[Radiance-general] Windows Based Radiance Package

[Rob Guglielmetti]

J. David Maino wrote:

> There's a program called SPOT (Sensor Placement and Orientation Tool) 
> that uses Radiance as a back-end. It's mostly for daylighting and 
> electric lighting integration, and it's kind of a pain to get to work 
> with your own Radiance models, but there is an excel spreadsheet 
> interface that is very easy to use. This ease of use comes at the cost 
> of limited features. You can find out more about it here: 
> http://www.archenergy.com/SPOT/


Hi David,

I'm sure Zack Rogers appreciates your plug for the program he developed 
(BTW, the words behind the acronym have changed to "Sensor Placement and 
Optimization Tool")!  I've had a chance to use SPOT a fair amount since 
coming to AEC, where Zack wrote the program.

You have hit the nail on the head there, GUIs ease the learning curve 
pain at the expense of inherently limiting what you can do with the 
underlying software.  This becomes painfully evident with a program as 
powerful and flexible as Radiance.  But SPOT does allow one to analyze 
simple spaces with Radiance (as well as perform some pretty 
sophisticated photosensor correlation analysis), and I believe a CAD 
model import tool is on the "long-term to-do list".

I also believe that Georg has created the ultimate GUI for Radiance with 
his Rayfront product, as it really allows you to delve pretty deeply 
into the underlying complexities and capabilities of Radiance.

- Rob