Meeting Agenda:
1) Discuss what the group would like to learn this term through our regular scheduled meetings. Topics include the priority and sequence of Grasshopper exercises we would like to explore during the winter term from http://www.digitaltoolbox.info/grasshopper_basic.html and Processing tutorials from the Processing Handbook I received from MIT.
2) Watch the Matt Storus Church Machine video and have a discussion about parametric and generative tools in design.
If you have a chance, please read the following article by Tim Love called Between Mission Statement and Parametric Model at:
http://places.designobserver.com/entry.html?entry=10757
3) Discuss a possible design build project over the following winter and spring terms using the skill set this group is developing. Conversation led by Chris Nielson (please see comments below for a brief backstory)
4) Discuss possible applied research and design work for the National Conference on the Beginning Design Student paper, Machine Craft and the Contemporary Designer: exploring parameters and variables through making physical artifacts. I wrote the attached abstract and submitted it for the conference the past fall and it was accepted. To continue with the research I need to assemble a team of students that will help explore the principles I set forth by making physical objects with the cnc router. In exchange for helping with the research I will show participants how to use the cnc router, how to author machine code and provide you with the cnc controller interface software necessary to simulate machine movements. Not to mention, your work will be sited in the research paper I present at the conference at UNC Charlotte in March. More tomorrow night, of course.
Thank you for your interest and I hope to see you there.
Sincerely,
Erik Hegre
Chris Nielson Reply by Eugene Parametric Society on January 7, 2010 at 12:02pm
All,
In response to Erik, who requested that I describe my intentions in a design-build project and to the article posted (definitely required reading for this group) I propose that we begin development of a project that spans the realm of "sustainable social" architecture and parametric design. The particulars of such a design do need to be made concrete, and it will be important to define the goals of such a project.
Therefore, I would suggest that this serve as a forum for the next few weeks for those interested in producing a built project. I agree with Nico that it may not be feasible to create the built piece, whatever it may be, this term; however we should have the groundwork and a plan in place by the end of the next 10 weeks.
Either way, I would ask that everyone who is interested to please provide as many concepts to this forum to begin a discussion. If you are indeed interested, please submit goals that this project could achieve (energy, socially, aesthetically, economically, related) and perhaps what you envision the project to physically be (shading device, public bench, water catchment, interactive thermal contraption, etc . . . )
I look forward to hearing your thoughts!
Cheers,
Christopher…
itects are at the spoke of a number of different specialties, and their work affects many different people. It's not like an architect is a painter, whose work may offend or upset the occasional viewer. As an architect you have a responsibility to produce quality work. How can anybody trust you with this responsibility if you're taking a purely artistic approach? What guarantees do you have that your clients money won't be spend on a poorly designed project if you can provide no rational for why your design is the way it is?
2. What is any sense in purely architectural discourse?
I don't get. Discourse is there to flesh out problems and agree on solutions. It might not always accomplish that, but what's the difference between talking about architecture as opposed to any other topic?
3. strictly looked, can be determined sense generally in a purely architectural discourse?
I'm sorry I don't understand.
4. What is purely architectural discourse?
I imagine it's having a discussion where you only talk about architecture?
5. What is Funktionalismus or Rationalismus without philosophical support?
Functionalism and Rationalism are ideologies. Some would even call them methodologies. They are inherently philosophical things as they are nothing more than a collection of ideas and views. As a society we've decided that a certain level of rationalism is a good thing. The Enlightenment continued this trend after the Dark Age hiatus and it quickly led to a large number of very tangible benefits for almost everyone.
I'm not arguing for or against Functionalism as an architectural style. I'm asking for a measure of rationalism in our academic process.
6. Would not be the pure functional fulfilment empty ?
Let's find out. In the meantime I'll settle for a little functionalism.
7. Would be not a critical position on the promise of purely rational algorithms applied?
Algorithms and algorithmic design are rational in the sense that they do not allow for ambiguity. But that doesn't make them rational in the real-world sense. These are not the same kind of 'rational's. I can make an algorithm that produces total nonsense, but does so completely reliably. I can also use an algorithm in a setting for which it wasn't intended, thus invalidating the results.
