[Request] Control Sun location

ken28875

Hi there,

I doubt it's possible, but I'd like to see a plugin that will allow me to place the sun anywhere rather than the real time and date, so I can control the shadows (angles) falling on the ground and objects.

Thanks!

_KN

DavidBoulder

I think there was another post about this, and I thought about a clunky solution for this. Have you ever taken an architectural model on a base out into the sun to mimic what shadows would be like at a specific time of day/year (ok this is for those of you who built models prior to 3d modeling apps). There was a little sun dial type of thing you put on the base, and that would make sure you had the proper orientation.

So that is an odd kind of SketchUp solution. This would idealy best be done on a copy of your file as it involves moving your geometry.

User experience:

Setup the camera view(s) that you want for your final presentation.
When you run the ruby a dialog box comes up asking the angle and azimuth you want for the sun.
The ruby then takes the difference between the current sun location and your requested sun location, and rotates your model in the reverse direction. (Since you can't move the sun, move the model)
Cameras for the views requested are similarly moved, so what you see for each scene is still the same.
Now maybe this transformation is saved, so that it can be undone, but I wouldn't want to put my model through that. Probably best done by having it open an new file and place your model in it as a component. Then when your model is updated, you can update the component and your desired sun location and cameras are intact.