Understanding Floors model attachment

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Sorry I forgot to attach my model because I was embarrassed that my comments
might offend someone.

PETER HILLERMANN

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Peter,

At the end of the day, stuff like this can be really tricky to discuss!
Rest assured, anyone getting offended/slighted as we stumble around
helping trying to each other can find other mailing lists to peruse if
it should bother them so much =). I enjoy helping others in this
"public" fashion, in part because it gives me an opportunity to be
corrected and learn others' perspectives - I know I've turned out better
for it!

As a tangent, I see from your attachment what appear to be some wicked
building shades - did you painstakingly define those piece-by-piece, or
have you figured out some holy-grail technique of importing geometries
as shades from some other program? If that's the case and you're at
liberty to share, I'd be very keen to get pointed in the right
direction!

NICK CATON, E.I.T.

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I pulled the shades in from another program. I would die if I had to do all
that in eQuest. Would take hours. My modeler is Ecotect because I do light
and solar studies. Once Ecotect catches up with eQuest on HVAC modeling it
will be all good. Unfortunatley it uses the UK SBEM HVAC profiles. The LEED
ones are grayed out so Autodesk is not quite there yet. Ecotect + eQuest is
also cheaper than IES, especially if a person's salary depends on it.
Ecotect is a great passive modeler you can test building envelope before
touching HVAC.

Peter Hillermann's picture
Joined: 2011-09-30
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Hi Pete,

I'm curious. I've attempted direct exports from Ecotect to eQuest, but
unsuccessfully. I found that the exports made using the Ecotect Export
Manage>DOE-2/eQuest method produces an DOE-2 input file, but the
geometries exported are overlapping. Such as multiple space polygons
stacked on top of each other. When I looked at the DOE-2 input file, I
discovered that no floor geometry had been created, which is needed for
a relative coordinate system that the space polygons reference. It is
worthwhile to review the DOE2 relative coordinate systems for greater
understanding of geometries. This can be found in Volume 1, Basics
(eQuest Help menu> DOE-2 Help > Volume 1 or download PDF file from the
DOE-2 website).

I have yet to experiment with other work flows purported to work. It
looks like you are having some good success. I understand one such work
flow to be from Ecotect (or REVIT) to Green Building Studio and then
exported to eQuest. Is this what's working for you?

Regarding the rest of the discussion, I can think of two possible
floor/space configuration generation methods. First, You can create a
"C" shaped shell to create a floor with a hole in it, and then insert
another shell within that hole. This appears to be what you have done in
your model. However, In order for the outside shell to register as an
"O" the ends of the perimeter of the "C" shape needs to be within 1
foot. The approximately adjacent perimeter floor boundaries of the "C"
shape will be created with interior walls when less than 1 foot apart.

Another, space/floor configuration is to consider the arrangement of
occupied spaces and plenum spaces generated by the wizards. In the
detailed mode you could edit a plenum space to be and Occupied zone
(Component Tree> Space Properties > Zone Type). I think this would
achieve your stacked spaces within a floor. If a spans the height of two
floors, I'd recommend separate or multiple shells.

Thanks for contributing,

Jonathan R. Smith AIA LEED(r)AP

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