This is actually the crux of the problem. Which algorithms does one use to solve a problem and what data do they require? If you can't answer this question or if you do not understand the algorithms you are using (at least on a superficial level) then I'd say you have no business using them.
--
David Rutten
david@mcneel.com
Tirol, Austria…
Added by David Rutten at 12:48pm on August 19, 2013
nd B) daylight autonomy for a single room. A and B are therefore the conflicting objectives, and are connected to the O of octopus component. The geometry iterated is that of a window, on one of the rooms' facades.
I have a grasshopper definition that iterates the window by changing:
1. Window height
2. Window sill height
3. Window width
4. Window position from one side of the wall
1,2,3,4 are therefore the genes. A combination of these genes is a complete window, which is the chromoshome, that i will from now on call solution. All genes are connected to the G of octopus component.
Now regarding the octopus settings, i have these questions so that i can properly calibrate the settings (mutarion rate, crossover rate etc):
1.In the beginning of the octopus simulation, how many are the random solutions generated? (By random i mean totally random, not resulting solutions from mutation or crossover of previous solutions, i am talking about the very first generation). Is this number connected to the population size? Is it 6? How is it defined by octopus? Can somebody control it?
2.The first generation finishes when the number of "individuals to be evaluated" is reached. Then octopus jumps to the second generation. To do so, it keeps a specific number of solutions of the first generation, the so called elite. What is the number of these elite? Is it elitism x population size?
3.The SPEA2 original paper describes step wise the algorithm loop. During the loop, a number of solutions is stored in the elite domain, and from that domain, a number of solutions is used for mating. There are therefore two numbers, one that defines the number of solutions to enter the elite domain, and one that defines the number of solutions to be inserted in the mating pool. In octopus i only see elitism as a setting, which i am guessing is what defines the number of solutions to enter the elite domain. Is that true? How do i define the number of solutions to be copied in the mating pool, where mutation and crossover will occur? This number should be called tournament size, but i can't seem to find it..
4.Why is it that DURING one generation, the number of "individuals to be evaluated" can decrease? Is it because octopus finds out that there are no more possible solutions? (i am using discrete values for the genes)
5.The gene of window width, represented by a grasshopper slider, has 4 possible values: 0,1,2,3. Assuming that the mutation rate is 0.5. Does this mean that mutation of the gene can happen to an extent of 0.5 x 4 = 2? Meaning that the slider position can change for 0 to 2 or from 3 to 1 etc?
6.The mutation probability is dictating whether or not a gene will be mutated, or whether or not the whole solution will be mutated? So for instance, with a mutation probability of 0.5, does it mean that 2 out of the 4 genes are going to be mutated, or 2 out of 4 solutions is going to be mutated. If its the second case, then how is mutation divided between the different genes? Meaning, which of the 4 genes is going to get mutated? Is it random? Is it for all 4 genes?
7.Crossover can occur between 2 subsequent solutions. Crossover rate dictates whether or not crossover will take place? If so, then, assuming that it was chosen for crossover to take place between 2 solutions, which of the genes are going to be exchanged. I mean how many, out of the 4 genes (height, sill height, width, position). Is it random?
8.After clarifying the previous 7 questions, i can run a simulation. Then, is there an indicative number that i can be monitoring, to see that no more generations are required? I know that a good pareto has to be short, with a lot of solutions and with a uniform distribution. But is there a specific number output somewhere, that can inform me that a good pareto has more or less been generated? If there is such indicator...
Thank you all,
i hope this can help others as well,
Iason
…
is our fault that it fell through the cracks.
To answer your questions:
1. With the current capabilities in Honeybee, there are three possible ways by which air enters a zone and each has its own separate set of inputs. These three are:
1) Infiltration
2) Ventilation through the HVAC System
3) Natural Ventilation
The reason for having these three separate set of inputs is because each of these has a separate reason for why the air is entering the zone:
1) Infiltration - This is air flow into the zone through cracks in the walls that you cannot control.
