8

398 Chapter 5: Creating Geometry
The Sunlight system adjusts the sun’s azimuth and
altitude accordingly during the summer m onths.
Hours /M ins/Secs—Specify the time of day.
Month/Day/Year—Specify the date.
Time Zone—Time zones range f rom –12 to 12. If
you’reuncertainaboutatimezone,youcanlook
them up in Window’s Date > Time Properties
dialog (available through My Computer > Control
Panel>Date>Time).ClicktheTimeZonetab,
and then display the list of world locations and
their time zones.
Daylight Sav ings Time—When on, calculates
daylight savings by adjusting azimuth and altitude
during the summer months.
Location group
Provides controls for setting the location of your
scene in the world.
Get Location—Displays the Geographic Lo cation
dialog (page 1–398)
, which lets you set the latitude
and longitude values by selecting a location from
amaporalistofcities.
Note: For precise locations, enter exact coordinates
using Latitude/Longitude.
Latitude/Longitude—Specify the location based on
the latitude and longitude.
Site group
Orb it al Scal e—Sets the distance of the sun (the
directional light) from the compass rose. Because a
directionallightcastsparallelbeams,thisdistance
has no effect on the accuracy of the sunlight.
However, the light must point tow ard your model
(not away from it), and the light’s hotspot and
falloff do have an effect.
The best way to ensure that the light is set up
correctly is to change one viewport to the light’s
view (for example, Sun 01). T hen adjust the light’s
loca tion using
Dolly (page 3–793) ,andsetthe
hotspotsoitilluminatesthewholemodel,withno
falloff.
Nor th D irecti on—Sets the rotat ional direction
of the compass rose in the scene. This is the
geographical orientation of the compass rose. By
default,northis0andpointsalongthepositiveY
axis of the g round plane. Positive X (E ast) is 90
degrees. Adjust the North Direction to correspond
to your site. Accuracy of the system depends on
this correspondence.
Geogr a phic Locat ion Di alog
Selec t Sunli ght or Daylight system > Motion panel >
Location group > Get Location button
TheGeographicLocationdialogispartofthe
Sunlight and Daylight systems’ (page 1–394)
interface.Itletsyousetthelatitudeandlongitude
values by selecting a location from a map or a list
of cities. The dialog displays a list of cities at left,
and a map on the right.
Procedures
To use a map:
1.
In the Location group on the Control
Parameters rollout, click the Get Location
button.
2. OntheGeographicLocationdialogchoosea
mapfromtheMaplist.
3. Click in the map to specify a location.
3dsMaxdisplaysasmallcrossatthelocation
youpicked.IfNearestBigCityison,itplaces
the c ross at the nearest large city on the list, and
highlights the city’s name in the list.
4. ClickOKtosettheLatitudeandLongitudeto
the loc ation of the cross.
Tochooseacitybyname:
1.
Choose a map from the Map list.