[Bldg-sim] Building materials data import to Energy plus

[Jeremiah Crossett]

Thanks for the reply, looking forward to seeing your work in the future and
thanks for the link, had not seen that one before.



*​​Jeremiah D. Crossett ** | Senior Analyst  **| **LEED Green Associate *
*​​7411 SW Capitol Highway | Portland, OR 97219 ​​ |
Mobile 503-688-8951www.phasechange.com <http://www.phasechange.com/> *





On Mon, Nov 3, 2014 at 6:17 AM, Anna Shadrina <neko.enko at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hey Jeremiah,
>
> thank you for your reply! Any feedback about the workflow is useful to me
> since I do not find many people who are trying to make the import of
> geometry+materials seamless between BIM and simulation software.
>
> My inspiration for this research was our project course at the University
> of Technology in Vienna where my colleague and I tried to save our time by
> using the full potential of export-import process.We had more or less the
> same geometry and materials but were testing it constantly to see how the
> geometry changes overall energy performance of the building. We established
> which parameters should be set for the seamless import of geometry, but I
> find that the most annoying thing was to assign the constructions to the
> surfaces over and over again.
>
>
> On Sun, Oct 26, 2014 at 8:00 PM, Jeremiah Crossett <
> jcrossett at phasechange.com> wrote:
>
>>  Anna,
>>
>> Shearing my experience with GBXML and IFC:
>>
>> I have not used the latest open studio or Simergy GBXML imports, as they
>> in general just do not seem to work as well for me as Design Builder
>> or legacy open studio. However my usage of a UI is really to author an
>> energy plus IDF, and most of the models I do is to demonstrate the use of
>> our PCM and are done as quickly as possible.
>>
>> My experience with GBXML has been with Design Builder, I note that in v4
>> Design Builder can also import materials.  For IFC there is the space
>> boundary tool that I have attempted to use gaia.lbl.gov/interoperability/
>> SBT.
>>
>> The main problem I have had with GBXML is that 3d cad models are not
>> normally setup so that the user can just export their GBXML file. The cad
>> designer typically are only drawing for export into 2d sheets, and as such
>> have really messy 3d cad models that do not connect the walls to the
>> ceilings or other problems.
>>
>> For the space boundary tool it does not seem to work on files that do not
>> seem to have any real problems. I tried it out on a couple projects and got
>> nice a looking 3d IFC model, but then the import to SBT failed. The error
>> messages are unclear and the tutorial seems to assume that the user also has the
>> Solbri model checker. There is an IDF that maps ArchiCAD and
>> Revit materials to Energy Plus objects that comes with the
>> space boundary tool that you may find useful.
>>
>
> which one do you mean? is it additional application or the "SBT Default
> Materials Library" IDF?
>
>>
>> From my experience, asking an architect to export either file is risky as
>> I may be asking them to do a lot of work only to provide a file that may
>> not import, or may import but not run or it has
>> lots of unnecessary surfaces.
>>
>> The best way I have found to make GBXML useful has been to have the cad
>> user provide only the shell of the building with no internal walls.  (The
>> materials import is not something I have tried, as Design Builder just
>> recently added this feature.) The reason is that the model may
>> have different zoning and other simplifications that are used to make a
>> clean E+ model that is close enough to the project geometry and because I
>> tend use my own materials database.
>>
>
> totally agree here. I think it is widespread in practice. For most of the
> energy engineers it is easier to rebuild the model with their own zoning.
> How do you map your own material database and the given materials from an
> architect?
>
>>
>> I keep thinking of developing a python script that generates IDF objects
>> from IFC, GBXML or 3D Cad file for only the external walls and roofs and
>> floors, only internal floors and ceilings and only the external windows.
>> Material properties could be useful, but the time needed to setup
>> some materials and construction layers is null compared to the time it
>> takes to get the windows drawn on for each elevation or for the geometry in
>> general.
>>
>
> then you probably have seen this article
> https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/jaabe/11/2/11_313/_article
>
>
>>
>> Please keep in mind that this is my experience and may not represent
>> the experiences of other users.  Hope this is helpful, and best of luck
>> with your project.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> *​​Jeremiah D. Crossett ** | Senior Analyst  **| **LEED Green Associate *
>> *​​7411 SW Capitol Highway | Portland, OR 97219 ​​ |
>> Mobile 503-688-8951www.phasechange.com <http://www.phasechange.com/> *
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Sun, Oct 26, 2014 at 9:37 AM, Anna Shadrina <neko.enko at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Dear colleagues,
>>>
>>> I am writing my Master thesis about the interoperability between
>>> ArchiCAD, Revit and Allplan on one side and Energy plus on the other side.
>>>
>>> My research is particularly focused on importing the correct materials
>>> data into IDF. (Materials should contain roughness, thickness, thermal
>>> conductivity, density, specific heat; be composed into constructions and
>>> attached to the correct surfaces in the geometry.)
>>>
>>> I am collecting data on the following aspects:
>>>
>>> 1. *Is there a tool that imports IFC to Energy plus?*
>>>
>>> Simergy has announced that they are removing the import features because
>>> of many bugs and Ecotect is not fully supported by Autodesk anymore. On the
>>> official EP website it is stated that such tool does not exist.
>>> http://energyplus.helpserve.com/knowledgebase/article/View/25/34/importing-ifc-geometry-into-energyplus
>>>
>>> 2. *Any experiences in the seamless import of the materials?*
>>>
>>> 3.
>>> *Do you generally use the import/export, or do you normally redraw the
>>> simplified geometry in Sketchup for your projects?*
>>> My findings at the present moment are the following:
>>>
>>> *- *gbxML preserves the most of material parameters for Energy plus but
>>> only Revit supports the advanced export to the gbXML. ArchiCAD works via
>>> the Cadimage plugin (available only for the 17th version at the moment).
>>> This plug-in does not preserve the material properties. And Allplan does
>>> not export gbXML, only IFCs. All of the architectural software producers
>>> seem to work more in the area of integrated energy analysis rather than on
>>> improving their export.
>>>
>>> - two plug-ins for exporting gbXML to Energy plus were tested: Green
>>> Building studio and Open studio for Sketchup. GBS assigns its own
>>> constructions instead of mine (I am working on it) and OS imports
>>> everything but does not assign the constructions to the surfaces.
>>>
>>> Please share your experiences, comments and opinions on this topic. Any
>>> suggestions are welcomed.
>>>
>>> Thank you in advance,
>>>
>>> --
>>> Anna Shadrina
>>>
>>> MSc student Building Science
>>> Vienna University of Technology
>>> Vienna, Austria
>>>
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>>
>
> Kind regards,
> --
> Anna Shadrina
>
> MSc student Building Science
> Vienna University of Technology
> Vienna, Austria
>
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