2) Ventilation through the HVAC System - This is additional ventilation that you do to ensure that occupants have enough fresh air to breathe and that smells do not accumulate. Note that ventilation through the mechanical system can only happen if the zone is conditioned so, if you wanted to adequate minimum ventilation in a completely passive zone, you have you use the third option below (or boost up your infiltration to an acceptable level).
3) Natural Ventilation - This is ventilation, usually at high volumes, that you are doing to cool down the zone in place of using mechanical cooling.
You can set the first two (infiltration and ventilation through the mechanical system) with the 'Set EnergyPlus Zone Loads' component. For the case that you describe, you should not add the two together but input them like so:
I am assuming that the minimum ventilation to ensure occupants have enough fresh air is 0.5, in which case, you don't need to add the two but can subtract the infiltration from the mechanical ventilation. I have included Abraham's awesome converter components from ACH to m3/s-m2, which should make things easier in your case. For natural ventilation, you have to use the "Set EP Airflow" component.
2. Oh gosh, I did not realize that I had said that in the videos. As you have stated, you are absolutely right that you want to leave a bit of room between your heating setpoint and your minTemperatureForNatVent. I know that there currently is not a video on the Set EP Airflow and I will make this clear when I put up a video on it soon. I should also probably take out the example of an infiltration schedule from the videos too since I know that was the best the components could offer in terms of air flow at the time. I usually leave at least 2 C between my heating setpoint and the minimum temperature for natural ventilation (usually my heating setp is 20C and nat vent setpoint is somewhere between 22-26C depending on how tightly controlled temperature needs to be in the space). This is the case, unless I am crafting some special type of summertime night flushing scheme where I will use the HVACAvailabilty input on the 'Set EnergyPlus Zone Schedules' to shut down the heating system for part of the year. To clarify again what happened in your case, setting the minTempForNatVent to the heating setpoint will mean that windows immediately open once the heating setpoint is reached, causing the heating system to immediately turn back on after it has just been turned off. Over time, you have this rapid oscillation between heating and opening windows that just blows through a ton of energy.
3. You cannot use the 'Set Ideal Air Loads Parameters' to account for a COP. By definition an ideal air system does not include a COP (ideal air is the type of HVAC system that the 'Run Energy Simulation' component uses). Ideal air systems can only tell you the heat removed or added to the zone by the system - NOT the values of electricity or fuel that it might take to add or remove this heat. If you want to obtain a rough estimate of your heating and cooling with those COPs you can post-process the results using the native grasshopper division component like so:
We did not include a formal Honeybee component to perform this division operation because we want you to be aware of what is going on. This division gives you a rough estimate of the energy but it is not as accurate as modelling a complete HVAC system. We are currently building out the capability to do this with the OpenStudio component. I have attached a file with the native GH division for you.
4. Looking at your file, it makes sense that the constructions in general would not change the simulation much since you only have a single side of the box that is not adiabatic. However, I imagine that the bigger reason why the simulation is not changing much is that the constructions I see that you are using have poor R-values for the heating-dominated climate that you are working in. Try just making a no-mass material and boost up the R-value to a high amount (maybe something crazy like 15) and you will see the maximum cutting of heating energy you can get by making a thick envelope.
Sorry again that no one got back to you in a good time frame but I also realize this discussion took a long response. In the future, it might be better to break this up into a few discussions with more focused topics. That way, the people who know the individual topics you brig up can get back to you individually much faster.
-Chris…
a machine that is light and very sturdy. I have taken my Macbook Pro all around the world, carry it with me every day, even dropped it a few times and its still totally fine. Its thin and light.
2) You get some actual support for your hardware even a few years down the line. My Macbook Pro is from 2012 and I can still walk in to any Apple Store and get help with it, which I have done many, many times in different places around the world - I never had to show a receipt or was charged any money for help. There is no PC/Laptop manufacturer in the world with anything close to that, because companies like Asus, Dell, etc. bring out dozens of new versions of laptops every year, so its much harder to service them after a few years.
