TRACE 700 has an armada of features. Some of them are way under-utilized. Let's take a moment to look at a few of them and see how they can be used:

1. Metric/English Units: By going to the options menu and selecting units, one can convert from English to metric units with a click of a button. Maybe this sounds obvious, however, many people forget about this when working in English units and viewing the ECB/PRM report. Changing units, then viewing the report will give you the values in kW-hr, and KW.
2. Summary information: Under assign rooms to systems, a summary information checkbox is listed. When checked, this box will give information about any room, rooms, systems or entire project such as square footage and estimated loads. This is great for finding differences between systems in multiple alternatives.
3. Import Equipment: TRACE 700 can import equipment from the  TOPSS (Trane product selection program). Just ask for the file from your local rep and import it under Libraries and cooling equipment.
4. The Plant Wizard: Anytime you wish to setup a plant in TRACE 700, especially something you haven't done before, consider using the plant wizard button under Create Plants (remember, it will delete all plants that are existing)
5. Import Glass types: While TRACE 700 uses center of glass properties, it can import data from a program called WINDOW (4, 5, or 6.x) to get more accurate information.
6. Checksum Select: On the first tab of the results screen, there is an option for "Checksum Select" whenever any checksums reports are selected. This option allows the room, zone, or system checksum reports to be limited to a selection. This is great for quickly navigating when only a few rooms/systems have priority, or when attempting to print only a few of the room checksums, rather than wasting potentially hundreds of pages and hours of time
7. New file based on: One can use new file based on to start a new file using ANY alternative from an existing file. This is done by closing all projects in TRACE 700 and going to file and selecting New --> New file based on (or CTRL + B)
8. New file wizard: Very few people seem to know about this. This is done the same as #7, but selecting new file wizard instead. One can complete a file in a few minutes if using it for strict comparison (please note, many templates will be displayed, but DON'T edit them all since only a few of them are actually used in the rooms)
9. Import GBXML: Yes, TRACE 700 can import GBXML files. 
10. Trace 700 Visualizer: When looking at the analysis reports, there is a button labeled, "Graph Profiles and Energy". This launches the TRACE 700 visualizer, which can be used to breakout hourly variable, graph them or load them in excel.

Hopefully, you have taken a few things from this short list. For more information on TRACE 700, check out our forum, or checkout the TRACE 700 online training, which has videos illustrating how to complete these tasks, and many, many more (especially those more detailed than just a short article). 

At $79, the online training costs less than 1/10th the cost of training in person, plus, you can view it again if you forget something.