Rendering in SketchUp: From Modeling to Presentation for Architecture, Landscape Architecture and Interior Design

Solar North

The Solar North option is available only in SketchUp Pro. The Solar North menu displays and adjusts the direction of north in the model. Adjusting Solar North alters the direction of cast shadows. To find Solar North, select View ⇒ Toolbars ⇒ Solar North. The Solar North tool has three options:

• Toggle North Arrow
• Set North Tool
• Enter North Angle

The North tool and Enter North Angle tool are useful when you’re composing good light for renderings, as discussed in Chapter 18.

Toggle North Arrow

Clicking this option on will display an orange arrow indicating the direction of north in the model.

Set North Tool

The tool allows you to manually set the direction of north in your model, either by using your mouse or entering a value in Measurements.

Enter North Angle

Entering a value into this menu will rotate solar north. The values are entered in degrees (Fig. 17.10, Fig. 17.11).

Fig. 17.10: The Solar North menu is shown with the Enter North Angle option. The angle of the sun is at 180 degrees.

Fig. 17.11: The Enter North Angle option is used to adjust the angle of the sun to 0. This flips the direction of light and shadows in comparison to direction in Fig. 17.10.