3) This is the most important one, which usually people forget when they say that Macbooks are overpriced: Resale Value. If you have ever tried to sell an old PC/Laptop (I have a few times), you will know how little value they have even after just 2-3 years. Macbooks retain their value very well and even after 4 years you can still get 50% of your original price.
4) Of course you can install Windows on it and it runs perfectly. I have MacOS and Windows on it and both run absolutely fine. On the Windows side I have Rhino+GH, Maya and a few others. Having Windows is good, because some software still only runs on Windows (looking at you, 3DSMax!). Most other software also runs on MacOS. In the interest of sanity it is great to have an alternative to Windows for all the day to day stuff, like Mail, Calender, Photos, Presentations, etc. that just always works.
5) As for performance: Yes, Macbook Pros dont necessarily have the latest and greatest in graphics cards (the rest is on par with PC laptops), but unless you want to play games you will not need it. VRay RT can do GPU rendering, but you wont get great performance from a Notebook GPU anyways and it doesnt make sense to do rendering on a laptop (especially since you have a workstation). You could get one of the older Macbook Pro Retina Late 2013 or Mid 2014 models with the GTX750M by Nvidia, which will be usable to render using VRay RT, but of course not huge performance. Better to invest in a good used graphics card for your workstation like an Nvdia GTX980ti, which is the best value for money for GPU rendering right now (lots of used ones available).
So at least consider also getting a Macbook Pro. You can buy refurbished models (depending where you are) and they are like new, but a lot cheaper or even get an older one thats used. It will be a worthwile investment.
Take it from someone who has used dozens of PCs and Macs in my lifetime and have to do the IT support here at work (where we also use both).
I still have my Macbook Pro Retina from 2012 and its still running perfectly, super fast, and I can use Rhino and GH for huge files, do GPU Rendering with Octane Render and all sorts of other heavy computing stuff.
Hope that helps.…
Added by Armin Seltz at 11:12am on September 19, 2016
cribes a set of machine movements in X, Y and Z (Z being Pen Up and Pen Down) directions. It very closely related to G-code in this way - just slightly more simple than G-code overall.
For tool selection you use the Select Pen - SPx - command, x is the number of the pen you are using. As I'm using a vinyl cutter without a pen/tool changer I just use SP1 in the file header/ini of the cutter.
Without knowing the full spec of your machine it is hard to say for certain BUT all of my experience with CNC machines - of all sizes and spec levels - the actual control files are pretty much the same. Very simple text based HPGL or G-code text files run all motion control - even on things like 7 axis robot arms etc. For plotting I'd expect you'd be able to get a usable HPGL/PLT file without a lot of work - its just a matter of matching the file to what the machine is expecting.
To answer your question about getting the file to the printer its maybe best to explain it this way: there are two parts to this project1/ Create the correctly formatted text/hpgl/plt file ready to send to the printer2/ Send the file to printer
For part 1/ the procedure is:
Select the curves you want to printConvert the curves into a set of pointsFormat these points into HPGL Save this HPGL as a text file
For 2/ we need a way to stream the text file to a printer port
To do this I've used an old dos command line technique that allows allow you to 'copy' a text file to a printer LPT or COM port:
copy /b c:\spool\ini.plt LPT1
Type the above into a DOS command line and it will send a text file called ini.plt to the printer on LPT1 port. As you'll see in my attached code I use os.system calls in my python code to send files when needed.
So your original code was doing some strange things with the conversion from curves to points. Lines/Polylines were OK - with the code just using the line end points. For curves and polycurves the code code was exploding these into segments and then dividing into set of points. However this led to two issues: - curves that started off as closed polycurves would end up being plotted as open curve segments - which is not very good for a cut file and not very smooth for a plot file.- the division of the curves to points was by distance - and if this wasn't an exact division of the length of the curve the end point would not match up with the next line - again not ideal for a cutting file which needs to be a closed curve.
