Sunlight Analysis

Real-time GPU-accelerated sunlight hours analysis.

Balarhinos provides a high-performance Sunlight Hours Analysis service that leverages your computer's GPU to provide near-instant feedback on solar exposure.

How it Works

The sunlight analysis service uses the NVIDIA OptiX ray tracing engine to compute how many hours of direct sunlight hits a surface during a specified time period.

Key Features:

  • GPU Acceleration: Processes thousands of points in milliseconds.
  • Live Mode: Get real-time heatmap updates as you move or scale your Rhino geometry.
  • Context Awareness: Automatically considers all buildings and site context tagged in your model.

Running an Analysis

  1. Tag your Geometry: Ensure your target surfaces and surrounding buildings are tagged with the appropriate Semantic Categories.
  2. Open the Sun Panel: Navigate to the Sun Analysis tab in the Balarhinos UI.
  3. Set Parameters:
    • Location: Sync from Rhino or set manually.
    • Date Range: Choose a single day or a seasonal period.
    • Time Resolution: Set the interval for sun position testing (e.g., every 15 minutes).
  4. Click Run: View the heatmap directly on your geometry in the Rhino viewport.

Live Mode

One of the most powerful features of Balarhinos is Live Mode. When enabled, the analysis engine stays active in the background. As you modify your geometry (e.g., changing building heights or setbacks), the heatmap updates instantly.

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Use Live Mode during early-stage massing to quickly understand the solar impact of your design decisions without waiting for long bake times.

Performance Tips

  • Grid Resolution: Higher resolutions provide smoother heatmaps but require more GPU memory. Start with a medium resolution for live feedback.
  • Context Complexity: For very large urban models, use the refinement-region category to focus analysis on specific areas.