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#71773 by yokman
Sun Jul 02, 2017 6:15 pm
Hi All,
Was wondering if there is a macro or program that I can use to prepare shadow diagrams for council submissions.
Any help much appreciated.
Thank you.
#71775 by Mark Bell
Mon Jul 03, 2017 7:47 am
Have you tried using Sunshader as it also allows you to save a bitmap of the cast shadows which is automatically placed under your model in plan view? Once you've got your model on screen pick the blue sphere icon next to the O2C icon to launch Sunshader then go through the settings as needed.

Alternatively, you can try David Henderson's revised beta of his Shadow macro which creates a colour fill output (vector). It's currently limited to flat/horizontal planes and only certain entities and is a useful alternative if you need a none bitmap output.
viewtopic.php?f=14&t=15965
#71817 by Nick Pyner
Sun Jul 09, 2017 12:03 am
It depends on what you really want. If you just want a picture, you can do it with Sunshader. If you want serious documentation, you need to try and get the original shadow macro by David Henderson - or wait till his new macro manages to cut the mustard. Sunshader is not to be lightly dismissed. It is good for quickly assessing the situation.
One of the things you might need to asses is just what is required of you. The trouble is that we Dcadders have been rather spoilt by Henderson, and that becomes evident when you see shadow submissions by the less enlightened. For the most part they are junk but, if your local authority never sees anything better, they will accept junk from you.
#71948 by dhs
Fri Jul 28, 2017 6:17 am
My new Shadow macro is NOT limited to flat/horizontal surfaces - It can draw shadows on a surface at any orientation.

In some aspects it is ahead of the old dhShadow macro (e.g. hatching and Solid Fill options, and I also like the way I have implemented the solar calculator and saving of sun angle information better than the way I did it in the old dhShadow).

In some aspects it is behind the old offering (most notable being that at this stage the new program will only cast shadows of lines and polygons - but you can explode any other entity into these types if you need to). I do intend to add the processing of other entity types in a new version at some stage in the future.

The new shadow program is also no longer a beta version, but is available for download on my web site. And unlike the old program, it is completely free (although you can choose to make a financial contribution if you really want to!). See http://www.dhsoftware.com.au/shadow.htm.

Best regards,
David H.
#72259 by dhs
Fri Sep 08, 2017 2:17 am
I am pleased to advise that there is a new version of my Shadow macro now available on the dhsoftware.com.au web site.
The new version supports casting shadows of most DataCAD entity types (except for the "smart" entities).

A video demonstrating the use of the new macro can be viewed at http://www.dhsoftware.com.au/shad11video.htm

A number of other fixes and minor enhancements have also been made to this version (most importantly, the shadows are now drawn in the correct direction - I had embarrassingly used dataCADs default anti-clockwise angle direction when adding the azimuth to the north direction in the very first version but this is now corrected).

There is now also a Shadow Lite version of the macro available. This has had some functionality removed, but features the addition of discreet configuration files that can be translated in order to display the user interface in another language without the need to rebuild the macro itself (not sure how many non-English speakers subscribe to this forum?).

Regards,
David Henderson
#72613 by Nick Pyner
Fri Nov 03, 2017 11:58 pm
I have had grief with the latest Shadow macro. It appears to install OK but I cannot get it to run on either desktop W7 or laptop XP, both with V19. I had an older version of Shadow working OK a few months ago.

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