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 Revit 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 Revit, 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 the Sun and Geolocation in Revit
Revit’s Sun Settings allow you to adjust the sun, the geolocation, and the time of year for your project. With Revit’s Sun Settings window open, make sure that the Solar Study is set to “Still”.
You can freely set the date and time under the Settings section and by clicking on the 3 dots next to the Location option in the Sun Settings window. Revit’s Location Weather and Site dialogue box will then open.
NOTE: You can also use Single Day and Multi-Day options and the changes in the Revit Viewport will be reflected in the Enscape window. The Lighting option, however, will not always reflect how the sun behaves in the Revit Viewport window. Therefore, the Lighting option should be used at your own discretion.
Revit Sun Settings Menu
Revit Sun Settings Window
You can define the location of a project by using the “Define Location by:” option. You can choose to define the location by either the Internet Mapping Service or the Default City List.
For the Internet Mapping Service, you can either perform a search, or you can use the red house icon by dragging the icon to the desired position on the map.
The Default City List allows you to choose the location from a drop-down, or to define a more precise location you can manually input the Longitude and Latitude co-ordinates.
When done, click OK to exit the Sun Setting dialogue boxes and return to the main Revit window.
Internet Mapping Service
Default City List
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
