Set Sun Position

[michael john williams]

Having trouble setting the sun position in VW standard.

I adjust the page north setting to 180 degress as the north of the site is the bottom of the page, but the sttings do not save and north goes to the top of the page.

180 degress stays in the setting but the north point symbol reverts to the top of the page.

South elevations and views are grey and north views and elevations are white.

Help appreciated.

[CipesDesign]

mw, a couple of things to note. First, an already inserted light should retain its original settings. If you single click it you can check in the OIP. Second, I agree that the "set sun position" dialog always shows its arrow as if page up was north, and that this is a flaw, but all you have to do is retype the numbers and the arrow will change back to an accurate portrayal. Third, I assume you only have one "sun" in your drawing? If there are multiple light sources you will get sometimes weird results.

[michael john williams]

I do retype the the settings, ie 180 degress if north is at the bottom of the page rather than the top. It changes and the north point points to the bottom of the page but then it reverts back and the north point points to the top of the page but 180 degress is still shown!

[JR5801]

In another thread, I made mention of this rotation problem. VW just will not except anything other than 'up' as north. The only way I know is to rotate everything to line up with north as the top.

Rotating drawings has made it to the wish list.

I wonder if you could change the date by 6 months and enter coordinates as if project was on the other side of the equator? N for S etc. A bit risky though.....

[mike m oz]

Hey guys stop and look for a second at what is actually happening.

All the Set Sun Position dialog box does is to set the light direction so that it is correct for the parameters you have given it. Create a quasi sun light source for noon on any day and look at the direction the light is coming from. It will be coming from the south if you have defined a location in the northern hemisphere, and the north if your location is in the southern hemisphere.

This is all it does - It does not change the orientation of the drawing relative to where you have defined north in the dialog box. It defines Page North relative to what you have drawn so that the light source will orientate itself correctly.

If you select this quasi sun and then re-enter the dialog box the angle below the diagram will show the angle that you previously described for north. I will concede that the compass diagram should 'remember' where you previously told it north was and show this as well - It used to up to version 8.5 but for some reason it no longer does.

To minimise confusion like this it may be prudent for the NNA guys to remedy this for the next maintenance release and make the dialog compass diagram also remember where the user has defined Page North (like it used to).

[ 04-01-2005, 08:35 AM: Message edited by: mike m oz ]

[michael john williams]

Thanks for your help guys.

NNA should look into this or at the very least explain the shortcomings in the manuel - I have wasted a whole day on this!

[michael john williams]

It is a pity there is not a click box for north or south hemisphere as the sun directional symbol always shows the sunlight coming from the north, which for us in the northern hemisphere is incorrect.

[islandmon]

Refer to Archtectural Standards ch.18 , and especially page 803, 'Solar Angles'. Describes the parameterrs and requirements. A PIO should be based on these fundamentals.

Energy calcs are fundamental to efficient design.

[michael john williams]

Sounds good and complicated, perhaps NNA should read it and make set the sun nice and easy and uncomplicated as in some other CAD packages.