How to change seasons definition

DL-Light offers calculation of daylighting indicators for periods of time. Periods can be predefined seasons or custom specified with custom limits.

DL-Light sketchup daylighting extension period selection

Seasons definition

Seasons limit dates in DL-Light are configured by default for northern hemisphere, but can be modified for other context. Seasons' limit dates are shown in tooltips.

The definition of seasons can be changed in preferences:

DL-Light sketchup daylighting extension period change

The provided season files are in the folder
c:\Users\[user]\AppData\Roaming\SketchUp\SketchUp [version]\SketchUp\Plugins\DL_common\periods

These files can be edited with TextEdit

All future calculations will use new season definitions and dates. Note that old results with old seasons should recalculated for new seasons.


Custom period definition

Custom period can be defined in several ways:


Time step The time step for calculations is 1 hour, but for SunExposure calculation with clear sky it can be set to value lower than 60 minutes.

The Daylight Autonomy extension uses a more detailed occupancy profile feature, thus only the 'Full days' mode is available for custom period.