Casting Real-World Shadows

With SketchUp's Shadows feature, you can make your model cast a basic shadow or see how the sun casts shadows on or around a geolocated model. With Shadows you can get a general idea of how the sun or shadows will look in a specific location at a specific time of day.

When you're casting real-world shadows, SketchUp's calculations are based on the following:

• The model's latitude and longitude.
• The model's cardinal orientation. See Adjusting the Drawing Axes for details about how the drawing axes are aligned to the cardinal directions.
• The selected time zone.

To change the way shadows appear in your model, open the Shadows panel and adjust the following settings:

• Show/Hide Shadows – Toggle shadows on or off.
• Time and Date – Use the sliders and dropdown menus to select the time and date SketchUp will use to cast your shadows.
• Light and Dark – Use the sliders and dropdown menus to adjust the intensity of light and dark when casting shadows.
• Use Sun for Shading – When selected, SketchUp's simulated sun shades parts of your model even with shadows toggled off.
• On Faces – Faces in your model will cast shadows on other faces. Unchecking this option can improve performance.
• On Ground – Geometry casts shadows on the ground plane.