Shadows in Floor Plan View

[Ilic.Andrej]

Hello,

The company where I work atm wants to display shadows in floor plan views. When I turn them on, I see wall and furniture shadows, but not shadows casted by geometry from level above (floors, roofs, etc). Any ideas how to include those?

Thanks

[ToanDN]

Because the level above is not in the view range.

[Ilic.Andrej]

I did change the view range like this:

Top: Level Above (Roof) Offset: 2300

Cut Plane: Associated Level (Ground Floor) Offset: 1200

Bottom: Unlimited

View Depth: Unlimited

I still see only wall and furniture shadows. What am I doing wrong? 🙂

[ToanDN]

Only what below the cut plane cast shadow. Sorry for not being clear.

[Ilic.Andrej]

Well, I'm definitively not gonna move the cut plane to level above. I so pose we cant display accurate shadows in floor plans... 😕

[ToanDN]

The shadow is correct for the view, technically speaking. It's like you lifting away the level above of a physical model and shine a lamp to it, what shadow would you see?

[Ilic.Andrej]

The shadow is not even close to that in real life because in real life, the building is not cut in half. The cut plane just helps people to define layouts, but it shouldn't affect shadows which are projected on the surface just as it shouldn't affect any other projection lines. Technically, I'm sure that this could have been achieved in some way. This is just another example of sloppy work. For real, I would never use this program if it wasn't in demand.

[ToanDN]

Exactly.  A real building is not cut in half so the shadow is correct for the full building.  The model is cut in half so its shadow is only correct for the half of it.  

Of course, it can be achieved with some workarounds.  It's up to the users to exercise their creativity.

[barthbradley · Accepted solution]

So you want to see a shadow on the floor that is cast from an that is object above you (e.g. over your head), but you don't want that object seen in the view.  Interesting. I think you might be able to get there with a camera position. 

[Ilic.Andrej]

Thanks for the reply. I just tried what you suggested. I duplicated the default 3D view and made adjustments: "orbit" to top and matched "Eye Elevation" to the level cut plane elevation. The 3d view didn't cut the walls and it displayed roof regardless to the 3D view eye elevation. So, I checked "Section Box" like I would normally do to make a 3D section. I adjusted it to cut the walls horizontally. Yeah, it displayed shadows like the building was cut in half.... No luck there....

[Corsten.Au · Accepted solution]

Hi

You need a workaround to achieve what you are looking for..

Create copies of floor plans.and on " Sheet " overlap two floor plans

to capture both shadows at one place.

See the sample below.

1. Its almost impossible to capture something which is not in the view.. cut planes etc.

2. only work around are combining two views.. 

( Just make sure you are hiding floor or any element to capture the result you need ) ..

Cheers!

[barthbradley]

Don't know if you followed me. I'm talking about placing a camera slightly above the floor level and pointed down at the floor. The camera is positioned  underneath the shadow casting objects. This should give you the results you're looking for. We show shadows in walkthroughs all the time. Same idea. 

[chrisplyler]

---

@Ilic.Andrej wrote:

The shadow is not even close to that in real life because in real life, the building is not cut in half. The cut plane just helps people to define layouts, but it shouldn't affect shadows which are projected on the surface just as it shouldn't affect any other projection lines. Technically, I'm sure that this could have been achieved in some way. This is just another example of sloppy work. For real, I would never use this program if it wasn't in demand.

---

I don't consider it sloppy at all. Why? Because I prefer shadows be cast from visible model elements only.

That being said, user controlled options are hardly ever a bad idea. Add a checkbox in Graphic Display Style settings so the user can choose to cast shadows only from visible elements or from entire model. Or maybe add another line in the View Range dialog that's the "Cast Shadows From" elevation.

But really, if you're going to cast shadows from your roof or ceiling, then the entire volume of all the interior is just going to be in shadow, excepting what sunlight shows through fenestrations. For MY use, the accuracy of the shadows is not important. For MY use, their purpose is just to add visual depth, and the current implementation works fine for that.

[Ilic.Andrej]

You cannot have a good impression from light that comes through windows if the whole shadow casting model is cut in half. Having shadows from the the whole building gives long and expressive "light beams". Even when looking at plan views, clients can feel where we put large glass surfaces. 

[ToanDN]

What part is photoshopped? 

Below is the effect from overlaying two viewports.

[Ilic.Andrej]

I set the lightning in Maya and Vray and did filters in PSD. I didnt render furniture, it was photoshoped.

Can you please tell me how exactly did you do this? You overplayed viewports on sheets? How did you set those viewports?

[ToanDN]

A 3d top view with no roof and a floor plan, same scale.  Place them on sheet in that order.  

The floor plan is only needed if you want to show things like door swings, windows being cut, and dimensions.

[Ilic.Andrej]

Hello, 

Sorry for late reply. I tried to download Revit 2018 but got some errors when installing. Nvmind, the problem is that when you hide the roof, you hide its shadow as well. Even the surface transparency does this. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I assume that this is not different in rvt 2018.... Anyway, since there is probably no better solution, I'll accept this. But, I have to give this to ganesh since he proposed it first. For you, kudos 🙂 Thanks for posting and your sample.

[ToanDN]

Fair enough 😉

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

The Revit Kid has a good clear tutorial on how to achieve this

http://therevitkid.blogspot.ca/2017/01/revit-tutorial-true-solar-shadow-studies.html