Hello all!
I have been experimenting with converting Revit files to eQuest .inp files
through Green Building Studio and I have not had much luck so far. I have
read through the presentation that Glumac gave for BSUG and it seems that
their process is to recreate the building in Revit by tracing over a CAD
floor plan. They and many other sources have mentioned that you should not
try to just convert an Architect's Revit file directly because it is too
complex.
Of course the very first thing that I tried was to do just that and convert
a small school that we did directly to .inp and it did not work. Many
things were missing. it was basically just a huge mess and not would not
work as a functional eQuest file.
So I have just tried following their instructions with starting from scratch
and building a new model by tracing the CAD plans of a small field house
that we are doing. I do have to say that creating the model in Revit
instead of eQuest was much easier, no counterclockwise tracing and if you
mess up things are very easy to fix. So after creating all the walls,
ceiling, floor and roof I created the spaces in Revit (I have been told that
these should transfer directly over to eQuest as Zones). When I exported
the gbxml file to GBStudio there were no problems noted with the file.
After using GBStudio to convert the file to a .inp file I opened it in
eQuest. It did not have any problems opening the file but boy was it a
mess. It created one zone for the entire building (obviously not how I
zoned it in Revit). All of the exterior walls for the plenum spaces, the
roof and some of the normal walls came in as Building Shades in eQuest. All
interior walls came into eQuest labeled as exterior walls (this may be a
result of the wall type that I selected in Revit which was just a generic 8"
wall). The floor did not come into eQuest at all. Basically the overall
shape of the building is there but many many things are missing. You can
see the picture below on the left is the Revit file while the one on the
right is the eQuest file.
Anyhow, if anyone has experience dealing with Revit to eQuest conversion
issues or has successfully completed a conversion without problems I would
love to hear from you! Hopefully this can start a good conversation on
whether or not trying to convert Revit files (even simplistic ones) to
eQuest is even worth trying. I must admit that I am still on the fence but
am leaning in the direction of it not being worth the trouble unless I can
figure out how to work out these issues.
Thanks in advance!
David P. Hostetter, E.I.T.
A couple things to try.
1. Create zones in addition to spaces to see if they translate the zone properly to eQuest.
2. Did you actually create the plenum space in Revit? If not verify that ceilings are non bounding and the volume extends to the level/roof above.
3. Verify the analytical model information before exporting in the proper dialog box.
4. Try going to Ecotect as a go between which offers visual feedback before the INP export.
I offered a tutorial similar for energyplus. Videos are hosted on Vimeo and Youtube.
http://www.vimeo.com/openrevit
http://www.youtube.com/openrevit
Alan Jackson, LEED AP
We are experiencing the same issues with conversion. It looked
promising in the instructions but is not working so far. Did you use
Revit MEP when you traced in the file and created the zones? At this
point we will probably have to go back to creating the zones in eQuest.
Please let us know if you find the magic key.
Randy Williams P.E.
Randy/James/Alan/Bill,
Thank you all for your input. Alan, I watched your videos and they were
helpful in getting the process going.
I was able to work out why the building was one giant zone: I had not
created the zones in Revit. So if anyone is having this problem the
solution is to use the Zoning tool in Revit and zone the building in Revit
before you export the gbxml file.
I was also able to create zones in the plenum spaces but unfortunately was
not able to export the gbxml to GBStudio because of some error that I have
now forgotten. I do believe that this would have fixed the problem with the
exterior walls to plenum spaces not coming in correctly.
I still have not had any luck in determining why the floor was not coming
into eQuest. If anyone has encountered this problem before or knows of a
solution please let us know!
I have a couple Revit models of schools that are in the development stage
coming in today or tomorrow that I will be trying to convert to eQuest. If
everyone is interested I can try to update you if we have success converting
the developmental stage architectural model to eQuest.
Thanks!
David P. Hostetter, E.I.T.
Randy/Everyone,
I did use Revit MEP to create the spaces and then assign them to the zones
that I wished to import to eQuest. I have finally been able to import a
fairly large architectural model of an elementary school into eQuest but am
now running into many of the same issues.
Floors are not coming in at all, many exterior surfaces are coming in as
"building shades", and the roof is completely messed up. See the picture
from below.
I was running into an issue that GBS would not even import the gbxml file
because it said:
"Problems were encountered with the building information model you sent to
Green Building Studio. See below for details.
Construction id=ASHIF5 could cause simulation failures. "
It turns out that ASHIF5 references an "8" Concrete Ceiling" construction,
which for the life of me cannot figure out where this would have even been
used in the model. Anyhow, this problem was fixed by opening the gbxml file
with a text editor and replacing all instances of ASHIF5 with ASHIW23, which
I believe is a construction for an interior wall. I figure that I can
easily fix this material property in eQuest after I get everything in.
So hopefully this motivates others out there to continue to play with this
feature and hopefully we can all figure out a good conversion method!
Also, if anyone out there has knows of a solution to the building shade
issue, the floors not coming into the model and the crazy roof orientations
please let me know.
Thanks and have a great weekend!
David P. Hostetter, E.I.T.