Generating Shadow Duration Profiles

You can create shadow duration profiles for a building. Shadow Duration Profiles show the areas that are covered in shadows at a specified interval throughout the day.

Before you begin:

  1. From the Site Planning section of the action bar, geolocate the building or site product. Alternatively, open an OSM map which automatically includes the geolocation.
  2. Create or insert a building that includes the full mass height and the roof.

See Also
Importing an OSM File
  1. From the Site Planning section of the action bar, click Shadow Durations .
  2. If a site product is active, select the building for which you to create shadow profiles.
    1. In the Shadow Profiles dialog box, under Select Building, click the Cast shadows for input box.
    2. From the 3D area or the tree, select a building.
  3. In the Shadow Durations Profiles dialog box, under Date and Time:
    1. From the Date calendar, select a date.
      For example, for the Northern Hemisphere summer solstice 2017, select June 21, 2017.
    2. From the Time Zone, select the Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) without accounting for Daylight Savings Time.
      For example, for Boston, Massachusetts, select UTC -05:00.
    3. If the date you select is during Daylight Savings Time, select the Daylight savings check box.
      The dialog box displays Sunrise time and Sunset time for the Date and Time selections.

    The system creates a single set of shadow duration profiles for a given date. If you choose the same date as a previously created set of shadow duration profiles, the system displays a warning message to confirm if you want to overwrite the previous shadow duration profile set. If you cancel the overwrite command, the previous shadow duration profile set is retained. If you choose a new date, the system creates a new set of shadow duration profiles.

  4. To create Shadow Duration Profiles:
    1. Enter the shadow Duration time Hours and Minutes.
    2. From Color, select the color for the shadow duration profiles.
    3. From the Precision list, select the level of precision for that shadow duration computation.

      Note: Your selection impacts the analysis time. High precision takes the longest time.

  5. Select the Generate duration labels check box to add text labels that display the length of time that the duration profile covers.
  6. Select the Generate faces check box to display shadow duration faces around the building.

    Shadow duration faces represent all the shadows generated throughout the day according to the specified duration in grayscale. The darkest shadow duration faces around the building are covered in shadows for the most amount of time.

  7. To generate profiles on other planes or building faces:
    1. Click the Generate profiles on input box. The value is set to xy plane by default.
    2. From the 3D area or the tree, select a plane or a building face.
    The system generates shadow profiles as wires on planes and building faces.
  8. Click Apply to view the shadow profiles for the present settings.
  9. Click OK.

    Note: In the tree, the system creates shadow profiles under the active geometrical set. You can overwrite the active geometrical set or create a new geometrical set.

The system generates the shadow duration profiles of the building in the 3D area.