ArchiCAD PHPP output via energy evaluation and/or BIM2PH

[JamesLEDA2]

firstly, please don't banish this threat to the Sustainable Architecture section to be ignored with the tumbleweeds.

I am trying to get some meaningful output from ArchiCAD 23 (Solo) to PHPP (Passive House Planning Papckage, an energy evaluation spreadsheet for which Graphisoft claims it support and export for).

With ArchiCAD there are 2 claimed methods, using the Energy Evaluation export, or using the BIM2PH software as an intermediate piece of software.

My attempts with each of these approaches results in the following....

Energy Evalaution - the energy evaluation method does populate the PHPP spreadsheet with data from your project quite nicely, however, the data is incorrect for several reasons, the ones I have identified include, I get no area information for the roof or floor, only walls, the walls already have the window areas subtracted which results in a secondary subtraction in the PHPP, the reference planes are internal and the Passive House methodology uses internal measuremnets, making the data completeluy useless.

BIM2PH - this software supports IFC from several BIM packagaes, from my tests, it works fine with Revis IFC files, however, with ArchiCAD IFC files, the software closes when attempting to open the IFC file for conversion.

I've had little to no help from wither Graphisoft and/or the Passive House Institute with either to the software, despite the fact that the methods almost work.

Any information and/or experience on the above would be greatly appreciated,

Kind regards

[thesleepofreason]

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@furtonb wrote:

I get, that there seems to be low demand, but there seems no point trying (I am happy to be proven otherwise).

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Yes, no point trying and that is a symptom of a development strategy focused on surveys and user-cases rather than foresight and innovation. GS hesitate to do anything without a perceived demand which puts AC in a stagnant state of fragmented ad-hoc fixes to small problems. You can't neglect developing concepts fundamental to model and manage both information and geometries and at the same time expect users to express a demand for higher level workflows.

If AC is to aid us designing sustainable buildings we need to be able to work with a systems/construction/component structure, we need to be able to model geometries freely with different LOD, and we need to be able to easily compare different alternatives and represent change. (The last point underlines how shortsighted the implementation design options was with respect to sustainability.)

If they get that in place and the demand/interest for workflows regarding sustainable design will soar (we don't have much choice) but they seem content doing another survey:

Sustainable design key aspects: 
• What are the key pain points regarding sustainability in your business?
• What tools are being used by your team to tackle down those issues?
• Which aspects are very well covered by solutions you have?
• Which aspects lack a good solution currently?
• How do you connect to your local material databases, and how well those satisfy your needs?

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[StuartClark_1510]

Hi,

I've been working on improving my own PHPP/Archicad Workflow and thought I'd share my thinking here in case anyone is interested

https://youtu.be/NO-z89-YcII

This short video is a proof of concept for an automated workflow between Archicad and excel using Python. Currently the workflow extracts archicad geometry or walls, roofs, slabs, windows, doors, skylights and zones and puts it into an empty excel workbook, but eventually it will place the data in the correct cells within a PHPP workbook. If anyone is interested in using this once its finished please let me know, as if there is a demand for it, I may make it faster and on a commercial basis I am looking to expand the functionality extract additional information from the windows and doors in terms of reveal depths etc as well as the Vn50 data. If you can think of anything else which may be useful, please let me know in the comments - I am keen to get a conversation going in this area

Stuart Clark RIBA

Architect and Certified Passivhaus Designer

15|10 Architects

www.fifteen10architects.com

Archicad 5-29

on a mac obvs

[Andy Thomson]

Hi Stuart, I'd love to try your workflow. You are presumably aware of the EcoDesigner XML file here called PHPP mapper? It needs a bit of love as it was never completed even for PHPP 9.6. But that may better capture shading, window depths, zone area and volume nuance better than custom scripts? Have you tried the EcoDesigner export flow or given any thought to updating it? It's quite a compact bit of code... but does what you are describing. Will go watch your video now... 🙂 

