[Radiance-general] Sketchup location settings [was Re: Radiance-general Digest, Vol 45, Issue 1]

[Thomas Bleicher]

On 1 Nov 2007, at 20:48, Evangelos Christakou wrote:

> Google Sketchup (free)  doesnt offer location settings
> (LAT/LONG), so SKY settings are  difficult!!!!
> You must have SKETCHUP Pro version to do it.
>
> Thomas, there is a way to overcome this limitation?

Ah, there is me having the inside view of the API and not so much
the outside of the GUI. Sorry, I thought there was a point to set
that directly ...

[ ... checking right now and there it is! ...]

In the 'Model Info' dialog (menu 'Windows') you will find a 'location'
entry in the left list of options. Here you can select from predefined
location in the 'locations.dat' file or roll your own via
'Custom location ...'.

One word of warning, though: When the script writes out the sky file
it reads the 'locations.dat' file, searches for the country and city
name to match the entry and uses the time offset to calculate the
standard meridian for the timezone. Not entirely accurate but it should
have the right effect on the shadow settings. If you use your own
values they are not in the file, so the standard meridian is calculated
as the nearest multiple of 15 to the location. This is wrong for
all locations east of their standard meridian (I should work on that)
and for those areas where the timezone difference does not match the
longitude (timezones that cover more than 15 degrees - don't know
what to do about that).

You will get a warning in the log file but nevertheless you should
check the final sky file if you intend serious daylight studies.
A simple solution that makes everyone happy is to add your own
locations to the 'locations.dat' file (perhaps Sketchup does that
automatically, I haven't checked).

The last time I tried the look-up on Windows it didn't work because
Sketchup couldn't find the file. It might be confused by a language
setting but I fear I have to write my own function to locate support
files ...

BTW: In the 'shadow setting' dialog (via menu entry Windows -> Shadows)
you can set day and time. I have not figured out yet if daylight saving
takes a part in this at all.

The settings 'View -> Shadows' and 'use sun for all shading' (in 'shadow
settings') define if the proposed sky type is intermediate or sunny and
has a sun or not: 'View -> Shadows' switches the sun on and off,
'use sun for all shading' switches from intermediate to sunny sky.

HTH, Thomas


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