RadSunpath

Create multiple Radiance images for specified date and compose them into animated gif image for sun path representation during the day.

RadSunpath's simple graphical interface enables user to define all input Radiance project data and calculation parameters, and start Radiance calculations for specified date and timestep. Final Radiance images represent sun and shadows position during the day. Images are converted into gif format and composed into animated gif, which can be previewed and explored within RadSunpath program.
Interface enables easy and undrestandable data input and output preview, and yet provides flexibile images calculation.

To make RadSunpath accessible to greater number of potential users program is developed for Windows and Linux based platforms.

In order to give back a little to the Radiance community which has been of invaluable help over the years of our Radiance use, we decided to release RadSunpath under GPL license so that anyone can freely use, distribute, and modify it.
So feel free to use, correct and improve it !

Requirements and installation

RadSunpath program can be installed in Unix/Linux based operating systems and in Microsoft Windows NT/2000/XP.

Below are given requirements and installation information for both versions of program.

Installation from binaries (Windows only)
To install RadSunpath program follow next procedure:

1. Double-click on RadSunpath-1.0-Setup.exe file to start RadSunpath installation program.
2. Follow all steps in installation program. Default installation path depends of type of user whoe is installing the program: administrator, limited user or guest user. If you install RadSunPath as Administrator, the program will be available for all users. If you install as normal user, RadSunPath will only be available for this user. As Guest the program can not be installed.
3. Program icon will be added to Desktop and Start Menu. Program can be started with double-click on the icon.
4. To uninstall program use Control Panel -> Add or Remove Programs utility or uninstall program from Start menu, RadSunpath submenu.

To be able to perform Radiance calculations, installation of Radiance software on Windows is required. If you don't have Radiance installed on Windows you can download and install MinGW Radiance 3.9.

To create animated gif image RadSunpath uses GraphicsMagick utilities. GraphicsMagick is automatically installed with RadSunpath installation wizard. GraphicsMagick license files are included in GraphicsMagick subdirectory.

MSVCP71.dll or other MSVC***.dll

These dll files are often are already included in MS Windows OS, but sometimes they aren't :)
Since licensing for distribution of these dll files is not quite clear on Internet, and they can be freely downloaded, we haven't included them in our program distribution.

Installation from sources (Linux and Windows)
RadSunpath source code distribution can be installed on both Linux and Windows platforms. Before you can install RadSunpath, the complementary packages listed below (see requirements) need to be installed.

To install it follow the procedure below:

Linux OS

1. Open archive radsunpath-1.0.tar.gz
   tar xvzf radsunpath-1.0.tar.gz.
2. In directory radsunpath-1.0, log as a root user and execute command
   python setup.py install
3. Program will be installed in site-packages subdirectory in Python directory and it is available to all users with command radsunpath.
4. To uninstall the program you can use script uninstall.csh as root user.

Windows OS

1. Open archive radsunpath-1.0.zip with some of standard Windows archive programs.
2. Open Command Prompt window (Start menu->Run, type cmd and press "OK"), position yourself in radsunpath-1.0 directory and run the command
   python setup.py install
3. Program will be installed in Lib/site-packages subdirectory in Python directory, and radsunpath script will be in Scripts subdirectory in Python directory.
   Create shortcut to radsunpath script, and use it to open the program (with python).
4. Check if environment variable PATH contains path to directory where Radiance package is installed.

Requirements

To run RadSunpath installed from source code distribution next programs/libraries are required:

Binary distribution (Windows only)

1. Radiance installation on Windows. You can download and install MinGW Radiance 3.9

Source code distribution

1. Python, version 2.4 or above;
2. wxPython, version 2.6.x or above;
3. Python for Windows extensions on Windows;
4. Radiance version 3.7.x or above for Linux version. Radiance installation on Windows MinGW Radiance 3.9
5. GraphicsMagick on Linux. On Windows, needed GM binaries are included in the source code package.

Notes

To create animated representation of sun path during the day RadSunpath uses GraphicsMagick

• "Gm" program is automatically installed with RadSunpath installation wizard.
• "Gm" program is included in Windows source distribution.