Animate

Sets whether to animate the sun about the model, or rotate the model about the sun

Heliodon (Top/Plan view) or Sun (using current view)

Moves the sun over the model

View (sun to layer plane center)

Navigates around the model as viewed from the sun, showing the part of the model illuminated by the sun at that time; the model is assumed to be at the layer plane center and rotates about this center

View (sun to Heliodon center)

Navigates around the heliodon as viewed from the sun; parts of the model that are visible are the areas receiving sunlight. This mode is helpful when studying a portion of a larger model or when the model is offset from the layer plane center. Place the heliodon in the area of interest.

Interactive/Export Movie

Select whether to view the animation interactively, or export it to an animation file

Animate Time

Creates the solar animation over the course of a day; set the start/end time and time interval

Animate Date

Creates the solar animation over the course of a year; set the date start and end and date interval

Start Time/Date

Select the starting time or month

End Time/Date

Select the ending time or month

Time/Date Interval

Select the increment for the movie; a smaller increment creates a smoother movie, but creates a longer movie

Show time of day

Displays the time of day in the movie, at a location specified before export; set the font size

Show month and day

Displays the day and month in the movie, at a location specified before export; set the font size

Export summary

Displays the length of the movie at 15 frames per second (fps) and the number of frames to be created

Compression Settings

Frames per second

Sets the number of frames per second (fps) in the animation.

30 fps generally produces a smooth final animation.

Quality

Sets the quality of the movie output; the higher the quality, the larger the resulting file.

The Very High setting is of appropriate quality for further video editing.

Frame Size

Sets the size of the animation (width by height in pixels). When the Video Settings dialog box is open, a clipping frame displays in the drawing window. Only the area within the clipping frame will be visible in the movie.

If the selected frame size has the same aspect ratio as the drawing window’s resolution, the clipping frame will align with the drawing window; no cropping will occur. If the selected frame size has a different aspect ratio from the drawing window’s resolution, the movie’s frame will be cropped.

Standard

Select a standard frame size

Custom

Enter a custom frame size; the width and height can be set to any value between 240 and 4096 pixels

Screen

Sets the frame size to match the drawing window