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<mapping>
  <PHPP7>
    <info>Archicad Energy Evaluation and PHPP 2007 mapping of xls file</info>
    <version>1.0</version>
    <verification>
        <uvalue row="23" column="11" verify="IF(ISNUMBER(F13);IF(T25&lt;0.1;1/T24;1/(AE24*1.1));&quot;&quot;)"/>
        <area row="27" column="35" verify="IF(AND(ISNUMBER(E28);E28&lt;&gt;0);AH28/E28;&quot;&quot;)"/>
        <window row="22" column="35" verify="IF(ISNUMBER(N23);N23*AE23;&quot;&quot;)"/>
    </verification>
    <uvalues offset="21">
        <name row="6" column="3"/>
        <extheattrnscoeff row="9" column="9"/>
        <intheattrnscoeff row="8" column="9"/>
        <skins maxrepeat="8">
            <skinname row="12" column="2"/>
            <skinthickness row="12" column="15"/>
            <skinthermalconductivity row="12" column="5"/>
        </skins>
    </uvalues>
    <areas>
        <exteriordoor>
            <totalarea row="37" column="12"/>
            <uvalue row="37" column="21"/>
            <quantity row="37" column="6"/>
        </exteriordoor>
        <buildingelements>
            <name row="38" column="1"/>
            <ref row="38" column="20"/>
            <area row="38" column="12"/>
            <uvalue row="38" column="21"/>
            <quantity row="38" column="6"/>
            <orientation row="38" column="25"/>
            <inclination row="38" column="26"/>
        </buildingelements>
    </areas>
    <windows>
        <ref row="22" column="8"/>
        <description row="22" column="1"/>
        <quantity row="22" column="0"/>
        <orientation row="22" column="2"/>
        <inclination row="22" column="3"/>
        <width row="22" column="5"/>
        <height row="22" column="6"/>
     </windows>
  </PHPP7>
  <PHPP9>
     <info>Archicad Energy Evaluation and PHPP 9 (2015) mapping of xlsx file</info>
     <version>1.0</version>
     <verification>
        <uvalue row="27" column="16" verify="IF(AND(ISNUMBER($O14);ISNUMBER($O13));IF(Z29&lt;0.1;1/Z28;1/(AK28*1.1))+M28;&quot;&quot;)"/>
        <area row="28" column="52" verify="IF(AND(ISNUMBER(N29);N29&lt;&gt;0);AY29/N29;&quot;&quot;)"/>
        <window row="23" column="242" verify="IF(AND(ISNUMBER(W24);W24&gt;0);1;0)"/>
     </verification>
     <uvalues offset="21">
      <name row="10" column="12"/>
      <extheattrnscoeff row="13" column="14"/>
      <intheattrnscoeff row="12" column="14"/>
      <skins maxrepeat="8">
        <skinname row="16" column="11"/>
        <skinthickness row="16" column="18"/>
        <skinthermalconductivity row="16" column="12"/>
      </skins>
     </uvalues>
     <areas>
      <exteriordoor>
        <totalarea row="39" column="21"/>
        <uvalue row="39" column="30"/>
        <quantity row="39" column="15"/>
      </exteriordoor>
      <buildingelements>
        <name row="40" column="11"/>
        <ref row="40" column="28"/>
        <area row="40" column="21"/>
        <uvalue row="40" column="30"/>
        <quantity row="40" column="15"/>
        <orientation row="40" column="32"/>
        <inclination row="40" column="33"/>
      </buildingelements>
     </areas>
     <windows>
        <ref row="23" column="8"/>
        <description row="23" column="12"/>
        <quantity row="23" column="11"/>
        <orientation row="23" column="13"/>
        <inclination row="23" column="14"/>
        <width row="23" column="16"/>
        <height row="23" column="17"/>
     </windows>
  </PHPP9>
</mapping>

[StuartClark_1510]

I have tried to use the ecosesigner export on a number of occasions but it’s problematic for a number of reasons but mainly the lack of support - not just for the Phpp plugin but for ecosesigner in general which hasn’t been significantly upgraded since it was released as ecosesigner star.  The Phpp bit iOS not supported or upgraded by anyone at Graphisoft.  PHPP is on version 10.4 at least and this only works with version 9.6 of phpp.  PHPP 10 was released almost 3 years ago.

im not bothered about getting u-values or psi from archicad as it doesn’t calculate them according to the correct conventions anyway and Graphisoft seem to have no interest in changing either of them to work with PHPP conventions anyway.  I’m happy to add this data in PHPP anyway, I just want archicad to be able to drive the geometry data, and then possibly for PHPP to drive the data in archicad once the design is updated in that tool for now.

i would love someone to put Phpp inside archicad but that’s beyond my skill set - this is a workaround..!

ill have a look at the code though and see if I can adapt it for the current version of phpp though as it might work better and faster, but my coding isn’t great..!

[StuartClark_1510]

Hi - new video of more refined workflow still in progress - would be good to now what everyone thinks.

https://youtu.be/ZrJ2WvJSIYw

Stuart Clark RIBA

Architect and Certified Passivhaus Designer

15|10 Architects

www.fifteen10architects.com

Archicad 5-29

on a mac obvs