SunProperties

General

Status - toggles the sun on and off:

• On - displays the sun as a light in the model
• Off - does not display the light

Intensity factor - specifies the intensity or brightness of the sun; the higher the number, the brighter the light.

Shadows - toggles the display of shadows by the sun light:

• On - displays shadows according to the properties in the Rendered Shadow Details section, below
• Off - does not display shadows, which increases rendering speed

Note: The color of the sunlight is hard-coded.

Sun Angle Calculator

Date - displays the current date; edit the date to show the sun at a different time of year

Time - displays the current time; edit the time to show the sun at a different time of day

Daylight saving - toggles the effect of daylight saving time on the time property

Azimuth - reports the horizontal angle of the sun measured clockwise from the north; this setting cannot be changed as the program calculates it from the other settings in this section.

(Read-only) Altitude - reports the vertical angle of the sun, measured from the horizon; this setting cannot be changed as the program calculates it from the other settings in this section.

(Read-only) Source vector - reports the direction of the sunlight; this setting cannot be changed as the program calculates it from the other settings in this section.

Rendered Shadow Details

Type - Soft (area)- displays realistic shadows with softer shadows based on extended light sources, according to the Softness property.

Softness - determines the sampling size of shadows; larger numbers are more accurate but take longer to render

Reports location of the drawing on earth; to change the location, click the Edit button to access the Geographic Location dialog box; see GeographicLocation command.