Direct Sun Hours Analysis

Sun Hours Analysis is a Grasshopper tool for Rhino that calculates and visualises the number of hours of direct sunlight received across a surface over a selected analysis period.

Using project location, weather data and surrounding geometry, the tool creates a colour-mapped mesh showing how direct sun exposure varies across your site. Buildings, trees and other context geometry can be included to account for shading.

Useful for landscape architecture, urban design and architectural studies where understanding sunlight and shade can help inform early design decisions.

What you can do

• Calculate direct sun hours across a surface
• Use EPW weather data for your project location
• Define custom analysis dates and times
• Include buildings, trees and other shading geometry
• Adjust the analysis grid resolution
• Display the project sun path
• Customise the result colour gradient
• Bake the resulting analysis mesh into Rhino

Version 2.0.0

The script has been substantially updated for Ladybug Tools 1.10, with updated components, a cleaner workflow, improved instructions and refreshed documentation.

Requirements

• Rhino 8
• Grasshopper 1
• Ladybug Tools 1.10
• EPW weather data

Included

• Sun Hours Analysis Grasshopper definition
• README
• CHANGELOG
• LICENSE

License

Single-user commercial license.

You may use the tool for your own work and commercial client projects. Sharing, redistribution, resale or team-wide use is not permitted.

See the included LICENSE file for full terms.

Current version: v2.0.0

Build date: 2026-08-28