How to Find Out the Sun Facing for Your BTO Unit!
Planning your BTO home is an exciting journey, and one of the biggest questions that comes up is about sunlight. Where will the morning sun hit the balcony? Will the afternoon sun make your living room a little too warm?
Understanding your BTO unit’s sun path is incredibly useful for choosing curtains, arranging furniture, and even picking the perfect spot for your indoor plants. The good news is, you don’t have to wait years for your keys to get these answers!
With your BTOmyhome SketchUp model and a few simple steps, you can accurately simulate the sun's position at any time of day, on any day of the year.
We'll guide you through the process using the Sun Sails BTO estate, Block 371A and unit stack 159 as our example.
Let's get started!
Step 1: Locate Your BTO Site Map
The first and most crucial step is to find your apartment's exact orientation. This is the key to aligning your digital model with its real-world location.
- Load up the brochure for your BTO estate and find the site map page.
This map shows the layout of all the blocks in the estate and the precise direction each unit is facing, which we’ll use to orient your model correctly.
You can find all BTO brochures conveniently listed on our site right here: https://btomyhome.com/blogs/news/curated-hdb-bto-brochures
Step 2: Access the “Shadows” Tab
Now, let's get into the model. The "Shadows" tab is your main control panel for all sun-related settings in SketchUp.
- Load up your BTO model in SketchUp.
- Click on the “Shadows” tab. This is usually located in a menu on the side of your screen. It’s where all the magic happens!
Step 3: Geolocation
Next, we need to "tell" SketchUp where your BTO estate is located in the world so it can calculate the sun's exact position.
- Click on “Add Location.”
- A new window will pop up with a map of the world.
- Enter the postal code for your block or a landmark near the BTO site to pinpoint the location.
Step 4: Align Your Model
This is the most important step for accuracy! You need to align your digital model's orientation with the real-world orientation from the site map.
- Align the model: Use the rotate tool to precisely align your model's facing to match the unit facing on the brochure’s site map.
- Click “Set Geolocation” and then “Close.” Now, your digital model knows exactly where it is and which way it's facing!
Step 5: See the Sun Path in Action!
This is the moment of truth where you get to see the shadows come to life!
- Turn on “Shadows” within the same tab.
- A slider will appear. By adjusting the Time and Date on the slider, you can watch the shadows move across your apartment as the sun’s position changes.
Try moving the time from morning to evening, and changing the date to see the difference between a sunny December day and a hot June afternoon!
