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How to represent a tree shading properly

asked 2025-09-25 08:18:45 -0500

jaksaaa555's avatar

updated 2025-09-25 09:33:46 -0500

I want to create a row of trees around my house, which has many windows on one side, and the position of the trees is very important. I’d like to represent the trees as realistically as possible. I’ve already read some guides and I understand that EnergyPlus doesn’t allow very complex shading geometry.

My question is: what is the best way to represent a tree so that it’s realistic but still acceptable and not too heavy for the program?

I’ve looked through existing questions but haven’t found an answer. I also saw the tree modeling video on YouTube by Helix Energy Partners LLC, but it doesn’t represent a real tree and realistic shading in my case. If someone could attach a picture/screenshot of the best way to do this, it would be very helpful and save me a lot of time, because many of the things I’ve tried either don’t represent reality well enough, or, when they do, I run into problems in the simulation.

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@jaksaaa555 if you search Unmet Hours posts for "tree", you'll find 70+ questions. The most relevant seem to be:

Aaron Boranian's avatar Aaron Boranian  ( 2025-09-25 09:40:55 -0500 )edit
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Does that answer your question?

Aaron Boranian's avatar Aaron Boranian  ( 2025-09-25 09:43:56 -0500 )edit

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answered 2025-09-25 10:19:03 -0500

jaksaaa555's avatar

Thanks Aaron, I tried to find the answer to my question but didnt find solution to my problem with tag tree, the thing that I am concerned about is geometry I get everything about transmittance schedule and other settings, I gave myself couple minutes to read trough the material you sent and it is going to be helpful later on, I tried to model the tree similarily to that one(I understand they are using different software) and I get errors, so from that point of view I am interested on how do You or other experienced users model trees here is the model of a tree similar to the one we can see on Helix video here is mine C:\fakepath\ss1.png and here is the one that is similarily modeled to one in the pdf You sent but is giving me errors C:\fakepath\ss2.png

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@jaksaaa555 since this isn't answering your question, can you delete this answer post and instead edit your original question to include these details?

Also, there are numerous reasons why you would get an error other than how you draw trees as shading surfaces. The best way to help is if you can upload your model and error file to a file-sharing service (e.g., Dropbox) and then share a link for others to access the file(s).

Aaron Boranian's avatar Aaron Boranian  ( 2025-09-25 12:03:58 -0500 )edit

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Asked: 2025-09-25 08:18:45 -0500

Seen: 27 times

Last updated: 3 hours ago