To solve the above I changed to using rs.ConvertCurveToPolyline - with the tolerance set to match the HPGL resolution of 0.025mm - this converts all curves needed to plot to polylines, leaves everything closed and ends points line up perfectly.
I had one other problem with my setup - I ran into a file size/curve number/plotting points upper limit. A small number of curves would cut/plot fine, however at a certain number in one file the print driver would throw an error and the plotter would not even start plotting the file. I could not work out where is the system this limit was being imposed. The current working version of my code is attached - it gets around this file size limit by creating a separate print file for each curve required and sending them to the plotter in sequence. Not as completely tidy as I'd like as it flashes up a cmd window on every loop - but plots/cuts are perfect.
The final 'nice touch' for the project is I've created a custom tool bar button to run the script - all I have to do to cut a file is hit the button on the tool bar, select the curves and hit enter = SO EASY!
I've attached my latest code, a sample HPGL file to plot a rectangle, and a screen shot of setting up the custom toolbar button.
Cheers
DK…
or create a form through code.
2) Add a public function to your component that displays this form, I recommend you use form.ShowDialog() for now to avoid weird conditions with non-modal forms.
3) Override the method Menu_AppendCustomComponentItems() on your Component and add an extra menu item that will show the form (i.e. when clicked, it will call the function defined in step [2].
4) Create a new class and derive it from Grasshopper.Kernel.Attributes.GH_ComponentAttributes. (if you don't want to offer double-click functionality, you can skip steps 4 to 6)
5) Override the RespondToMouseDoubleClick() method on the new attributes and also call the function defined in step [2]
6) Override the CreateAttributes() method on your Component class and construct an instance of the custom attributes defined in step [4] instead.
7) Once you've shown the form and the user has clicked OK, you need to assign values and invalidate the Component, then start a new Solution.
Here's some code:
Public Class MySpecialComponentAttributes
Inherits GH_ComponentAttributes
Public Sub New(ByVal comp As MySpecialComponent)
MyBase.New(comp)
End Sub
Public Overrides Function RespondToMouseDoubleClick( _
ByVal sender As GH_Canvas, _
ByVal e As GH_CanvasMouseEvent) As GH_ObjectResponse
DirectCast(Me.Owner, MySpecialComponent).DisplayForm()
Return Canvas.GH_ObjectResponse.Handled
End Function
End Class
Public Class MySpecialComponent
Inherits GH_Component
.....
.....
Protected Overrides Sub Menu_AppendCustomComponentItems( _
ByVal iMenu As ToolStripDropDown)
Menu_AppendGenericMenuItem(iMenu, "Set Values", AddressOf Menu_SetValues)
End Sub
Private Sub Menu_SetValues(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As EventArgs)
DisplayForm()
End Sub
Public Sub DisplayForm()
Dim frm As New MySpecialForm()
Grasshopper.GUI.GH_WindowsFormUtil.CenterFormOnCursor(frm, True)
If (frm.ShowDialog() = DialogResult.OK) Then
'Harvest values from form and assign them to local variables
Me.ExpireSolution(True)
End If
End Sub
End Class
--
David Rutten
david@mcneel.com
Turku, Finland…
nd improvements. Many of the new features and components announced in the last release have become stable and have emerged from their WIP section. Additionally, after two years of work, we are happy to announce that we finally have full support of an OpenStudio connection within Honeybee, which has ushered in a whole host of new features, notably the modelling of detailed HVAC systems. As always you can download the new release from Food4Rhino. Make sure to remove the older version of Ladybug and Honeybee and update your scripts.
LADYBUG
1 - Solar Hot Water Components Out of WIP
After much beta-testing, bug-fixing, and general development, all of the Photovoltaic and Solar Hot Water components are now fully out of WIP! The main component is based on a Chengchu Yan's publication. Components have been added to Ladybug thanks to the efforts of Chengchu Yan and Djordje Spasic.. See Djorje’s original release post of the solar hot water components for more information on the components that just made it out of WIP.
