u/tomcraftmarket

Hey everyone,

Finding the perfect spot for a compost setup can be a balancing act—you often want enough sun to help it heat up (especially for black tumblers), but not so much that a pile completely bakes and dries out in the mid-summer heat.

I built a free browser tool called SunTrace3D. You type in your address, and it instantly generates a 3D model of your back yard and the surrounding trees or buildings. I recently added a "Sunlight Heatmap" feature that simulates shadows across the entire year, mapping exactly how many hours of direct sun hit the ground.

I originally built it to calculate solar panel yields, but I realized it could be a great way to visually map out microclimates and figure out the best spot to tuck away a compost pile.

Would a visual 3D tool like this be useful for managing your compost locations? It runs entirely in the browser and is completely free. I'd love your honest feedback!

Mapping out sun sectors and microclimates usually takes a full year of observation to get right.

I built a free browser tool called SunTrace3D. You type in your address, and it instantly generates a 3D model of your back yard and surrounding trees or buildings. I recently added a "Sunlight Heatmap" feature that simulates shadows across the entire year, mapping exactly how many hours of direct sun hit the ground.

I originally built it to calculate solar panel yields, but I realized it could be a huge shortcut for site observation and planning plant guilds.

Would a visual 3D tool like this be useful for your designs? It runs entirely in the browser and is completely free. I'd love your honest feedback!

Hey everyone,

In Zone 6, maximizing sun early in the spring and late in the fall is so important for stretching our growing season, but shadow lines change drastically between April and August.

I built a free browser tool where you type in your address, and it instantly generates a 3D model of your property and surrounding buildings. I recently added a "Sunlight Heatmap" feature that simulates the sun's path and calculates exactly how many hours of direct light hit different parts of your yard across the whole year.

I originally made it to calculate solar panel yields, but I am wondering—would this actually help you map out your veggie beds or find the warmest microclimates in your yard to cheat the frost dates? It is free and runs right in the browser. I would love your honest feedback!

Hey everyone,

I always struggle with the "right plant, right place" rule, especially when trying to guess if a specific patch of dirt gets actual full sun or just partial shade once the neighbor's trees leaf out.

I’m a solo developer and recently built a web tool called SunTrace3D. You type in your address, and it generates a 3D model of your property and surrounding buildings/trees. I just added a "Sunlight Heatmap" feature that simulates shadows throughout the entire year and maps out exactly how many hours of sun the ground gets.

I originally built the engine for solar panels, but users suggested it would be perfect for landscaping and garden planning.

Before I spend time expanding the plant compatibility features, I wanted to ask the experts here: Would a tool like this actually be useful for planning your native garden beds? What specific data or features would you need to make it a no-brainer to use?

It runs right in the browser, no downloads. I'd love to hear your honest feedback or criticisms!

Hey everyone! I'm a dev who built a 3D web tool for solar panel efficiency, but after users suggestions, I just added a dedicated landscaping module.

You can type in any address in the world, and it instantly generates a 3D model of the yard with a ground-level sunlight heatmap. You can drop in raised garden beds, pick from a database of plants, and the engine calculates the exact sun-hours hitting that specific spot. It then cross-references those hours with the local USDA hardiness zone to tell you if the plant will actually thrive there.

I know the programming side, but I’m definitely not a master gardener. Is this sun-hour matching approach actually helpful for planning? Are there other variables I should include to make this more reliable?

The tool is called SunTrace3D. I'd love your honest feedback!