WWrenglerDocumentation
Documentation / Quick Start

First Steps

Run your first Wrengler study — group your geometry, choose a study, and read the heatmap in the viewport.

Every study follows the same pattern: organize the geometry, pick a study, set its parameters, run, read the viewport. We'll use Sunlight Hours.

flowchart LR
  A[Open the<br/>Wrengler panel] --> B[Group or select<br/>target + context]
  B --> C[Choose a study<br/>Sunlight Hours]
  C --> D[Set period<br/>and parameters]
  D --> E[Run]
  E --> F[Read the<br/>viewport heatmap]

1. Open the panel

Type Wrengler in the Rhino command line. The panel opens docked on the right, and the Systems tabs across it switch between studies and the grouping view.

2. Organize your geometry

A study runs over a group of Rhino objects or an ad-hoc selection. For a first run, separate two roles:

  • Target — the geometry you want results on: a facade, a site plane, a set of sensor surfaces.
  • Context — geometry that blocks rays but needs no results of its own: neighbouring massing, terrain.

To create a group, select the objects in the viewport, then create a named group in the panel and assign the selection to it. Repeat for context if you want the roles kept distinct.

💡

In a hurry? Run against whatever is selected in Rhino. Groups pay off once you re-run studies — see Geometry Grouping.

3. Choose a study

From the Systems tabs, pick Sunlight Hours — the study that runs end to end in Rhino today — and point it at your group or selection.

4. Set the period

  1. Period — a representative day, a season, or a date range.
  2. Location — drives the sun's path. Wrengler reads the geo-location set on your Rhino document, so set that in Rhino first if you haven't.
  3. Resolution — finer sensor grids give smoother heatmaps at the cost of compute.

5. Run

Press Run. The engine traces sun rays against target and context, accumulating direct-sun hours per sensor. It picks the fastest backend your machine supports and falls back on its own, so a driver problem never blocks the run.

6. Read the heatmap

A heatmap appears on your target geometry — warmer where sensors receive more cumulative direct sun. Sunlight Hours also reports min / avg / max hours.

Orbit to inspect the distribution. Change the period or move context geometry and run again to compare.

Next