2 - New Terrain Shading Mask Released in WIP
In addition to Djordje’s prolific addition of renewable energy components, he has also contributed a widely-useful component to generate terrain shading masks, which account for the shading of surrounding mountains/terrain in simulations. While initially added to assist the solar radiation radiation and renewable energy components, the component will undergo development to optimize it for energy and daylight simulations over the next few months. Another new component called Horizon Angles can be used to visualize and export horizon angles. You can test them out now by accessing them in the WIP section. For more information, see Djordje’s release post on the GH forum here.
3 - New Mesh Selector Component
After realizing that the Optimal Shade Creator component has applications to a whole range of analyses, it has now been re-branded as the Mesh Selector and has been optimized to work easily with these many analyses. Specifically, the component selects out the portion of a mesh that meets a given threshold. This can be the portion of a shade benefit analysis meeting a certain level of shade desirability, the portion of a radiation study meeting a certain level of fulx, the portion of a daylight analysis meeting a certain lux threshold, and much more!
4 - Solar Adjusted Temperature Now Includes Long Wave Radiation
Thanks to a question asked by Aymeric and a number of clarifications made by Djordje Spasic, the Solar Adjusted Temperature component now includes the ability to account for long-wave radiative loss to the sky in addition to it original capability to account for short wave radiation from the sun. As such, the component now includes all capabilities of similar outdoor comfort tools such as RayMan. The addition of this capability is also paralleled by the addition of a new horizontalInfraredRadiation output on the ImportEPW component. See the updated solar adjusted example file hereto see how to use the component properly.
5 - Support for both Log and Power Law Wind Profiles
In preparation for the future release of the Butterfly CFD-modelling insect, the Ladybug Wind Profile component now includes the option of either power law or log law wind profiles, which are both used extensively in CFD studies. Thanks goes to Theodoros Galanos for providing the formulas!
6 - New Radiant Asymmetry Comfort Components
Prompted by a suggestion from Christian Kongsgaard, Ladybug now includes components to calculate radiant asymmetry discomfort! For examples of how to use the components see this example file for spatial analysis of radiant asymmetry discomfort and this example for temporal analysis.
7 - Pedestrian Wind Comfort Component Released in WIP
In preparation for the impending release of the butterfly CFD-modelling insect, Djordje Spasic with assistance from Liam Harrington has contributed a component to evaluate outdoor discomfort and pedestrian safety. The component identifies if certain areas around the building are suitable for sitting, building entrances-exits, window shopping... based on its wind microclimate. Dangerous areas due to high wind speeds are also identified.You can check it out now in the WIP section.
HONEYBEE
1 - New HVAC Systems and Full OpenStudio Support
After a significant amount of development on the part of the OpenStudio team and two years of effort on the part of LB+HB developers, we (finally!) have full support for an OpenStudio connection within Honeybee. By this, we mean that any energy simulation property that can be assigned to a HBZone will be taken into account in the simulation run by the OpenStudio component. The connection to OpenStudio has brought with it several new capabilities. Most notably, you can now assign full HVAC systems and receive energy results in units of electricity and fuel instead of simple heating and cooling loads. This Honeybee release includes 14 built-in HVAC template systems that can be assigned to the zones, each of which can be customized:
0. Ideal Air Loads 1. PTAC | Residential 2. PTHP | Residential 3. Packaged Single Zone - AC 4. Packaged Single Zone - HP 5. Packaged VAV w/ Reheat 6. Packaged VAV w/ PFP Boxes 7. VAV w/ Reheat 8. VAV w/ PFP Boxes 9. Warm Air Furnace - Gas Fired 10.Warm Air Furnace - Electric 11.Fan Coil Units + DOAS 12.Active Chilled Beams + DOAS 13.Radiant Floors + DOAS 14.VRF + DOAS
Systems 1-10 are ASHRAE Baseline systems that represent much of what has been added to building stock over the last few decades while systems 11-14 are systems that are commonly being installed today to reduce energy use. Here is an example file showing how to assign these systems in Honeybee and interpret the results and here is an example showing how to customize the HVAC system specifications to a wide variety of cases. To run the file, you will need to have OpenStudio installed and you can download and install OpenStudio from here.
