easySun [HDA]

easySun is a HoudiniFX tool to analyse the solar exposure of a geometry.

By easily adjusting the sun path, you can obtain a point attribute called 'solar,' which highlights the amount of solar exposure at different points of your geometry.

This simulation can also be animated to see how the solar exposure changes over time.

• For current students of mine; Feel free to email/message me and I will provide an HDA for your Houdini Education.

Note: This simulation is an abstraction of solar exposure in a day, it should not be used as a replacement for more competent simulations like CFD. The nature of the tool allows for quick and intuitive uses such as, proof of concepts or early design development.

Inputs

◽ Quality This will set the number of steps to simulate along the sun path, from Low (48), Medium (128), High (256) or a Custom number. The quality of the simulation also depends on the point count of your geometry!

◽ Altitude Solar altitude angle in degrees

◽Orientation Azimuth sun angle in degrees from North/South or Z-Axis

◽ Animate Keyframe this slider to animate the sun path from morning to night

◽ Ground Option to add a ground plane that is in proportion to your geometry, at different sizes

◽ Colour Ramp to visualise the solar attribute

Outputs

◽ Solar Point attribute to evaluate the exposure from the geometry to the sun path, remapped to 0-1

◽ Coloured Geometry Geometry output of the input geo with the solar attribute and colours

◽ Sun Path Geometry output of the sun path, can be used to view the orientation and altitude quickly