Design 3D Model
With the Model Designer you can build a 3D model that allows you to examine the shading effects of adjacently placed buildings.
- To begin, click on Model Designer, then
Add Building. A building will be placed
in the center of the display.
- All new buildings are placed in the middle of the surface plane. To move a building,
right-click and drag one of the gizmo arrows. Buildings may also be exactly resized and
positioned by modifying settings in the Model Designer.
- Right-click on a building to select it. You can also select buildings by clicking
on the Model Designer tree view, or by selecting pages in the Model Designer.
- As buildings are added, they are included in a building group.
This allows you to build composite structures that can be positioned by modifying
the group position coordinates in the Model Designer.
- Remember, the X and Z position coordinates refer to
the center of the building. You must take this into
account when positioning adjacent buildings.
- With the Model Designer, you can specify building
position, size, color and orientation. You can also
modify roof type and pitch. The following roof types are
available: Flat, Mono-pitched, Gabled, Hipped, Gambrel
and Mansard.
- Use the left mouse button to navigate the model.
Use the mouse wheel to zoom in/out.
- The Orientation setting allows you to rotate the model around the vertical axis.
Orientation relates to the angle of the model relative to North in the sense NESW.
Thus, North is zero degrees, East is 90 degrees.
- The first time you run a shadow animation, from the Date &
Location dialog, specify Date, Latitude and Longitude.
- Control the shadow animation with the Start, Single Step, Start/Stop and Reset
buttons. As the animation progresses, current azimuth and altitude are displayed.
- To change the speed of the animation, modify Time Interval in minutes.
- The Sun Path settings allow you to select daily or annual sun paths for the animation. If daily sun path is selected, the animation proceeds from sunrise to sunset for the currently selected date. If annual sun path is selected, the animation proceeds from the beginning to the end of the year for the time as specified in the Date & Location dialog.
Abbreviations:
| Mag. Var. | Magnetic Variation |
| D. Saving | Daylight Saving |