ArchiCAD and EnergyPlus?

[Anonymous]

Dear All:

I'm new to ArchiCAD but I've read a little about exporting formats and data exchange. Still, I would appreciate any hints anyone could give me on the possibility of - and procedure for - extracting an idf model (EnergyPlus) with geometric and, eventually, construction details, from an ArchiCAD model.

Thanks in advance,
Ana Rui Oliveira.

[Djordje]

Does Energy Plus import IFC format? That would be the best bet, I presume?

[Anonymous]

According to a link in Graphisoft site:
"The engine can be coupled easily with third party applications like the BSPro Com Server, which helps the process of converting IFC building data to EnergyPlus input data format."
...so I don't think it can read IFC directly.
I also read there was a problem with this BSPro Com Server conversion method, but I don't know if it persists, so at this moment I wonder if there is actually any way of doing it (even if it would imply some "manual" work) without going through the Green Building Studio?...
Has anyone attempted this (extracting E+ idf files from archicad)? Either through GBS or in some other, more direct, way?

Thanks again,
Ana Rui.

[Laszlo Nagy]

Ana wrote:
According to a link in Graphisoft site:
"The engine can be coupled easily with third party applications like the BSPro Com Server, which helps the process of converting IFC building data to EnergyPlus input data format."
...so I don't think it can read IFC directly.
I also read there was a problem with this BSPro Com Server conversion method, but I don't know if it persists, so at this moment I wonder if there is actually any way of doing it (even if it would imply some "manual" work) without going through the Green Building Studio?...
Has anyone attempted this (extracting E+ idf files from archicad)? Either through GBS or in some other, more direct, way?

Thanks again,
Ana Rui.

I looked at EnergyPlus about two years ago.
At that time it had no graphical user interface at all.
It is a simulation engine developed by the US Department of Energy. It is a freely available tool that can perform very complicated and sophisticated energy analysis tasks.
Several companies had shown interest in developing GUIs to it, but at that time there were none, so it was pretty hard to work with it and evaluate its data.

The U.S. Department of Energy said then that there were several interfaces to EnergyPlus. Some of them were available, some were still under development. These were:

DesignBuilder (http://www.designbuilder.co.uk, http://www.designbuildersoftware.com )
E2AC (http://www.labeee.ufsc.br/edois/e2ac.html ) - a Brazilian Portuguese interface
EFEN (http://www.fenestration.com/index.php )
EPlusInterface (http://www.coolshadow.com/EPlusInterface/ )
E+IEQ (http://www.taitem.com/ )
Hevacomp Design Simulation (http://www.hevacomp.com ).

I just looked at these links and it seems there have been some developments in this field.

[Anonymous]

Thank you.
I currently work with EnergyPlus and DesignBuilder, but DesignBuilder forces me to recreate the 3D model altoghether, while many architects already work with 3D models, namely in ArchiCad.
I'll take a look at those links you mentioned.
If by any chance you know anyone that might be currently working more closely in this problem, I'd greatly appreciate a contact.

Thanks again,
Ana.

[Laszlo Nagy]

Ana wrote:
If by any chance you know anyone that might be currently working more closely in this problem, I'd greatly appreciate a contact.

Thanks again,
Ana.

Sorry, I do not have any contacts.

[Djordje]

Ana wrote:
If by any chance you know anyone that might be currently working more closely in this problem, I'd greatly appreciate a contact.

Try contacting David Jellings, david@jellings.co.uk