Sun, Geolocation, and Time of Year
Sun, Geolocation, and Time of Year
Overview
The sun can have a dramatic effect on your project’s look and feel. Additionally to being able to quickly adjust the sun directly in the Enscape window, Enscape can also interpret the Geolocation and Time of Year settings from Rhino for the sun to be positioned correctly. You can quick adjust the sun settings in Enscape by using various key combinations listed below.
Time of day – Press U or I to adjust the time of day. Alternatively, you can also use Shift + Right Mouse Button while dragging the mouse right or left.
Solar angle – Press Shift + U or I to adjust the Solar angle.
Solar rotation – Press Ctrl + U or I to adjust the Solar rotation.
Reset Sun Position – Press the Home key to reset modifications made to the sun position.
Generally speaking the Sun Settings and Geolocation are adjusted in Rhino, and the Geolocation will affect the position of the Sun when adjusting the time of year. You can also, adjust the time of day in the Enscape window and save those settings for each view.
Adjust Sun and Geolocation Settings in Rhino
To access the Sun settings in Rhino, type ‘Sun‘ in the Rhino command line which will open Rhino’s Sun options.
Make sure that the On and Manual Control checkboxes are ticked, then adjust the Sun Position using the available controls.
Simply close the window when done.
If you want to save the sun position for a saved View in Enscape, you can save out the Rhino Sun Settings using the same name as the View you’ve created in Enscape, but you will need to additionally check that you have loaded the correct Sun Setting file.
Rhino Sun Settings Window
By having the Sun Options ‘Manual control’ unchecked, Rhino will display extended options to allow you to control precisely where you would like the location to be.
You can adjust the time of year and time of day under the Date and Time area with the red sliders, or you can hit the Now button to use the current date and time.
Location can be set by either clicking on the map, the location is indicated by a small red box on the map.
You can click on the Here button, which will use your current location if available, or you can manually search by city, or set the Longitude and Latitude coordinates for better precision.
Rhino Geolocation Settings
Save Enscape Sun Position
While you are adjusting the time of day in Enscape. You can save the Enscape Sun Position by going into the View Management tab – Select the view you would like to save the sun position of.
Manage Views
There will be a section for Sun Position, then click the box to open the Enscape Sun Position settings.
Sun Position Section
You will now have 2 options to control the Sun Position:
Azimuth – Rotation of the sun around the building
Altitude – Rotation above and below the horizon line
By adjusting these sliders you will see the time the time of day change to the desired result.
*If you need to undo the changes at anytime, click the undo button.
Once you are happy with the adjustments, click the Save Button at the bottom of the window.
Azimuth and Altitude Settings
Now each time you go back to this view it the sun settings will stay the same.
*You can see if a view has the sun settings changed by the little sun icon under the views name
Updated Sun Position
