Virtual sky domes - Making the CIE/ISO standard general sky available for CAD-based light simulation software

The objective of this paper is to establish the VSD as a generic method to set up daylight for different light simulation software. The validation against measured data is published in a prior paper (Wittkopf., 2005). A Virtual Sky Dome (VSD) is a hemisphere comprising of 145 light sources with distinct intensity that resemble the sky luminance distribution for any location, time and sky type. The light properties are calculated by a spreadsheet tool and used to write scene files for the software Lightscape, Radiance and Photopia. Eventually diffuse illuminance under a selected sky type is compared, indicating that the VSD is a generic method to set up daylight.