VRSolar
About VRSolar

VRSolar is a prototype teaching tool, which runs on the Internet (and locally) using a JavaScript capable Web browser and a VRML 2.0 browser.

VRSolar demonstrates a possible use of Virtual Reality in architectural teaching. Currently VRSolar has the following capabilities:

  1. Generate the position of the sun for a particular place, date and time.
  2. Plot the sun positions in the form of Mazria's cylindrical sun chart.
  3. Via a built-in elementary geometry defining program written in JavaScript, input the site and the surrounding buildings.
  4. Generate the information as a VRML world file and view from any direction/angle and walk through the site.
  5. Allow for the animation of solar position and path.
  6. Allow the Solar Model to be imported to other systems, through AutoCAD DXF .
  7. Access the built-in Help file, which includes the Glossary, Conversion Tables and links to other Web resources.
How Do I Use VRSolar?

  1. Check the before you start page, to make sure that you have the correct HTML and VRML browsers.
  2. Start the program.
  3. Any word preceded by the lamp (or bulb, as we all say..) symbol has help associated with it. Click it to try!
  4. If the Show Mouse Sensitive Help checkbox on the left menu frame is clicked on then the definitions/help for the terms preceded by the would be displayed in the lower frame automatically, when the mouse passes over the icon.
  5. In the Solar Altitude and Azimuth Calculator, select the required city/time and calculate the solar altitudes and azimuths.
    Remember that if you want to see the sun move in the VR scene, you have to do the calculations for the entire day.
  6. You have the options of printing the tables generated from Altitude and Azimuth Calculator by selecting the frame and then printing from the browser.
  7. You can view the sun position plotted in the a Solar Graph.
  8. Click the yellow arrow to proceed to the VRBuilder. Input/change information.
  9. To view the VR view of the site input, click the Generate VR button.
  10. View and navigate the VRML scene (this may differ based on the VRML browser that you are using). Many preset views are set to view the site from the position of the sun. Since the views are in order you may use the next view button of your VRML browser to get an animated view of what the sun sees when it goes round your site!
  11. Click the sun to animate it around your site for the time and day that you calculated the values for.
  12. To save the site to disk, check the checkbox and cut and paste the site into a text editor. Save with a .wrl extension.
  13. Make any changes needed in the VRML Builder, and generate again. When satisfied, save. (You have to generate as text and save, as mentioned above!)
  14. Explore the built in help!
    This includes a lot of definitions on solar terms and explanations, conversion tables, and a directory for building related resources on the web!

Examples:
Two existing VRML files generated by using VRSolar are provided. These are

In all these files, multiple views from the sun are saved, allowing the user to see the site from the sun's view, thereby knowing the exact surfaces on which the sun would be falling.

On clicking on the sun in any of the VRML generated by VRSolar, the sun moves in its trajectory for that particular day.

VRSolar Development:
This tool was developed by Archit Jain, a graduate student in the Building Science Program at the School of Architecture in the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, USA, during the course of his thesis research work on using the Web interactively for architectural teaching.

Please see credits.

The author would love to hear from you! Please send him e-mail!
archit@usc.edu

Return to Resources Needed
Return to VRSolar

© Archit Jain, USC Architecture

This page is part of the Online Solar Position Calculator and VRML Builder--VRSolar. If you have reached here directly from the Web, please go to the Start Page.