{"id":17642,"date":"2017-08-04T11:00:22","date_gmt":"2017-08-04T15:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/tech\/?p=17642"},"modified":"2017-08-03T10:29:00","modified_gmt":"2017-08-03T14:29:00","slug":"solar-access-study-in-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/tech\/2017\/08\/solar-access-study-in-action.html","title":{"rendered":"SOLIDWORKS Solar Access Study in Action"},"content":{"rendered":"

We recently experienced a rare heat wave in the UK, with temperatures hitting above 30\u00b0C for a number of days in row (!) and, whilst we’re not ones to complain about the hot weather, it has caused a few issues for Innova Systems’ Technical Manager, Ed Hawkins.<\/p>\n

Ed explains:<\/strong> Last year I designed (In SOLIDWORKS) and built a decking area with integrated sand pit for my 2 children. The plan always was to have some kind of shade over the top of it \u2013 to help keep the direct sunlight off, but I never did get that far with the project. This year though it\u2019s become a bit of a priority.<\/p>\n

\"SOLIDWORKS<\/a><\/p>\n

I had a large sunshade (5m triangle) in the shed, and attached it to two of the upright posts, so that it was directly above the sandpit. However, this didn\u2019t cast shade onto the sand at all! Rather than mess around with lots of different positions, I turned to SOLIDWORKS, because I already had the model of the deck created. All I needed to do was configure sunlight within the model, and create the shade. I should then be able to figure out exactly where I need to position my sunshade for maximum effect.<\/p>\n

You can apply sunlight as you would any normal light in SOLIDWORKS \u2013 it just carries a few more additional options. Firstly, we need to define the North direction, which can be done by selecting a model edge. Next, we can specify the world location, chosen from a drop down list of locations, or alternatively, fill in the longitude and latitude. I used google maps to establish the exact<\/strong> location of my deck and the north direction.<\/p>\n

\"Solar-Access-Study-3\"<\/a><\/center>Fiddling around with the time manually, I would be able to see the sun’s position (and therefore shadow) at the various times of the day, but this is very time consuming. Thankfully, there is another way: Once you have applied sunlight, the option to perform a \u201cSolar Access Study\u201d appears. This is available from within the animation wizard located in the motion manager.<\/p>\n

\"Solar-Access-Study-4\"<\/a><\/center>SOLIDWORKS animator will then allow you to choose to perform the study either at a:<\/p>\n
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  • Fixed Date, variable time \u2013 on a selected date, animate the sun\u2019s position over a full day or a specified time interval, or<\/strong><\/li>\n
  • Fixed time, variable date \u2013 at a selected time of day, animate the sun\u2019s position from one day to the next over a specified range of dates.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    SOLIDWORKS then creates the required animation for you. See my example here:<\/p>\n

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