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    Sun elevation and azimut

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    • thomthomT Offline
      thomthom
      last edited by

      The API docs are incomplete.
      For a complete list:

      Sketchup.active_model.shadow_info.each { |k,v| puts "#{k} - #{v}" } City - Boulder (CO) Country - USA Dark - 45 DayOfYear - 312 DaylightSavings - false DisplayNorth - false DisplayOnAllFaces - true DisplayOnGroundPlane - true DisplayShadows - false EdgesCastShadows - false Latitude - 40.017 Light - 80 Longitude - -105.283 NorthAngle - 0.0 ShadowTime - Fri Nov 08 14:30:00 W. Europe Standard Time 2002 ShadowTime_time_t - 1036762200 SunDirection - (-0.423824071310226, -0.772439983723215, 0.472979521886207) SunRise - Fri Nov 08 07:43:14 W. Europe Standard Time 2002 SunRise_time_t - 1036737794 SunSet - Fri Nov 08 17:46:34 W. Europe Standard Time 2002 SunSet_time_t - 1036773994 TZOffset - -7.0 UseSunForAllShading - false

      Word of advice: never trust the docs.

      Thomas Thomassen — SketchUp Monkey & Coding addict
      List of my plugins and link to the CookieWare fund

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      • P Offline
        pvbuero
        last edited by

        Hello Thomas,

        that's great. What would I do without your help ...
        I guess there's no function for the azimut- and the elevation-angle ?
        ... because it can be calculated with some pythagoras and the SunDirection.
        Another question:

        Is there a way to find out whether a face is shaded or in the sun ?

        Best Matthias

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        • DavidBoulderD Offline
          DavidBoulder
          last edited by

          Matthias, asking if a face is shaded or in the sun is tricky, because it may be partially shaded.

          If you query all of the verticies you could put it into one of these groups.
          A . mostly sun exposed
          B. partially sun exposed
          C. mostly shaded

          The reason A and C are not complete is that even if all of the vertices are in sun or shade, there may still be points along an edge or in the middle of the face where there is a different sun condition.

          Loosely related to this question, if you choose to do an energy simulation with EnergyPlus (using the OpenStudio plugin or another tool) you can run the "Shading Summary" report to return the fraction of each window that is sunlit at 9am, noon, and 3pm on (March 21, June, 21, December 21st). Here is a link to PDF with a sample of that report. Again this isn't direct out of SketchUp, but is processed through EnergyPlus
          http://apps1.eere.energy.gov/buildings/energyplus/pdfs/OutputDetailsAndExamples.pdf#page=140

          --

          David Goldwasser
          OpenStudio Developer
          National Renewable Energy Laboratory

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          • P Offline
            pvbuero
            last edited by

            David,
            what I' m looking for is a tool to create something like it's shown in this diagramm.

            radiation.png

            .. is there any Sketchup Plugin to achieve this ?

            Best Matthias

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            • DavidBoulderD Offline
              DavidBoulder
              last edited by

              There are a number of energy simulation plugins that can probably give you this information. OpenStudio mentioned above which is a plugin that works with EnergyPlus would work, although you would need to edit the file externally to setup surfaces as PV systems. We plan to add that in directly to the plugin in a future release.

              You can see the link above directly to the OpenStudio site, and below I have a post showing some screenshots from OpenStudio.
              http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=323&t=27908&p=241905&hilit=OpenStudio#p241905

              --

              David Goldwasser
              OpenStudio Developer
              National Renewable Energy Laboratory

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              • wind-borneW Offline
                wind-borne
                last edited by

                LightUp shows similar to your example. here's example I posted awhile back.

                http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?p=226729#p226729

                "To read between the lines was easier than to follow the text."OSX 10.11.6

                %(#BF80BF)[SU 8 pro

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                • P Offline
                  pvbuero
                  last edited by

                  @wind-borne said:

                  LightUp shows similar to your example. here's example I posted awhile back.
                  http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?p=226729#p226729

                  Hello,
                  I checked Lightup sometimes ago but there were to many functions I don't need and I wasn't able to figure out how I could create a diagramm as it's shown above. I usually don't need rendering software. I only need the solar simulation part ...
                  Is there a tutorial somewhere how to do that with Lightup ?

                  I will also take a look at open studio...

                  Thanks to all of you
                  Matthias

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                  • D Offline
                    danbig
                    last edited by

                    Regarding the solar elevation (I'm guessing you mean the "incident" angle of the sun with respect to the ground) and azimuth angle... I believe these values could be derived from the SunDirection as described by thomthom.

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                    • AdamBA Offline
                      AdamB
                      last edited by

                      @pvbuero said:

                      @wind-borne said:

                      LightUp shows similar to your example. here's example I posted awhile back.
                      http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?p=226729#p226729

                      Hello,
                      I checked Lightup sometimes ago but there were to many functions I don't need and I wasn't able to figure out how I could create a diagramm as it's shown above. I usually don't need rendering software. I only need the solar simulation part ...
                      Is there a tutorial somewhere how to do that with Lightup ?

                      I will also take a look at open studio...

                      Thanks to all of you
                      Matthias

                      Matthias,

                      Its pretty simple to do in LightUp.

                      • Set the geo-location and date for your model using SketchUp "Model Info.."
                      • Choose "Lux Contours" + "Insolation" in LightUp preferences.
                      • Click on Tourtool.

                      You can use Apple/Alt + mouse click to take exact readings on any part of your model.

                      Adam

                      Developer of LightUp Click for website

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                      • P Offline
                        pvbuero
                        last edited by

                        Adam,

                        I tried it. It is very close to what I need.
                        I give you a PM with further details.

                        Matthias

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