.. _package_overview:

Package Overview
================

The following section describes some of the functionalities of bifacial_radiance, and how the software is structured. For a SUPER complete explanation and package overview, we highly recommend you watch our `Webinar tutorial video <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1X9L-R-RVGA>`_. (`Slides here <https://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy20osti/75218.pdf>`_.

bifacial_radiance is a python wrapper for calling and using Radiance, with specific functions to generate geometry (text files) related to bifacial photovoltaic systems

.. image:: ../../../images_wiki/Webinar/wrapper.png
  :width: 600

A full example might look like:

.. code-block :: python

        from bifacial_radiance import *
        demo = RadianceObj()
        demo.setGround()
        epwfile = demo.getEPW(37.5, -77.6)
        metdata = demo.readWeatherFile(epwfile)
        demo.gendaylit(2000)
        myModule = demo.makeModule ("My_panel", x=1,y=2)
        sceneDict = {'tilt':30, 'pitch':3, 'clearance_height':0.5, 'azimuth':180, 'nMods':10, 'nRows':4}
        scene = demo.makeScene(myModule, sceneDict)
        octfile = demo.makeOct()
        analysis = AnalysisObj(octfile, demo.name)
        frontscan, backscan = analysis.moduleAnalysis(scene)
        analysis.analysis(octfile, demo.name, frontscan, backscan)

What this example is showing are the main/minimum instructions or steps needed to run a simulation, which are:

1. Make a Radiance Object
2. Make Sky - generates a hourly or cumulative sky based on the given weather file irradiance data. Saves files in skies folder and in main folder.
3. Make Module - creates a module of your desire. Cell-level module, and 1-up or more configurations. Saves the module info as a .rad in objects folder.
4. Make Scene - replicates your module at the desired pitch/tilt for desired number of rows / modules per row. Saves the scene info as a .rad in objects folder.
5. Make Oct - creates a .oct file that ties Sky, Module, and Scene.
6. Analysis Obj - calculates the coordinates that will be sampled for irradiance. You can specify any module and row desired or custom coordinates.
7. Analysis - runs the Radiance rtrace command and saves the measured irradiance values for the surface specified in the results folder.

.. image:: ../../../images_wiki/Webinar/mainsteps.png
  :width: 600

Each of this steps has more options than described here, so we really recommend looking at the  `Webinar tutorial <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1X9L-R-RVGA>`_ And our `Jupyter Notebook tutorials <http://github.com/NREL/bifacial_radiance/tree/master/docs/tutorials/>`_, as well as the :ref:`manualapi` as each function has description of input parameters.