ArborShadow - Limitations
The ArborShadow program has a number of limitations which any potential purchaser should be aware of and understand. Some of these may be solved in future releases. The shadow graphic display calculation method employed within ArborShadow has been developed to maintain a reasonable level of graphic display speed but at the same time retain an acceptable level of accuracy.
Shadow calculations assume that:
The ground is perfectly flat.
The tree is perfectly straight.
The tree canopy shape is perfectly linear between the 4 upper and lower defined crown axis dimensions.
The graphic output of the shadow display:
Does not consider obstacles such as houses etc which may be present on a plan (so the shadow is displayed on the top of such obstacles).
Clips shadows at a distance of 100m on an east-west axis (as measured from the tree centre).
Accuracy:
Tree shadows and overlap calculations (using defined areas) work to a general accuracy of +/- 250mm (on the east-west axis) per every 1mm of distance on the north-south axis.
All scanning of areas and point reference objects are limited to a distance of 100m from the tree centre.
Other Limitations:
A limitation of using a maximum of 10 trees at any one time.
ArborShadow will currently only work with northern latitudes, this limitation I hope will be rectified soon once I have time to flip the graphics around!
ArborShadow can not import a .dwg, AutoCAD or other CAD drawing format. It can only import bitmap files such as Jpeg, Bmp, Gif. And these must not use an indexed palette.
Analysis processing can be slow (although this does relate to your hardware specification, number of trees, etc).
Shadow calculations assume that:
The ground is perfectly flat.
The tree is perfectly straight.
The tree canopy shape is perfectly linear between the 4 upper and lower defined crown axis dimensions.
The graphic output of the shadow display:
Does not consider obstacles such as houses etc which may be present on a plan (so the shadow is displayed on the top of such obstacles).
Clips shadows at a distance of 100m on an east-west axis (as measured from the tree centre).
Accuracy:
Tree shadows and overlap calculations (using defined areas) work to a general accuracy of +/- 250mm (on the east-west axis) per every 1mm of distance on the north-south axis.
All scanning of areas and point reference objects are limited to a distance of 100m from the tree centre.
Other Limitations:
A limitation of using a maximum of 10 trees at any one time.
ArborShadow will currently only work with northern latitudes, this limitation I hope will be rectified soon once I have time to flip the graphics around!
ArborShadow can not import a .dwg, AutoCAD or other CAD drawing format. It can only import bitmap files such as Jpeg, Bmp, Gif. And these must not use an indexed palette.
Analysis processing can be slow (although this does relate to your hardware specification, number of trees, etc).