In addition to these template systems within Honeybee, the OpenStudio interface includes hundreds of HVAC components to build your own custom HVAC systems. OpenStudio also has a growing number of user-contributed HVAC system templates that have been integrated into a set of scripts called "Measures" that you can apply to your OpenStudio model within the OpenStudio interface. You can find these system templates by searching for them in the building components library. Here is a good tutorial video on how to apply measures to your model within the OpenStudio interface. Honeybee includes a component that runs these measures from Grasshopper (without having to use the OpenStudio interface), which you can see a demo video of here. However, this component is currently in WIP as OpenStudio team is still tweaking the file structure of measures and it is fairly safe to estimate that, by the next stable release of Honeybee, we will have full support of OpenStudio measures within GH.
2 - Phasing Out IDF Exporter
With the connection to OpenStudio now fully established, this release marks the start of a transition away from exporting directly to EnergyPlus and the beginning of Honeybee development that capitalizes on OpenStudio’s development. As such THIS WILL BE THE LAST STABLE RELEASE THAT INCLUDES THE HONEYBEE_RUN ENERGY SIMULATION COMPONENT.
The Export to OpenStudio component currently does everything that the Run Energy Simulation component does and, as such, it is intended that all GH definitions using the Run Energy Simulation component should replace it with the OpenStudio component. You can use the same Read EP Result components to import the results from the OpenStudio component and you can also use the same Energy Sim Par/Generate EP Output components to customize the parameters of the simulation. The only effective difference between the two components is that the OpenStudio component enables the modeling of HVAC and exports the HBZones to an .osm file before converting it to an EnergyPlus .idf.
For the sake of complete clarity, we should state that OpenStudio is simply an interface for EnergyPlus and, as such, the same calculation engine is under the hood of both the Export to OpenStudio component and the Run Energy Simulation component. At present, you should get matching energy simulation results between the Run Energy Simulation component and a run of the same zones with the OpenStudio component (using an ideal air system HVAC).
All of this is to say that you should convert your GH definitions that use the Run Energy Simulation component to have the OpenStudio component and this release is the best time to do it (while the two components are supported equally). Additionally, with this version of Honeybee you will no longer need to install EnergyPlus before using Honeybee and you will only need to install OpenStudio (which includes EnergyPlus in the install).
3 - New Schedule Generation Components
Thanks to the efforts of Antonello Di Nunzio, we now have 2 new components that ease the creation of schedule-generation in Honeybee. The new components make use of the native Grasshopper “Gener Pool” component to give a set of sliders for each hour of the day. Additionally, Antonello has included an annual schedule component that contains a dictionary of all holidays of every nearly every nation (phew!). Finally, this annual schedule component can output schedules in the text format recognized by EnergyPlus, which allows them to be written directly into the IDF instead of a separate CSV file. This will significantly reduce the size of files needed to run simulations and can even reduce the number of components on your canvas that are needed to add custom schedules. For more information, see Antonello’s explanatory images here and Antonello's example file here. You can also see a full example file of how to apply the schedules to energy simulations here.
4 - EnergyPlus Lookup Folder, Re-run OSM/IDF, and Read Result Dictionary
With the new capabilities of OpenStudio, we have also added a number of components to assist with managing all of the files that you get from the simulation. In particular, Abraham Yezioro has added a Lookup EnergyPlus Folder component that functions very similarly to the Lookup Daylight Folder component. This way, you can run an Energy simulation once and explore the results separately. Furthermore, we have added components to Re-Run OpenStudio .osm files or EnergyPlus .idf files within Grasshopper. These components are particularly useful if you edit these .osm or .idf files outside of Honeybee and want to re-run them to analyze their results in Grasshopper. Lastly, a component has been added to parse the .rdd (or Result Data Dictionary) file that EnergyPlus produces, enabling you to see all of the possible outputs that you can request from a given simulation.
