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

[Kevin Kyte]

Shouldn't the question be – When will these programs be able to import/export XML?

Kevin

From: CleanTech Analytics [mailto:jeremiah at cleantechanalytics.com]
Sent: Friday, March 02, 2012 3:45 PM
To: Jason Glazer
Cc: equest-users at lists.onebuilding.org
Subject: Re: [Equest-users] Is there a Way to Convert eQuest output files to EnergyPlus input files and vice-versa?

Jason,
Yes please do !

Thank you
On Fri, Mar 2, 2012 at 11:59 AM, Jason Glazer <jglazer at gard.com<mailto:jglazer at gard.com>> wrote:
Karhryn

When EnergyPlus was first being developed, we assumed that many people using DOE-2.1e (the predecessor to eQUEST) would want to convert their existing files so I was funded to develop a translator. I do not believe it was used much so we stopped updating it. It is not a graphical program like Sketch-up but something used on a DOS command line. If you or someone else has an interest in updating the source code so that it supports the latest version of EnergyPlus and eQUEST, please let me know.

Jason


On 3/2/2012 1:41 PM, Kathryn Kerns wrote:
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<tel:253.922.0446> | Fx: 253.922.0896<tel:253.922.0896> |





-----Original Message----- From: Jason Glazer
[mailto:jglazer at gard.com<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>
<mailto: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>
<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>
<mailto: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>
<mailto: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><tel:253.922.0446<tel:253.922.0446>>  | Fx:
253.922.0896<tel:253.922.0896><tel:253.922.0896<tel:253.922.0896>>  |**____

____

__ __


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