[Equest-users] Is there a Way to Convert eQuest output files to EnergyPlus input files and vice-versa?

Kathryn Kerns kathryn.kerns at bceengineers.com
Fri Mar 2 11:41:29 PST 2012


Huh. Good for you. What prompted you to start down this path and why did you stop? So you built a Fortran program that mostly converted the eQuest geometry files to an input file that EnergyPlus would understand? I wonder if it is similar to the free Google Sketch-up Legacy Add-in I read about.

Does anybody know if the free Google Sketch-up Legacy Add-in can somehow import eQuest files to EnergyPlus files kind of like Jason's program? 
 

Kathryn Kerns

Systems Specialist

BCE Engineers, Inc.

| Ph: 253.922.0446 | Fx: 253.922.0896 | 

 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Jason Glazer [mailto:jglazer at gard.com] 
Sent: Friday, March 02, 2012 11:05 AM
To: CleanTech Analytics; Kathryn Kerns
Cc: Joe Huang
Subject: Re: [Equest-users] Is there a Way to Convert eQuest output files to EnergyPlus input files and vice-versa?

Jeremiah and Kathryn,

Another translator from DOE-2.1e to EnergyPlus was developed 
by myself and is available called DOE2Translator. It focused 
on building and did not support much HVAC. It has not been 
kept up to date with the latest version of EnergyPlus 
because it was rarely being used.

I think it could be easily updated to use the latest version 
of EnergyPlus and it would take some more effort to support 
eQUEST/DOE-2.2. It was written in Fortran.

Jason

On 3/2/2012 12:00 PM, CleanTech Analytics wrote:
> Below is what my research uncovered on the subject (boo)
>
>
> Joe,
> I like to use eQeust and Energy plus for all projects so
> that I can cross reference the results. This means doing the
> same thing twice, and not necessarily the exact same way. I
> am wondering if I could use drawbdl to export my eQUEST
> geometry to energy plus 6 or 7 without compromising the
> geometry file?
>
> If so I am wondering how to get the drawbdl program?
>
> Thanks
> Joe Huang ✆ YJHuang at whiteboxtechnologies.com
> <mailto:YJHuang at whiteboxtechnologies.com>
>
> 	
> Jan 22
> 		
> to me
>
> Jeremiah,
>
> DrawBDL reads DOE-2.1E, not eQUEST/DOE-2.2, and can export
> the building geometry data to an EnergyPlus IDF.  I've also
> developed 4 years ago a modified version of DOE-2.1E that
> exports a full EnergyPlus IDF file. Unfortunately,
> EnergyPlus IDF language has changed over time, so that I
> must either update the program (doe2ep) and find some other
> way to upgrade from EP 3.1 to 6 or 7 (I
> don't really keep up with EnergyPlus, so I'm not sure)
>
>   Because I've been getting more requests for translating
> from eQUEST/DOE-2.2 to EnergyPlus, for an interim solution I
> have been working on a  procedure to modify DOE-2.2 to
> DOE-2.1E input, that then can be fed through either DrawBDL
> (outputs building geometry only) or doe2ep (full *.inp to
> *.IDF). I've gotten that procedure (a series of awk and sed
> scripts) to work on one test (but very complicated)
> eQUEST/DOE-2.2 input file, but in the course of doing this I
> uncovered some bugs in the translation to IDF in both
> programs (DrawBDL and doe2ep). Furthermore, I doubt
> that my 2.2 to 2.1E procedure works in all cases.
>
> Therefore, I don't want to sell DrawBDL explicitly for that
> purpose, i.e., translating 2.2 to Energy IDF, nor do I want
> to release doe2ep at this time.  However, I have
> thought of providing an eQUEST to EnergyPlus translation as
> a service until I get
> all the bugs worked out on my programs. What I could do is
> have you send me your eQUEST input file which I then test
> out using the programs and methods just mentioned, and then
> give you an estimate of the time and cost for translating it
> to EnergyPlus. Depending on the complexity of your files, it
> could be very easy
> or it could be very time-consuming to translate.
>
> By the way, I've been selling DrawBDL  for $125 ever since I
> introduced it in 1993 (see www.drawbdl.com
> <http://www.drawbdl.com/> for details),while I intend to
> make doe2ep as open source software once it's done and been
> updated.
>
> Joe
>
> On Fri, Mar 2, 2012 at 9:40 AM, CleanTech Analytics
> <jeremiah at cleantechanalytics.com
> <mailto:jeremiah at cleantechanalytics.com>> wrote:
>
>     Wouldn't that be nice..
>
>     I may be able to have it coded up, but would need funding.
>
>     On Fri, Mar 2, 2012 at 9:29 AM, Kathryn Kerns
>     <kathryn.kerns at bceengineers.com
>     <mailto:kathryn.kerns at bceengineers.com>> wrote:
>
>         Everyone, it occurs to me that we all could have the
>         best of both worlds if we could start our projects
>         in eQuest, move them over to EnergyPlus if we have
>         complicated HVAC features, and then maybe move the
>         EnergyPlus results back into eQuest for print-out
>         and examination? Now that I think about it, only the
>         first part probably needs to happen if EnergyPlus
>         has energy consumption graphic outputs similar to
>         eQuest? Has anybody ever tried this? It seems a
>         simple solution so I am sure there is something
>         wrong with it.____
>
>         __ __
>
>         __ __
>
>         __ __
>
>         **Kathryn Kerns**____
>
>         /*/Systems Specialist/*/____
>
>         /*/BCE/*/**Engineers, Inc.____**
>
>         **| Ph: 253.922.0446 <tel:253.922.0446> | Fx:
>         253.922.0896 <tel:253.922.0896> |**____
>
>         ____
>
>         __ __
>
>
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>
>
>     --
>     /Jeremiah D. Crossett/
>     /CleanTech Analytics/
>     /503-688-8951 <tel:503-688-8951>/
>     /www.cleantechanalytics.com/
>     <http://www.cleantechanalytics.com>
>
>
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> --
> /Jeremiah D. Crossett/
> /CleanTech Analytics/
> /503-688-8951/
> /www.cleantechanalytics.com/ <http://www.cleantechanalytics.com>
>
>
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