Animated sun studies

[JamesVan]

Again, another useful ArchiCAD feature, Revit should have the ability to generate animations based on a sequence of sunlight parameters. This is particularly beneficial for work in certain regions of Japan where shadows cast from a new building on surrounding existing buildings must be determined prior to approval.

[Martin P]

Would like to see that too, I can think of a few projects I have done in Revit that would have benfitted from this.

[Wes Macaulay]

I was surprised that Revit didn't have this feature. It is sorely needed... I have a few clients who would clamour for this capability.

W.

[Scott D Davis]

Yes! We need this!

At a absolute minimum, I would like elevation shadow studies without having to do a full-blown rendering. (Shaded View shadow studies)

[trombe]

hello,

In NZ, all local authorities have their own District Plan, and all of them require building compliance with a set of Daylight Control Planes, or Sunlight Access Control Planes also called Sunlight Recession Planes.
This is an imaginary tent which surrounds a parcel lot ( or Section ) of land, and is taken at the boundary, measured up first vertically - often for 2.5 - 2.7 m ( 8' 4" - 9' ) the leaning inwards usually at 45 degrees.

Every application for a building consent for every non commercial building, and some commercial buildings, requires graphic evidence of where the building is, relative to one or more of the planes.
A sun study facility , would aid in design development a lot, and should be able to assist with the above problem at the same time.
ArchiCAD has this function for NZ users.
I suppose I could make a glass wall and stick it to the ground contours / plane, but this is going to be a bit of work for sure.

Sun studies would clearly be a good facility for many reasons so yay to that.
trombe.

[Scott Hopkins]

I mistakenly thought that Revit did this already and told a client that I could put together a sun study no problem. I ended up just printing out a few overhead renderings at the equinox and solstices. Not quite what the client had asked for.

Yes! This would be a great feature to have in Revit.

[janunson]

I've done this in 3D Studio many times, and when i needed to do it in revit, i had to render multiple single frames and fade them together in premier. This seems like it would be a simple thing to automate and save lots of time!

[sbrown]

accurender has this feature yet it is not "activated" with in revit unfortunately. we too have to create sun studies(at specified dates and times) we do the rendering in plan, export the jpg. then import it back into a plan view and just trace the shadow line with a filled region, then delete the import.

[christo4robin]

Echo above. The local jurisdiction here in Boulder requires compliance with solar access parameters. A sun study feature would be terrific!

Also, just being able to create shadowed elevation (ala the old hand drawn elevations that I would throw some marker on to make the masses read) would be great!

[Wesley]

If you have Sketchup you can do this very easily - do all your work in Revit then export into Sketchup (dwg with layer settings setup) and do your animated sun study there. 5 minutes after moving into Sketchup you are done, and you get the groovy line extensions / jitter lines as well. Looks absolutely fab.
Wes

[funkman]

Yes yes yes, the amount of time wasted on doing these drafting excercises of sun shadow diagrams is too much. Surely it would be relatively easy to alter the revit based rendered sun shadow into a hidden line drawing - Revit??

I had to do these recently and used sbrown's procedure. Pain in the arse, but I could do the equinox, sun and winter solstices for 9am, 12 and 3pm in about 3hours. Would be much better/quicker/easier to press the button and select an option to convet this to hidden line.

The perfect solution would be for Revit to cast the sun shadow digrams (in hidden Line), perhaps with the ability to convert this to a filled region or similar (perhaps select the hatching of the cast shadow), and be able to show the shadows cast by the existing buildings on site superimposed on each other (similar to the "shown none" phase filter) - with the added ability to show new and existing separately.

[rjjlee]

Could somebody explain how use Sketchup for sun studies a little more? Can you get the 3D model into Sketchup? I seem only to be able to get a plan each time...

[Scott_Bloss]

I have to agree with Wesley. We are currently exporting to sketch up as a work around to get quick shadow studies. He is correct in a very short time after exporting you are on your way. This quick functionality sure would be nice if it came with Revit.