The SketchUp Shadow tools are designed to give you a general idea of how the sun and shadows affect your model during the course of a day and throughout the year. The calculations are based on the location (latitude and longitude) and directional orientation of the model, as well as the associated time zone. The time is not adjusted for Daylight Saving Time.
Using Google SketchUp, you can set the location and directional orientation by importing an image from Google Earth:
- Open Google Earth and fly into the location, looking straight down.
- In SketchUp, click "Get Current View."
- The SketchUp model is now set to the same latitude and longitude as the location in Google Earth. The imported terrain image is aligned with the axes in SketchUp (the solid green axis points north and the solid red axis points east). The time zone in SketchUp is approximated based on the coordinates. Because some actual time zones lines zigzag rather dramatically, the automatically calculated time zone for some locations may be off by an hour. In a few cases, the variance can be even longer.
You can also manually set the location, time zone, and solar orientation:
- Open the "Window" menu.
- Click "Model Info."
- In the left pane, click "Location."
- In the right pane, you can select one of the preset countries and locations, or you can click "Custom location" to set a precise latitude, longitude, and time zone for any location.
- You can also manually control the solar orientation by entering the number of degrees it should vary from the default north direction in SketchUp (the direction the solid green axis points).
Note: To use the Shadow tools, enable the Shadows toolbar (open the "View" menu, point to "Toolbars," and then click "Shadows"). You can fine tune the shadows in the Shadow Settings dialog box (open the "Window" menu, and then click "Shadows").
For more information about directions in SketchUp (up, down, east, west, north, and south), click here.
