Overview
Shading Analysis draws, in the drawing, the shadows that racks and 3D scene objects cast at one date and time, and lists the racks that are shaded with their shading percentage. Use it to check a specific moment, for example winter solstice morning behind a tree line, or to find the racks a building shades.
Prerequisites
Racks placed, and site coordinates from a georeferenced import. If the drawing has no coordinates, the window asks for them.
Step-by-Step Guide
1. Open the window
On the Layout panel, open the Tools dropdown and click Shading Analysis.
2. Set the date and time
Under Analysis time, set the Date and Time (HH:mm). If the drawing has no coordinates, enter Latitude (°) and Longitude (°) in the fields shown.
3. Choose the shadow casters
Under Shadow casters, leave All objects ticked to use every rack and scene object, or untick it and click Select objects… to pick a subset, for example one tree line.
4. Show the shading
Click Show Shading. A readout shows the sun elevation and azimuth. The shadows are drawn on the drawing, and Shaded frames lists each shaded rack by R-Number with its Shading %, worst first.
5. Export
Click Export CSV… to save the list.
Tips & Recommendations
- The result is a single moment. Check several times of day (for example 9:00, 12:00 and 15:00) on your design date to see how shadows move.
- The shadows update when you move or delete racks, and reappear when you reopen the window.
- To set row spacing so that rows do not shade each other in the first place, use Dynamic Pitch in Build Layout.