Open-area Solar Access Analysis is a built-in plugin tool for users to analyze the shadow impacts to open spaces from surrounding buildings. This plugin visualizes solar beam/rays which cause the maximum shadow to open space; calculates the shadow area in square-meter.
This tool can be found from the left control panel in Analytics
Run a job
To start your job, click in Solar access after selecting the case area. More information about creating & selecting a case area please see.
Enter the job name, open space WFS URL (default value is available for the greater Melbourne area) and building WFS URL. Then select the height column for building height, enter the buffer size for open space (set back), segment length (the length of the open space boundary to be divided into) and the eye height (the eye height of an observer). Tick the bottom box if you want exporting the max intersected shadow.
Clicking OK button after completing all settings for this job. You can see your job is listed on the left control panel. Processing your job by clicking for running; for deleting; for resetting.
Running the job and you will get below results.
Job results
- Max shadow
- Contains two types of layers illustrating the max shadowed area in open space during current year.
- Vector layer
- Raster layer
You can find the area of each polygon in the popup information box by clicking them. - Solar beam
- This is a 3D feature showing the solar direction when the open space is maximally shadowed during the year.