



Description

The Arch Site is a special object that combines properties of a standard FreeCAD group object and Arch objects. It is particularly suited for representing a whole project site, or terrain. In IFC-based architectural work, it is mostly used to organize your model, by containing building objects. The site is also used to manage and display a physical terrain, and can computes volumes of earth to be added or removed.

Usage

Optionally, select one or more objects to be included in your new site. Press the Arch Site S then I keys.

Options

After creating a site, you can add more objects to it by drag and dropping them in the Tree View or by using the Arch Add

You can remove objects from a site by drag and dropping them out of it the Tree View or by using the Arch Remove

You can add a terrain object by editing the Site's Data Terrain property. The terrain must be an open shell or surface.

property. The terrain must be an open shell or surface. You can add volumes to be added or subtracted from the base terrain, by double-clicking the Site, and adding objects to its Subtractions or Additions groups. The objects must be solids.

The Data Extrusion Vector property can be used to solve some problems that can appear when working with subtractions and additions. In order to perform those additions/subtractions, the terrain surface is extruded into a solid, which is then appropriately unioned/subtracted. Depending on the terrain topology, this extrusion might fail with the default extrusion vector. You might therefore be able to remedy the problem by changing this to a different value.

Properties

Data

Data Terrain : The base terrain of this site

: The base terrain of this site Data Address : The street and housenumber of this site

: The street and housenumber of this site Data Postal Code : The postal or zip code of this site

: The postal or zip code of this site Data City : The city of this site

: The city of this site Data Country : The country of this site

: The country of this site Data Latitude : The latitude of this site

: The latitude of this site Data Longitude : The longitude of this site

: The longitude of this site Data Url : An url that shows this site in a mapping website

: An url that shows this site in a mapping website Data Projected Area : The area of the projection of this object onto the XY plane

: The area of the projection of this object onto the XY plane Data Perimeter : The perimeter length of this terrain

: The perimeter length of this terrain Data Addition Volume : The volume of earth to be added to this terrain

: The volume of earth to be added to this terrain Data Subtraction Volume : The volume of earth to be removed from this terrain

: The volume of earth to be removed from this terrain Data Extrusion Vector : An extrusion vector to use when performing boolean operations

: An extrusion vector to use when performing boolean operations Data Remove Splitter : Remove splitters from the resulting shape

: Remove splitters from the resulting shape Data Declination : The angle between the true North and the North direction in this document, that is, the Y axis. introduced in version 0.18 Data North Deviation .

: The angle between the true North and the North direction in this document, that is, the Y axis. . Data EPW File: Allow to attach an EPW file from the Ladybug EPW data website to this site. This is needed to display wind rose diagrams introduced in version 0.19

View

View Solar Diagram : Shows or hides the solar diagram

: Shows or hides the solar diagram View Solar Diagram Color : The color of the solar diagram

: The color of the solar diagram View Solar Diagram Position : The position of the solar diagram

: The position of the solar diagram View Solar Diagram Scale : The scale of the solar diagram

: The scale of the solar diagram View Wind Rose: Shows or hides the wind rose diagram (requires the EPW File data property filled, and the Ladybug Python module installed (see below)

Typical workflow

Start by creating an object that represents your terrain. It must be an open surface, not a solid. For example, it is easy to import mesh data, that can be turned into a Part Shape from menu Part → Create Shape from Mesh. Then, create a Site object, and set its DataTerrain property to the Part we just created:

Create some volumes (they must be solids) that represent the areas that you wish to be excavated or filled. Double-click the Site object in the Tree View, and add these volumes to the Additions or Subtractions groups. Click OK.

The site geometry will be recomputed and the areas, perimeter, and volumes properties recalculated.

Solar and wind diagrams

If Ladybug is installed on your system, Arch Sites can display a solar diagram and/or a wind rose. For this, DataLongitude, DataLatitude and DataDeclination (previously DataNorth Deviation) must be correctly set, and ViewSolar Diagram or ViewWind Rose set to True. Respectively introduced in version 0.17 and introduced in version 0.19



Note: If you don't have Ladybug, pysolar is still supported to generate solar diagrams, but not wind roses. Pysolar 0.7 or above is required; this version only works with Python 3. If you require this feature with Python 2, you should have Pysolar 0.6 as this is the last version that works with Python 2. However, Ladybug is a much more powerful tool that will probably be used more in the future, so we recommend using it instead of pysolar. Ladybug can be installed simply via pip.

Scripting

See also: Arch API and FreeCAD Scripting Basics.

The Site tool can be used in macros and from the Python console by using the following function:

Site = makeSite ( objectslist = None , baseobj = None , name = "Site" )

Creates a Site object from objectslist , which is a list of objects, or baseobj , which is a Shape or Terrain .

Example:

import FreeCAD , Draft , Arch p1 = FreeCAD . Vector ( 0 , 0 , 0 ) p2 = FreeCAD . Vector ( 2000 , 0 , 0 ) baseline = Draft . makeLine ( p1 , p2 ) Wall = Arch . makeWall ( baseline , length = None , width = 150 , height = 2000 ) FreeCAD . ActiveDocument . recompute () Building = Arch . makeBuilding ([ Wall ]) Site = Arch . makeSite ([ Building ]) FreeCAD . ActiveDocument . recompute () FreeCAD . Gui . ActiveDocument . ActiveView . viewIsometric ()

Solar diagram

As long as the pysolar module is present, a solar diagram can be added to the site. Set the longitude, latitude and declination angles as appropriate, as well as an adequate scale for the size of your model.

Please note that Pysolar 0.7 or above is required, and this version only works with Python 3.

Site . Longitude = - 46.38 Site . Latitude = - 23.33 Site . Declination = 30 #Site.Compass = True Site . ViewObject . SolarDiagram = True Site . ViewObject . SolarDiagramScale = 10000 FreeCAD . ActiveDocument . recompute ()

Solar diagram independent of Site

A solar diagram can be created with the following function, independently of any site.

Node = makeSolarDiagram ( longitude , latitude , scale = 1 , complete = False )

Creates a solar diagram as a Pivy node, using longitude and latitude , with an optional scale .

and , with an optional . If complete is True , the 12 months are drawn, which shows the full solar analemma.