Shadow Area Analysis Plugin Needed
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I'm looking for a shadow area analytical plugin just needs to send shadow area data to a spreadsheet--no graphic output is actually needed (though it might be useful as a reality check to verify the data).
Further explanation of the problem I need solved:
After developing site model of existing buildings (simple massing only) I will define plane or mesh that represents a park. On 26 days throughout the year I need to be able to determine the total area of shadow from all buildings that falls on that park at 15 minute intervals from 1 hour after sunrise to 1 hour before sunset. This whole analysis would then need to be repeated to demonstrate the shading impact on the park of the existing conditions plus a proposed new structure.
I've played around with the 1001shadows app which so far appears the the closest thing to what I need in that it outputs shadow outline geometry that can be used to calculate areas, and in combination with a few other plugins I can manually extract the information I need. That said, this is very slow going plus limitation of only having shadow outlines on the ground plane hurts the accuracy of my analysis. It does generate a "solid" shadow projection that I should be able to use to intersect with a sloping or meshed ground plane, but again--WAY too slow an operation given the high volume of calculations I need performed.
So basically I think what I need is relatively straightforward from a conceptual standpoint--but from a coding standpoint does it sound doable? Perhaps as a companion plugin that works with 1001shadows if not its own standalone piece of software?
I'd be interested in hearing from anyone who thinks they can help me with this. Depending on the costs involved, I'd be interested in hiring someone to develop this for me.
Thanks!
Adam -
What about: http://tomaszjaniak.wordpress.com/plugins-2/
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