I have attempted to down the free individual version of Radiance from the website and was unable to read a (.tar) file. Can anyone offer advice as to how I can download and run the program a few times before I purchase it?
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Matthew Higgins, LEED AP
Technical Specialist
Environmental Dynamics, Inc.
Architecture and Sustainability Consulting Services
505.242.2851
Matthew Higgins wrote:
I have attempted to down the free individual version of Radiance from the website and was unable to read a (.tar) file. Can anyone offer advice as to how I can download and run the program a few times before I purchase it?
Radiance is actually free (and open source) software. Sounds like you're running Windows, in which case you might want to check out Desktop Radiance, which is a windows version of an older variant of Radiance running behind an Autocad GUI. Francesco Anselmo (a regular on this list) also maintains a set of Windows binaries based on the latest version of Radiance, but unfortunately that one does not include any of the graphical programs that you really need to start learning and using Radiance.
Be advised, there is no "radiance.exe" that you double-click and get a splash screen and a menu. Radiance is more of a collection of programs that you can string together to get various results. It's far from intuitive, but it is the most capable lighting visualization/simulation option out there. This list's archive is a good place to start getting a feel for what's possible (and what isn't), and there are some great (GREAT) tutorials here:
http://luminance.londonmet.ac.uk/learnix/docs/radtutorial_basic.pdf
http://luminance.londonmet.ac.uk/learnix/docs/radtutorial_advanced.pdf
Some more links for ya:
http://radsite.lbl.gov/deskrad/
http://www.bozzograo.net/radiance/modules.php?op=modload&name=Downloads&file=index&req=viewdownload&cid=4
Good luck!
- Rob Guglielmetti
IF you are looking for a GUI frontend including tools for e.g. maintaining libraries, you should have a look at Rayfront (www.schorsch.com). Rayfront is NOT free, but you can download a demo.
Lars.