AC 26 export to PHPP?

[heathldesign]

Is anyone exporting directly from AC26 to PHPP? Before I waste my time trying I was hoping to hear that GS fixed the issues they had a few years ago. Doesn’t seem to be any topics about this in the last few years. Any opinions / advice would be welcome.

[Aaron Bourgoin]

Andy Thomson addresses PHPP during the Q&A part of this video:  https://youtu.be/8cPlm1AKk-0

[heathldesign]

yep, just as i feared. it sort-of works. this i just don't understand. GS has invested hundreds of man hours in creating the function to export to PHPP. i may be wrong, but i think this is a pretty specific function, there is no other use for this export other than PHPP. so after deciding to join forces with PHi as it were, how could they justify releasing a function or tool that doesn't actually work? if it was used in a broad array of apps and other programs, and it just doesn't happen to be as compatible with PHPP as it is with others, oh well, i would understand. but it's specifically for PHPP, how could they drop the ball like this? it should work properly or why bloody bother! and after so many years, why isn't it fixed? it boggles the mind. PHPP 9.6 has been out for at least 4 years. i (we) don't have time to verify this function, i might as well (and in fact must) just enter everything into PHPP manually. half baked function, it's just a reflection of how GS seems to approach AC in general. focussing too much on introducing new functions and tools without getting existing functions refined and working well, and listening to what the users really want to see.

rant done.

[Strawbale23]

AC is a hugely complex software application, PHPP is a massively complex application. Designing an effective and coherent interface between the 2 is a massive undertaking in itself. I wouldn't trust AC to get the data translation into PHPP correct unfortunately. As a certified PH Designer, I would use the PHI plugin for Sketchup, and almost start from scratch for the model, to be sure of getting the correct data. 

[heathldesign]

Yep, that’s about it isn’t it. Can’t trust AC to do the task correctly. They build a tool for a specific purpose and release it but it doesn’t work reliably. There is nothing in my life that I can think of like this. When I buy income tax software do we just hope it works, or are we expected to manually check that its formulae are getting the correct results? Would any of us buy a new car if we knew that it had any feature at all that was there, but just didn’t work. Look it has air bags! Gosh, too bad they don’t actually work. Would any of us be content to go through a set of plans and manually verify that the string dimensions add up? Half baked. There is absolutely no excuse for releasing a feature that doesn’t work reliably. Whether it’s complicated or not, if it doesn’t work it’s not a feature, it’s a waste of time for everyone.

[Strawbale23]

Its been a long time since I looked at the PHPP export feature, can you tell me where I find it please?

I thought that the PHPP export feature had been removed from AC several years ago.

[heathldesign]

Given my ranting, I honestly couldn’t tell you. I wasn’t able to get that far. This project is the first time I’ve really tried to use the energy modelling and since I haven’t been able to get it to work correctly or reliably I haven’t been able to get far enough to try and export. This particular group of topics doesn’t seem to have the same readership as other topics, so waiting weeks to get replies or solutions is something I simply can’t afford to wait for. I’m running a business. And since reading the topics here in the forum and replies like yours about its unreliability, I obviously haven’t bothered to try and sort out the issues with the modelling. I simply don’t have time. I really hope PHI gets the BIM to PHPP tool up and running again soon.

[jrmrt]

You're right that the PHPP export simply doesn't work, and it has never worked.  The main issue that I see is that BIM software companies keep trying to get us to use our architectural model as the energy model, and the two simply have wildly different needs.  What you draw for documentation, permitting, design, etc is not the same as what you would draw for energy modeling, whether it is for PHI certification or anything else.

I wrote a long post about this some time ago, but it would really be simpler if Graphisoft allowed us to assign thermal qualities to morphs that symbolize the building envelope, as opposed to walls, slabs, windows, etc objects.  That would give us so much more flexibility and allow the PHPP export to work.

[jrmrt]

This is the breakdown I did a long time ago:

https://community.graphisoft.com/t5/Sustainable-design/ArchiCAD-PHPP-output-via-energy-evaluation-an...