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RE: [EnergyPlus_Support] sketch-up plugins: top down vs bottom up
Hi Jason,
Yes! Actually, Google wants to help out with making the web cast...it
was their idea. In general SketchUp does a really good job with their
user instructional materials. I also plan to incorporate animated GIFs
into my help files...similar to the Instructor window in SU. See the
menu item Window/Instructor. It's all just a matter of finding the time
to do it. Have to get the plugin running well first!
By the way, Jason. Would you have any interest in collaborating on
something like an embedded IDF Editor inside of SketchUp (part of the
plugin)? It would have to be written in Ruby with wxRuby for the GUI
toolkit, so that would be a complete rewrite. I was also thinking that
a hierarchical tree view would be really nice-I have a lot of ideas on
how to do that. I think the Ruby IDF Editor could also be written
modularly so that it could run stand-alone outside of SketchUp as well.
What do you think? Nothing starting anytime soon, just sometime down
the road.
P
________________________________
From: EnergyPlus_Support@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:EnergyPlus_Support@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Jason Glazer
Sent: Friday, April 04, 2008 6:17 AM
To: EnergyPlus_Support@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [EnergyPlus_Support] sketch-up plugins: top down vs bottom
up
Peter,
Have you thought about creating a web cast on how to use the
plugin? Sketchup has many of them to teach how to use the
program so it would be natural to create one for the plugin.
Jason
On 4/3/2008 6:32 PM, Ellis, Peter wrote:
>
>
> Ery,
>
>
>
> Check out the section called "Using The Plugin" in the help files-they
> are found under the menu Plugins/Energy Design Plugin/User Guide. That
> should answer all your questions on zones, surfaces, groups, and
faces.
>
>
>
> Yes, to trace over existing surfaces you must create a new EnergyPlus
> zone, open it for editing, and then draw/trace over the faces that you
> want to become EnergyPlus surfaces.
>
>
>
> P
>
>
>
> ________________________________
>
> From: EnergyPlus_Support@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
<mailto:EnergyPlus_Support%40yahoogroups.com>
> [mailto:EnergyPlus_Support@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
<mailto:EnergyPlus_Support%40yahoogroups.com> ] On Behalf Of Ery
Djunaedy
> Sent: Thursday, April 03, 2008 4:26 PM
> To: EnergyPlus_Support@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
<mailto:EnergyPlus_Support%40yahoogroups.com>
> Subject: Re: [EnergyPlus_Support] sketch-up plugins: top down vs
bottom
> up
>
>
>
> Peter,
>
> Yes you are right, it is much better than starting from scratch.
>
> I am trying to figure this out with a small box.
> What I know is that there is a connection between:
> groups ==> zones
> faces ==> surfaces
>
> I managed to create a group, but how to define this group as zone?
> Furthermore, how to define a face to become a surface.
> Or the above method won't work?
>
> Can you elaborate further on "tracing over existing surfaces into a
new
> layer"?
> Do I need to make a new EPlus zone, and create surfaces based on the
> existing faces?
>
> Can you briefly outline what I need to do?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Ery
>
> On Thu, Apr 3, 2008 at 1:25 PM, Ellis, Peter <peter_ellis@xxxxxxxx
<mailto:peter_ellis%40nrel.gov>
> <mailto:peter_ellis%40nrel.gov> > wrote:
>> Hi Ery,
>>
>> Your impression is correct. It is very much a bottom-up philosophy.
> The
>> plugin is intended to work best as an integrated tool during the
early
>> phases of the design process. Ideally, you are meant to create your
>> energy model at the same time that you are roughing out your initial
>> design concepts in SketchUp. There are several features underway that
>> will make it much cleaner for the EnergyPlus model and the full-blown
>> SketchUp architectural model to coexist seamlessly in the same file.
> It's
>> not quite there yet, but that's the goal. For now, it's best to view
> the
>> plugin as a nice geometry editor for EnergyPlus. It will probably
> never
>> be a converter or translator for automatically generating an
> EnergyPlus
>> file out of an existing SketchUp file.
>>
>> That said, it is still possible to work top-down. The process is
>> basically one of tracing over the existing SketchUp surfaces with a
> new
>> layer of EnergyPlus surfaces. It might be a bit tricky at first but
if
>> you dig into SketchUp more you'll find that it offers lots of tools
> and
>> features that can make the process easier. At any rate, you're still
> in a
>> much better position than if you had to create your EnergyPlus
> geometry
>> from scratch using a text editor, right?
>>
>> P
>>
>
>
>
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
> ------------------------------------
>
> The primary EnergyPlus web site is found at:
> http://www.energyplus.gov <http://www.energyplus.gov>
>
> The group web site is:
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<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EnergyPlus_Support/>
>
> Attachments are not allowed -- please post any files to the
appropriate folder in the Files area of the Support Web Site.
>
> EnergyPlus Documentation is searchable. Open EPlusMainMenu.pdf under
the Documentation link and press the "search" button.
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
--
Jason Glazer, P.E., GARD Analytics, 90.1 ECB chair
Admin of BLDG-SIM list for building simulation users
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
------------------------------------
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