[Bldg-sim] SunTools Plugin for SketchUp available

[Leonard Sciarra]

Guedi,

Yes it is useful, we have already used it to do exactly as you say,
visually see the shading impacts of, in our case the shading of an
extended curtain wall mullion/roller shade to help inform the design,
and prevent a potential glaring light streak across rows of desks.  

 

 

Leonard Sciarra, AIA, LEED(r) ap

Senior Associate

312.577.6580  Direct

312.456.0123  Main

leonard_sciarra at gensler.com <mailto:leonard_sciarra at gensler.com> 

                                                      

 

Gensler 

11 East Madison

Suite 300

Chicago Illinois 60602

USA

 

From: bldg-sim-bounces at lists.onebuilding.org
[mailto:bldg-sim-bounces at lists.onebuilding.org] On Behalf Of Guedi
Capeluto
Sent: Friday, March 27, 2009 3:02 AM
To: 'Bldg-Sim'
Subject: Re: [Bldg-sim] SunTools Plugin for SketchUp available

 

SunTools is not a "simulation" program; in fact there are almost no
calculations in it.  I started working on it during a sabbatical leave
at LBNL, and we discussed with colleagues there the idea of exploring
how you can present "existing" internal data, in a new, meaningful way,
all in the same program and model. Sun Position is internal SU data; the
question is if the visualization of this data is valuable, for students,
architects and clients during design.... 

Sunviews can be understood as a different representation of shadow
casting; however you can use them to understand also the cause of
shading in you facades, solar systems or open spaces, difficult to do
see with regular shadow casting in complex environments. With the Sun
penetration analysis tool, you can see in one single view a full range
of information, valuable for design. The majority of these features are
already available in different ways and packages, but again the idea was
bringing all this information at any design stage into one tool that
architects use at the same moment that they work with the model in SU.

 

Rob, I'll implement your suggestion of a special layer for the sun
objects, thanks! Regarding the Mac, it is not a problem; I can put the
files in a zip format for downloading if you want to give them a try in
a Mac. However, I'll need to cancel the automatic saving of sunview
pictures, to avoid problems with file paths...

 

Guedi       

 

________________________________

From: bldg-sim-bounces at lists.onebuilding.org
[mailto:bldg-sim-bounces at lists.onebuilding.org] On Behalf Of Rob
Guglielmetti
Sent: 2009-03-27 03:45
To: Bldg-Sim
Subject: Re: [Bldg-sim] SunTools Plugin for SketchUp available

 

Actually Mark, I think the tool shows quite a bit of promise.  The
readme clearly states that several features are works in progress or yet
to be implemented, but some of the stuff in there is already useful, and
definitely not part of the "internal SketchUp tools". The sun path
visualizations are nice, and the views from the sun perspective are also
useful.  From a shading study perspective, these tools are useful right
now. I guess it all depends on what you call "analysis".  No, the tools
do not calculate energy savings from shading devices, but they do
illustrate very well the issues around a particular fenestration.  You
can clearly see the range of time where direct sun is a problem, and the
best part is, with this presentation a client can see the issues too.
Our internal tools where I work are faster to use, but aren't all that
great at illustrating the issues to the client. I think this
presentation is very clear (and is also the way Ecotect presents this
info). 

 

Guedi, a couple of comments: can you provide the plugin as a set of
files instead of a windows installer, so I can install the plugin on a
Mac too?  Also, it'd be nice if the sun objects are placed on a separate
pre-defined layer instead of the current layer, just for organizational
purposes. 

 

- Rob Guglielmetti

 

On Mar 26, 2009, at 12:24 PM, Zoeteman, Mark R. wrote:

 

Guedi:

This does not seem ready for real use.  We tried it and is very
simplistic and does not seem to give functionality.  It seems to do
little more than plot points in model, but not analyze model.  The
internal SketchUp tools will do more than SunTools.

Mark Zoeteman, FTC&H

 

From: bldg-sim-bounces at lists.onebuilding.org
<mailto:bldg-sim-bounces at lists.onebuilding.org>
[mailto:bldg-sim-bounces at lists.onebuilding.org
<mailto:bldg-sim-bounces at lists.onebuilding.org> ] On Behalf Of Guedi
Capeluto
Sent: Tuesday, March 24, 2009 1:17 PM
To: bldg-sim at lists.onebuilding.org
<mailto:bldg-sim at lists.onebuilding.org> 
Subject: [Bldg-sim] SunTools Plugin for SketchUp available

 

SunTools a new Plugin for SketchUp is available now.

 

Plug-in Features

- SunPATH: visualization (month and year)

- SunPOS: Sun Position for a date and time

- SunVIEW: Axonometric views from the Sun

- SunPENETRATION: Analyze Sun Penetration/Access in any specific
analysis point.

 

The plug-in can be downloaded after registration
from:http://tx.technion.ac.il/~arrguedi/SunTools/download.html
<http://tx.technion.ac.il/~arrguedi/SunTools/download.html> 

 

Enjoy SunTools.

 

Guedi Capeluto

arrguedi at technion.ac.il <mailto:arrguedi at technion.ac.il> 

 

Arch. Guedi Capeluto, D.Sc.
Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning
Technion - Israel Institute of Technology
Technion City,  Haifa 32000. Israel
Tel:+972.4.8294012  Fax:+972.4.8294617

email:   arrguedi at tx.technion.ac.il <mailto:arrguedi at tx.technion.ac.il> 
web  :   http://www.technion.ac.il/~arrguedi/
<http://www.technion.ac.il/~arrguedi/> 

 

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