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Analyze Empty-Sites

Whether your start with a large empty site, with a highly pre-constrained building shape, or with an existing building, the first step of the process will be to understand the resources and grasp data that matters. Here below you find the typical process to follow when you start with an empty site.

Single Feature Analysis

The Visualizer displays the simulation results at every Sensor Point of the Grid showing both intensities via a color-map from blue (low) to red (high) and directions with the orientation of the visualization shapes (Quads and Boxes). The first step of the analysis is to loop trough every simulation layer and understand how the environmental resources are distributed across the volume of the site. The goal is to identify the best positions and directions of each different resources. To achieve this you typically use the following controller on every layer:

  • Shape: switch from Quads to Voxels to perceive both volume and direction.

  • Slice: apply Z slices to dig into the Sensor Points volume.

  • Threshold: apply higher or lower thresholds, both on the value or the number of Sensor Points (value/count) and with global and floor-based logics (global/level).

  • No Overhang: used in combination with Threshold-Count-Level to identify vertically coherent positions of buildings.

  • Map: re-apply the color-mapping to a reduced number of filtered Sensor Points or to the currently selected Frame to visualize finer volumetric patterns.

  • Unobstructed: highlight the incoming sides to better understand the direction of the resources.

  • PoV: use the Point of View camera to accurately understand Sun and Views effects on specific points in the volume. Move the Selected up-down or sidewise to perceive the changes.

  • Frames: scroll frames of Monthly Sun, Hourly Sun, and Free View layers.

  • Lines: visualize simulation sun-rays, lines-of-sight, noise-lines, and stream-lines, and move the selected Sensor Point from top to obstructed positions to fully understand results. Slice a Free View level, activate ALL, move slice up-down.

This process will allow you to understand the best positions and directions of each layer. When you identify an interesting pattern you should save it as an Observation adding it to the Single Feature Analysis report.

To isolate patterns it is helpful to focus on positive value: good directions and high-quality position (e.g. low noise, low wind, high sun, high view). For positions to do it meaningfully you need to decide the relevant value-boundaries in (in absolute and relative terms) using the information of the Legend, or using features such as the PoV Camera to subjectively define the minimal amount of view on a specific target (lake or mountain) that you consider as relevant.

In the first round of such an exploration, besides understanding the resources, you usually realize the you should apply refinements on geodata and simulation parameters like the size of terrains, the shapes of targets, the resolution of simulations, etc. To implement these changes you can add Grids, Geodata, or Simulation Sets according to your needs and repeat the Single Feature Analysis.

Selection of relevant Layers and Frames

After the single feature analysis phase you should have a report with a certain number of observations, for example 12, related to different environmental resources. By setting them in relation with the needs of your project you can decide which ones are the most relevant for your project and for which goal. Once you selected a reduced number, for example 3-4, you can then verify if and how these resources could be combined.

Combination of Layers

In the Mixer you can explore the combination of the selected layers. Pre-filtered layers can be for example jointly visualized in Multi mode (overlay) to for example verify if there are consistencies in terms of positions and directions.

Alternatively, multiple layers can be combined mathematically in the Mixed mode. In this case the layers lose their unit of measure and the values of the active Sensor Points of each layer get mapped from 0 to 1. Weights applied to each layer can then change their relative importance. In Mixed mode it can be interesting to load unfiltered layers to create a larger exploration space. You can explore the effect of selecting different resources and giving them different weights. Filters such as threshold and slices can by applied to mixed layers.

This process can be used to identify the position and form of a building taking into account multiple environmental resources.

Analysis of Large Urban Areas

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Evaluation and Comparison of Sites

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[Verify if the resources of your site match to the requirements of your project in terms of use (residential, administrative, commercial, etc.). Compare sites according to environmental metrics (lake view, solar access, silence, etc.) and support with data valuation and site purchase processes.]