Hot to Plot shadows for 365 days?

xennon

Hi,

I am trying to work out how I can plot how the sun moves throughout the year. So far this is all i've been able to do: - Create a pole of arbitrary length at the origin then advance the time/date marking the end point of the shadow on the ground each time (picking that point is also only a guess since I get no snaps to the shadow). This is tedious and I only did it for monthly intervals and then I tried to plot a curve through those points manually so as to draw the shadow pattern/path on the ground.

I'm wondering if there is a better more automated way to do this.

What I'm actually trying to do is determine the angle of the sun as it strikes the ground so that I can create windows that are perpendicular to the sun at each solstice and determine what that angle should be depending on geographical location.

I hope I explained this clear enough. The window positioning is dependant on the sun's angle so i need to be able to see and work with that angle somehow while placing the window/s. Is there a way to extract/get the elevation angle of the sun at any point in time?

Any ideas?

Many thanks.

ps: I have a scene attached that might clarify my technique at present.

Shadow Plot

mitcorb

Hi, xennon:
Have a look at this thread. Maybe some relevance?

http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?t=31947#p281905

xennon

@mitcorb said:

Hi, xennon:
Have a look at this thread. Maybe some relevance?

http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?t=31947#p281905

Thanks, that's a nice plugin that might be useful. What I'd like to be able to do is enter Long/Lat/Date/Time and have the plugin either (or both) point a face to the sun or show how light from the sun is travelling and intersecting with a chosen face and beyond to the ground plane. This will allow me to orient a window so as to control where and how far the sun penetrates into a room/building. I'm guessing that the plugin might generate construction type lines extending out from the selected face towards the sun and back the other way towards the ground in such a way that I can kinda see the sun's rays in my scene.

But i'll certainly be grabbing that plug u linked - looks handy.