely 45 degrees. Well, I take that back. They are 45 degrees, however the shadows aren't as long as I'd expect them. For example, if a block is protruding out 1 foot you'd expect the shadow to travel 45 degrees and to stop 1' down and 1' to the right. W/ your script it travels 45 degrees but not quite the full 1' down and 1' over. Check out the example below. On my screen the shadow stops just before the purple face. I'd expect it to travel to the far end of the purple face.

I think we're getting close here. On your screen does the shadow cover up the purple face in my example because on mine it doesn't.

-Brodie

45test 1.skp

brodie

an image to reiterate what I'm saying

45test 1.jpg

TIG

It always changes the location name for me...

Point taken about the 45 degree accuracy. I've fixed it to within a smidge of a mm... Needed minor adjustments to time of day and long/lat to get it 'as near as damn is to swearing'. The 'Boulder' Time Zone bit was from a typo that's corrected...

See updated script... http://www.sketchucation.com/forums/scf/viewtopic.php?p=98081#p98081

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brodie

Bloody wonderful. Agreed, that is much closer. That did, indeed fix the location issue (doesn't still say Boulder, CO any more). I'm still having to manually change the time zone from -7 to +0 but I can certainly live w/ that! Thanks a ton, glad we finally figured this out.

Only thing I'd suggest is adding a caveat in the text of your script and maybe in that other post as well to folks, that if the screen goes dark after running the script to go to Window -> Model Info -> Location -> Custom Location button and change time zone to UTC-0

Thanks again!

-Brodie