Overview

This article shows how to create a Solar Study with the help of the Visualization workflow in OpenBuildings Designer.

Method

To create a solar path study follow these steps:

Under the Visualization workflow, from the Home tab go to the Utilities tool group and click on the Solar Study icon:

The Solar Study dialog box includes a number of functions that contain various settings.

The "View" drop-down should be the one from which you want to run the study - views with an Isometric rotation and shadows work best.
Provide a resolution according to your choice - higher resolution creates a better quality display of the study.
"No. of Frames" interprets the smoothness of the video - the higher the frame number, the swifter the transition.
"Speed" describes the number of frames run per second - the higher the speed, the faster the video.
Set the "Render Mode" to a suitable style, avoiding Wireframe as it does not provide any shadows.
Under "Start Time" select your Time, Date and Year - keep the date as provided in the Lighting Manager.
Set the "Duration" according to the number of hours you for which would like to run the study.

Upon saving, you will be prompted to save the study recording to a location with a desirable format as per your preference.

OpenBuildings Designer then runs the study in the background and creates a recording that you can later access from the location you selected.