5 - Electric Lighting Components Out of WIP
After Sarith Subramaniam’s initial components to model electric lights with Radiance in the last release, we are happy to report that they have been fully tested and are out of WIP. Improvements include support for all types of light fixture geometries and the ability to use the components in a more “Grasshoppery” list-like fashion. See Sarith’s original release post for more information and several example files showing how to use the components can be found here. 1 , 2 , 3 .
6 - Improvements to THERM Components
A number of bug fixes and improvements have been made to the THERM components in order to make their application more flexible and smooth. Special thanks is due to Derin Yilmaz , Mel King , Farnaz , Ben (@benmo1) , and Abraham Yezioro for all of the great feedback in the process of improving these components.
7 - HBObject Transform Components
After some demand for components that can ease the generation of buildings with modular zone types, two components to transform HBObjects with all of their properties have been added to the 00 | Honeybee section. The components allow you to produce copies of zones that are translated or rotated from the original position.
8 - Comfort Maps Supports PET and Integration of CFD Results
Thanks to the addition of the ‘Physiological Equivalent Temperature’ (PET) component by Djordje Spasic in the last stable release, it is now possible to make comfort maps of PET with Honeybee. PET is particularly helpful for evaluating OUTDOOR comfort with detailed wind fields at a high spatial resolution. As such, the new PET recipe has also been optimized for integration with CFD results. The windSpeed_ input can now accept the file path to a .csv file that is organized with 8760 values in each column and a number of columns that correspond to the number of test points. Components to generate this csv from Butterfly CFD results will be coming in later releases. Stay tuned!
As always let us know your comments and suggestions.
Enjoy!Ladybug Analysis Tools Development Team
…
curve or locus] of a segment AB, in English. The set of all the points from which a segment, AB, is seen under a fixed given angle.
When you construct l'arc capable —by using compass— you obviously need to find the centre of this arc. This can be easily done in GH in many ways by using some trigonometry (e.g. see previous —great— solutions). Whole circles instead of arcs provide supplementary isoptics —β-isoptic and (180º-β)-isoptic—. Coherent normals let you work in any plane.
Or you could just construct β-isoptics of AB by using tangent at A (or B). I mean [Arc SED] component.
If you want the true β-isoptic —the set of all the points— you should use {+β, -β} degrees (2 sides; 2 solutions; 2 arcs), but slider in [-180, +180] degrees provides full range of signed solutions. Orthoptic is provided by ±90º. Notice that ±180º isoptic is just AB segment itself, and 0º isoptic should be the segment outside AB —(-∞, A] U [B, +∞)—. [Radians] component is avoidable.
More compact versions can be achieved by using [F3] component. You can choose among different expressions the one you like the most as long as performs counter clockwise rotation of vector AB, by 180-β degrees, around A; or equivalent. [Panel] is totally avoidable.
Solutions in XY plane —projection; z = 0—, no matter A or B, are easy too. Just be sure about the curve you want to find the intersection with —Curve; your wall— being contained in XY plane.
A few self-explanatory examples showing features.
1 & 5 1st ver. (Supplementary isoptics) (ArcCapableTrigNormals_def_Bel.png)
2 & 6 2nd ver. (SED) (ArcCapableSED_def_Bel.png)
3 & 7 3rd ver. (SED + F3) (ArcCapableSEDF3_def_Bel.png)
4 & 8 4th ver. (SED + F3, Projection) (ArcCapableSEDProjInt_def_Bel.png)
If you want to be compact, 7 could be your best choice. If you prefer orientation robustness, 5. Etcetera.
I hope these versions will help you to compact/visualize; let me know any feedback.
Calculate where 2 points [A & B] meet at a specific angle is just find the geometrical locus called arco capaz in Spanish, arc capable in French (l'isoptique d'un segment de droite) or isoptic [curve or locus]
of a segment AB, in English. The set of all the points from which a segment,
AB, is seen under a fixed given angle.…