Visualising

Viewing the Sun-Path Diagram and Time Of Day

The Sun-Path module comes with a useful sun-path diagram and, more importantly, a clock which is shown in the lower-right hand side of the 3D viewport and synchronises the time of day with the current frame in Blender.  This is particularly useful for knowing the time of day when carrying out Radiance renders or the like.

  1. Start up the ODS SunPath Module by going to Blenders Users Preferences -> Addons -> Architecture and selecting "ODS Studio - Sun Path"
  2. Expand the panel on the right-hand-side of the viewport and scroll to the bottom where you will find a new expandable menu there entitled "Sun Path". Expand this menu and click on the button labelled "Draw". A 3D view of the sunpath will be rendered in the 3D viewport as well as the current time-of-day (as determined from the frame number) in the lower-right corner of the 3d view.
  3. Under the sun-path menu check the "Flatten" checkbox to render the sun-path as a flat diagram. A new checkbox appears labelled "Equidistant". Check this to see the sun-path diagram rendered using equidistant polar coordinates.
  4. Toggle the "Over" checkbox to render the sun-path over/through objects in the 3d viewport.
  5. Toggle the "Circles" checkbox to render the concentric circles that mark 10-degree elevation increments.
  6. Toggle the "Show time" and "Sun Path" checkboxes to turn on and off rendering of the time in the lower-right and/or the sun-path diagram itself respectively.
  7. The size and centre location of the sun-path diagram can be modified by adjusting the values for "Radius" and the X, Y and Z values for the centre of the sunpath in the lowest points.

Refer to the video below for a demonstration on how to use sun-path module