ClimateStudio + Solatube
ClimateStudio is the fastest and most accurate environmental performance analysis software for the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) sector. Its simulation workflows help designers and consultants optimize buildings for energy efficiency, daylight access, electric lighting performance, visual and thermal comfort, and other measures of occupant health. With the new Solatube integration, ClimateStudio can simulate the performance of Solatube products using a customized version of Radiance, a validated reverse light ray tracing engine. This innovation makes it possible to place Solatube TDDs in existing 3D architectural models and extract LEED Daylight Credit reports, which are submissible to the USGBC. The complete Solatube + ClimateStudio user guide covers it all! Please contact us to receive a copy.
Intuitive Daylighting Workflows
ClimateStudio enables architects, designers, and consultants to rapidly iterate how they integrate Solatube products into complete daylighting solutions which improve occupant comfort and bring natural light into otherwise inaccessible spaces. Designers can use a variety of workflows throughout their process to make decisions, demonstrate daylight availability, reduce glare, and effectively deploy Solatube products into a space. These workflows include simulating how Solatube products illuminate a space with a variety of metrics like Daylight Factor and Spatial Daylight Autonomy; annual, daily, and hourly illuminance levels; Spatial Disturbing Glare; and more. The workflows also create accurate, photorealistic renderings of Solatube lighting for the first time, allowing designers to visually demonstrate exactly how tubular daylighting devices can transform a space.
Site Specificity
ClimateStudio uses Typical Meteorological Year (TMY) weather files which contain measured hourly data for simulating daylight, including direct and diffuse solar radiation, and more. With thousands of weather files from around the world, the exact daylighting conditions of nearly any location can be recreated at any time of day on any day of the year, allowing the angular variation in light transmittance of Solatube collectors to be accurately simulated. Whether they are enhancing low angle sunlight in the morning and evening or rejecting unwanted solar gains at noon, ClimateStudio can simulate the advanced properties which make Solatube devices so much more than any ordinary daylighting solution.
Parametric Design
With ClimateStudio’s complete Grasshopper for Rhino integration, designers can work parametrically to optimize their use of Solatube products and discover unexpected daylighting solutions. The Grasshopper plugin can be used to rapidly explore variations in a parametric manner, enabling designers to study everything from the optimal placement and size of a Solatube array, to how different products variably illuminate the same space, to how Solatube devices can be scattered stochastically and still achieve 100% daylight autonomy.
The Complete Product Range
ClimateStudio comes loaded with a complete range of Solatube tubular daylighting devices. Designers can immediately explore all options in conjunction with the Solatube Design Calculator to quickly and easily find the perfect daylight solution for a space. Swapping Solatube devices in and out is as easy as the click of a button!
Learn More
Ready to get started simulating Solatube products with ClimateStudio for Rhino? Head over to the ClimateStudio homepage to download the plugin.
Be sure to check out the official ClimateStudio documentation along with our complete guide for simulating Solatube products in ClimateStudio! Please contact us if you wish to receive a copy.