• Starting RayMan opens the ‘About’ box first, which disappears after 3 seconds automatically.
• The main window has got a new layout: ‘Date’, ‘Day of year’ and ‘Time’ are now collected in an extra ‘Date and Time’ group box, including a ‘Now and today’ button, which sets ‘Date’, ‘Day of year’ and ‘Time’ to the current values. Edit field and buttons for the input datafile are now in an extra window (see below). ‘Clothing’ and ‘Activity’ can be edited in a new group box as well as thermal indices such as PMV and PET (SET* is not available yet).

• The ‘Input’ menu has got only one column now. If there is a check sign at an item RayMan includes it in calculations. Clicking on an item opens a new window, in which concrete geometric obstacles, free-drawn horizon limitations or input datafiles (topography is still not available yet) can be opened and edited. Opening and editing files activate the check sign, clearing (by pushing the ‘New’ button) deactivates the check sign. The ‘Input’ menu has also got a new item: ‘Datafile’. In this extra window the input datafile can be selected and its data columns be declared. It must be a textfile in which the input data columns are separated by tabs or spaces. The sequence of the values must be the same like the (checked) data in the group box. If ‘Mean radiant temp.’ is checked, Tmrt will be read from the datafile source, otherwise RayMan calculates Tmrt.
• The ‘Output’ menu hasn’t got the ‘Hourly values’ item any more. You can calculate hourly values (as well as daily values) by choosing ‘Data table’ and using a input data textfile with a time (date, day of year) column. If there is selected no datafile, RayMan calculates with all input values given in the main window. The ‘Daily data’ item produces a table with values of every day of the current year at the time shown in ‘Time’.

• In the ‘Table’ menu all columns of the output table can be selected whether they shall be shown or not.

• RayMan can also calculate thermal indices PMV and PET (SET* not yet) now. PMV uses the values given in ‘Clothing’ and ‘Activity’. PET uses always 0.9 clo and 80 W.

• The import of horizon limitation fish-eye photos is improved. There are new functions such as ‘Cut off’ to make the sky transparent, and ‘Monochrome’ to give the whole (colored) horizon limitation one color. Now the export of imported and free-drawn horizon limitation pictures as Bitmaps is possible.

In the main window of RayMan you can select and edit the input and output data, such as:

Topography (not available yet), concrete obstacles like buildings, deciduous and coniferous trees, general (free-drawn) horizon limitations; diagrams of the sun orbit and the horizon limitation, of shadows and tables with current values or from datafiles.

• File

• Input

• Output

• Options

• ?

• Date and time

• Geographical data

• Current data

• Computation

This window is designed for a graphical and numerical editing of concrete 3d-obstacles. A map of the lokal environment of the place, which shall be computed with RayMan, is shown in the grid. You can zoom it in and out. The obstacles are drawn in different colors so you can easily identify buildings (gray), deciduous trees (green) and conifers (teal). Additional an "active" obstacle is highlighted yellow. Its number (or index) is shown in ‘Obstacle #’. By pressing ‘Edit’ or ‘Remove’ this highlighted obstacle can be edited (in an extra window) or deleted. ‘Add’ opens a window to create an new obstacle of the same kind like the ‘active’ one. You can switch to another obstacle (i.e. select another obstacle to be the ‘active’ one) either by clicking on an "editable" point (see below) of the obstacle image on the map or by changing ‘Obstacle #’ (e.g. if it is difficult to click on exactly or it's out of the map range). Each obstacle has got "editable" points, that are the corners of buildings and the centres (truncs) of trees, which are indicated with a small circle around them if the mouse cursor is near or exactly on them. By clicking on an "editable" point of the obstacle image on the map with the left mouse button, this obstacle gets "active" and can be moved on the map (keep button held down and move mouse). Same with the right mouse button, except that on buildings only the selected corner will be moved. All obstacle objects "stand" on one surface level. The z-coordinate of all obstacle points (corners etc.) represents its altitude above this surface level, not above the "real" ground surface resulting from topographical data. RayMan makes its calculations on the place marked as 'Location', the red point on the map. 'Altitude' is the relative vertical distance between the 'Location' and the surface level. Each kind of obstacle can be switched on and off regarding the RayMan calculations. Finally the sample of obstacles can be saved in files and re-opened later for further editings and calculations.

• File

• Zoom

• Cursor

• Obstacle

Location - Red point on the map indicates the place, RayMan will make its computations on

Altitude - Relative altitude (in m) of the place, RayMan will make its computations on, above the surface level, on which the obstacles "stand"

• Compute with

In this window you can edit the horizon limitation in a grid map in fisheye view and import fisheye photos as well. The horizon limitation is drawn freely by clicking on the map which indicate corners of a gray "limitation polygon". With a double-click the last corner is set and the polygon gets completed. Imported fisheye photos can be edited with useful functions: "Cut off" makes light regions, such as the sky, transparent; "Monochrome" reduces the colors to one (black).

• New - Edit new horizon limitation in a clear map

• Limitation to the edge of horizon - If this button is down all further drawn horizon limitations reach to the horizon without limitations, i.e. ‘stand’ on the edge of the map. Important: Draw ‘clockwise’, i.e. start clicking the corners of the ‘limitation polygon’ clockwise; after double-clicking the last corner, the polygon gets completed with further corners on the edge of the map anti-clockwise automatically.

• RGB-trackbars - Select the RGB-value of the color (shown below), so that ‘Cut off’ will make all regions with higher RGB-values (especially white) transparent. Decrease values, especially blue (B), if too much sky keeps visible. If too many buildings etc. are removed, increase the RGB-values or add free-drawn limitations.

Close - Close window and use this horizon limitation in further computations with RayMan.

• Datafile - If ‘Data table’ is selected in ‘Output’ RayMan can compute with different input values. These data must be listed in a textfile which filename is shown in ‘Datafile’. If no datafile is used, ‘Current data’ are used for every calculation and "(Current data)" is shown in ‘Datafile’.

• Data columns - The data textfile contains data columns (separated by spaces or tabs) in this sequence (each if checked): Enumerator, date, day of year, time, air temperature, vapour pressure, wind velocity, cloud cover, mean radiant temperature. If the columns in the datafile differ from the correct order or number of checked items, RayMan may calculate wrong values, not necessarily showing an error message. So be careful!

27.3.2000, RayMan, © 1999 Meteorological Institute of the University of Freiburg, Germany