Energy model of a building with FreeCad

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ragohix769
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Energy model of a building with FreeCad

Post by ragohix769 »

It's there anybody that tried an approch to create an energy model of a building, or an interface with Energy plus/ Ladybug tools with FreeCad?

To model my work I now use an Italian SW that use our national UNI TS 11300 (based on the UNI EN ISO 13790:2008) modeled with Sketchup, but I'd like to see if anybody it's using some BIM SW (like FreeCad is, and is some way better then most SW) to model the building and send geometric data to some energy simulation SW. I've seen that most people it's using Sketchup + Openstudio + Energy Plus (as plugin), or other model directly in REVIT these kind of works.

Any idea, suggestion, brainstorm?

Some videos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkgQAIaXy78

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZ5dVpoY-Z4
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Kunda1
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Re: Energy model of a building with FreeCad

Post by Kunda1 »

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Re: Energy model of a building with FreeCad

Post by bitacovir »

Kunda1 wrote: Tue Mar 02, 2021 11:53 pm Checkout energy workbench https://forum.freecadweb.org/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=43083
I think that GitLab project is not available any more.

Yorik has been working on Ladybug implementation in FreeCAD, but it is not ready, yet.
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Kunda1
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Re: Energy model of a building with FreeCad

Post by Kunda1 »

Y
bitacovir wrote: Wed Mar 03, 2021 1:20 pm I think that GitLab project is not available any more.
Darn it. Is it now a private repo? I can't tell. If it didn't exist it would 404 right ?
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JulianTodd
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Re: Energy model of a building with FreeCad

Post by JulianTodd »

As far as I know, all the energy building models in use in the world for designing sky-scrapers and everything else all use this EnergyPlus software from the US Department of Energy which is free and has been in development since the 1970s. https://energyplus.net/

It would take a full time career to understand it and compile it into FreeCAD with an interface that can be used, but it should be done.

Maybe with all these government grants going out for low carbon technologies someone could find some money to pay someone to work full time to make something awesome using this system by integrating it into the architectural workflow. But instead they're going to spend the same amount of money on 200m of concrete cycle path around an out of town shopping park in Basingstoke because no one has any imagination.
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Re: Energy model of a building with FreeCad

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ragohix769
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Re: Energy model of a building with FreeCad

Post by ragohix769 »

JulianTodd wrote: Wed Mar 03, 2021 1:51 pm As far as I know, all the energy building models in use in the world for designing sky-scrapers and everything else all use this EnergyPlus software from the US Department of Energy which is free and has been in development since the 1970s. https://energyplus.net/
And that's the idea: if it already exist a viable worflow to create a BIM model in FreeCAD, export it in IFC and use it in Openstudio/EnergyPlus, as done with SKUP plugin, to make some energy modeling with the modeled building.

But I cannot undestand, till now, how the LadyBug.tools and the other SW can integrate in FreeCAD and/or if this suite it's another interface or a complete alternative to EnergyPlus.
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yorik
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Re: Energy model of a building with FreeCad

Post by yorik »

For me the best way to approach the integration of energy analysis in FreeCAD would be through ladybug - which, I think, has already an interface with energyplus, but has and could also gain other interfaces with other software. And on our side, it gives a more unified interface with less need to cope with the complex internals of energyplus

But the first thing would be to be able to build a good energy model in FreeCAD. I think the interface between Arch spaces and walls/windows/slabs/roofs needs a bit more work, so one could extract a complete energy analysis model from the spaces.
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ragohix769
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Re: Energy model of a building with FreeCad

Post by ragohix769 »

yorik wrote: Thu Mar 04, 2021 12:40 pm For me the best way to approach the integration of energy analysis in FreeCAD would be through ladybug - which, I think, has already an interface with energyplus, but has and could also gain other interfaces with other software. And on our side, it gives a more unified interface with less need to cope with the complex internals of energyplus
If ladybug tools are really open and an "universal" interface, like it appear to be, I agree it's a good way.
But the first thing would be to be able to build a good energy model in FreeCAD. I think the interface between Arch spaces and walls/windows/slabs/roofs needs a bit more work, so one could extract a complete energy analysis model from the spaces.
Yes. My two cents from using (a little bit) FC in real world: it's important to integrate and better survey tools in WB_BIM (a survey tool like in Arch but on steroids just to collect ordered e right data of the BIM model :-) ).
IE: to have the ability to make the survey label/flag permanent in the tree, and to be able to insert also measures directly in a spreadsheet of WB_spreadsheet, instead of only a CSV file like now.
And "spaces" too has to measure volumes and surfaces more faster and simpler then now.
Techdraw too, I think, we need some tools to measure and print surfaces on a draw. With all these data (ok, it's only manual data exported), it will be at least possibile to have some basic data needed by other SW to analyze the energy model.
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ragohix769
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EnergPlus + OpenStudio + Freecad? (was Re: Energy model of a building with FreeCad)

Post by ragohix769 »

I'm resuming this (necro)thread because i've seen in recent past EnergyPlus + Sketchup in action in a course (simply AMAZING stuff), and I really think that FreeCad should the perfect parametric cad to work EnergyPlus (opensource) rather then Sketchup (closedsource).

As I understand Energyplus is interfaced and used via OpenStudio (that is licensed LGPL):

https://energyplus.net/

https://openstudio.net/

Maybe these are perfect making (professional) energy modelling with these tools (very very powerful), inside and/or using a geometry parametric model crated with BIM_WB in our loved FreeCad.

What @yorik and other dev think about?

EDIT: as you can see in this video, to create geometry of the space we can already use *.IFC files in OpenStudio!
Maybe knowing the API used by Openstudio, it can be possibile to open a Freecad file directly in Openstudio?

Reference (process flow):
phpBB [video]



Export a geometry model created with Autodesk REVIT in => OPENSTUDIO (that uses EnergyPlus to calculate) - interchage format used is gbXML:
phpBB [video]


The very interesting interchange format to store and share all the information is gbXML:

https://www.gbxml.org/

Maybe this format can be supported with some kind of exporter in FreeCad?
Or really https://www.ladybug.tools/ can be the final (and right) solution to integrated easily all this stuff with FreeCad?
(especially honeybee)
Or the new "Topologic" can the solution to link a geometry model directly in EnergyPlus and/or Openstudio?

[for moderators: if you think that this should be in separate/specific thread, let me know, or move it directly, the thread has already a new name]
After #ElonMuskBuyTwitter I'm no more on Twitter, that's really enough :-(
=> Now you can find me here on #Mastodon: https://mastodon.uno/@opensoul - I hope more people do the same :-)
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