Tricky Shadow Study Question

[PaperStreet SoapCO]

I've got a bit of an odd request for a shadow study - I need to be able to show the shadows that the roof of a park pavilion is casting but I need to show it on the floor plan below the canopy, if you get what I'm saying. That is, in floor plan I need to be able to show the shadows that the canopies above are casting. Is there any way to do this? I've tried changing roof materials to transparent and and doing a 3D Top View but then the shadows don't really show up since the roofs are semi transparent.

Is there anyway to get the camera in between the roof and ground without cutting the view?

[dhurtubise]

Im not sure i quite understand the issue. Is it with camera placement or where the shadow is cast?
You can set the plane to cast the sahdow on from the Advanced Model Graphic dialog
You can use the Far Clip or simpy turn some elements off in the camera view.
Can you post an image?

[Norton_cad]

First create a top view with shadows, with a transparent roof as descibed.
Next create a standard plan view, without shadows.
On the drawing sheet, put one view on top of the other, & voila.

Is this the answer you seek?

[Andre Carvalho]

First create a top view with shadows, with a transparent roof as descibed.
Next create a standard plan view, without shadows.
On the drawing sheet, put one view on top of the other, & voila.

Is this the answer you seek?

I don't think you can cast shadows with a transparent roof....

Maybe he will have tocreate a filled region over the shadows in one view, copy and paste into the plan.

Andre Carvalho

[Norton_cad]

Sure you can. Just make the roof a transparent matieral like glass.
I came across this neat trick, when trying to replicate elevational shadows from adjacent buildings onto my model, which were outside the crop region.

[PaperStreet SoapCO]

We tried that, but the problem is the shadows that are cast aren't as strong because the material is transparent. I set the roofs to 80% transparent and the intensity of the shadow decreases with the opacity of the material.

[PaperStreet SoapCO]

Also, recreating with filled regions, etc is not really desired as we have somewhere between 12 and 18 different views to create. I mean, if it came down to it and we had to recreate them we could but thats something we are trying to avoid

[Norton_cad]

Why not do your shadow studies from Accurender ?

[PaperStreet SoapCO]

Because the project is in 2009 which means it'll take longer with mental ray and I don't want to render 15 different views. I would like to be able to do it in a shaded view or hidden line view.

[Norton_cad]

Okay, what about giving everthing a halftone, that way the faded shadow from the transparent roof, would be in context with the rest of the linework?
That might work...

Also I thought you could use Accurender in Revit 2009 (which is way better than Mental Ray). All you had to do was plug it in. I've only got 2008 at the mo with AR. Better than that is, the shadow studies can be saved as a AVI movie file, and not just still images.

[PaperStreet SoapCO]

I think you can still export shadow studies as .avi files in 2009. We just need still images though for presentation purposes. I'm not sure about plugging accurender in 2009. That would be interesting. I have the accurender nxt plug in for 2009 but thats kind of in a alpha / beta stage.

Anyway, ultimately I was curious as to if you could generate a top down view in between levels that didn't produce a cut plane.

I appreciate you taking the time to make suggestions - thank you

[angus.110169]

I don't really think there is an answer to this problem. Any view you have of a lower plan view cuts out anything above it, and therefore doesn't cast shadows. I have also had extensive problems with the shadows being cast as being inaccurate. We have the same problem for trying to show the effect of shadows cast on elevations from buildings behind the viewer.

I have tried lost of solutions to your problem previously including:
-using view regions to "cut out" the floors above the lower floor plan (it the doesn't cast those shadows of the floors above.
-using sections boxes (same problems as above)
Transparent materials (same problems as previosuly mentioned in the threads.

The best solution we have come up with is a orthographic 3d "aerial" which you can see the affect on the floor plan.

see this thread

http://forums.augi.com/showthread.php?t=86685

[swalton240189]

It's not that great a solution but you could place a camera in the room and use (that stupid) stearing wheel to pan, rotate so you are like a fly on the ceiling. Then move the crop boundries outward. It will get kind of distorted (fish-eye) like but it will let you show shadows in hidden line or rendered.

Other options are 3DMAX or IES's Architectural Suites. Both are ~$5000 I think

[jpolding]

Hope I'm not too late on this one. For interior shadow studies you can make a design option which removes the roof (so you can see inside) and extends the outside walls quite high. This will allow the surrounding buildings to cast shadows through the interior windows but will prevent the sun from shing over the exterior walls. It's too bad we have to do this but it's all I have for now...