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Work with sunlight

You can use the sunlight analysis to visualize the amount of sunlight hours on your map at a specific date for a certain time range. You can define one of the following visualizations: areas above threshold, total sunlight duration, or discrete sunlight.

Work with sunlight in plans and projects

In plans and projects, the sunlight analysis is available in the analysis mode where the results are persisted. See Analyze a plan or Analyze a project to learn how to access the analysis mode.

To configure a sunlight analysis in a plan or project, complete the following steps:

  1. Open the analysis mode.

  2. Select the sunlight analysis you want to configure from the analysis list or create a sunlight analysis.

    The analysis configuration panel appears.

  3. Provide a name and description for the analysis.

  4. Optionally, generate a thumbnail image based on the current 3D map view by clicking the Update button in the Thumbnail image section.

    You cannot undo changing the thumbnail image.

  5. Optionally, update the time zone by clicking the time zone label next to the time range.

    Note:

    • The time zone is automatically detected based on the camera location. If you think the automatically selected time zone is inaccurate, update the time zone manually.

    • The tool does not take into account daylight saving time. Update the time zone manually to adjust the offset from Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) and account for daylight saving time.

  6. Select the specific date and time range for the shadow cast analysis.

  7. Select the visualization in the Visualization drop-down menu and configure the visualization parameters.

    You can choose between the following modes:

    • Areas above threshold—Display only the areas that are covered by sunlight for more than a certain number of hours. Change the threshold value (in hours) using the slider. Areas that are not covered by sunlight are fully transparent.

    • Total sunlight duration—Display the duration of the cumulative sunlight using a color ramp. The color changes depending on the amount of sunlight the area is covered by. Continuous (continuous change in color) and hourly (color changes each hour) visualization modes are available.

    • Discrete sunlight—Display individual sunlight panels at a given time interval. You can specify the time interval in the drop-down list.