Shade Tracking Plugin

[Arslan]

Hello,

I'm trying to do a sun study on a property for use with solar panels. There are a few trees around the property. Currently, I am entering the times of the year that the shadows cover the roof into an excel file manually. Is there a plugin that could simulate this throughout the year and spit out an excel or note file?

Arslan

[Chris Fullmer]

WHat exactly would go into the excel file? Just the dates and times?

[Arslan]

Yes, the date and time that the area is shaded. Maybe even the percentage that a roof would be shading for that paticular time?

Arslan

[Chris Fullmer]

Sketchup doesn't keep track of the area in shadow. Its a visual study only. So you could export images that show the shadows, but you can't export a text file with the shaded area in sq ft/sq meters unfortunately.

You could export 100 images over the course of a single day and then overlay all those photos in photoshop to create a shade study of a single day and the darker the area = the more time it spent in the shade. If that is interesting, there is a thread here on the forum that discusses the idea and shows how to do it. I'll try to find it.

Chris

[Chris Fullmer]

Ok, here's a shade tracking plung (which I've never used, so I don't exactly how it works or what it does):

http://www.sketchucation.com/forums/scf/viewtopic.php?f=180&t=18222&p=150945&hilit=shadow#p150945

And here is a post where I quickly explain the process and post an image:

301 Moved Permanently

(www.sketchucation.com)

(look for my post with a shadow study with a blue and red ball and abench and some shadows.

Hope that begins to help,

Chris

[Arslan]

Thanks Chris