BEMGen 1.6.0

BEMGen 1.6.0 is a Grasshopper plugin for Rhino 8 that builds building energy models at several levels of detail.

What's new

• Schedule Draw. A new component in 1 Program draws stochastic 8,760-hour schedules (occupancy, lighting, equipment, hot water, activity, setpoints) for a program JSON with the schedule generator of the Energy Archetype Atlas, as an optional add-on to the program's own schedules. Its Drawn JSON goes into Program JSON.
  • It needs Python 3.11 or later and the generator atlas-schedules 3.0.0, installed separately: download atlas_schedules-3.0.0-py3-none-any.whl from the atlas release atlas-schedules-v3.0.0 and run python -m venv <folder> and <folder>\Scripts\python -m pip install atlas_schedules-3.0.0-py3-none-any.whl.
  • The component runs the generator as an external command, only while Run is true: set Command to <folder>\Scripts\atlas-schedules.exe. It passes files and opens no network connection.
  • Drawn schedules are for the calendar year 2007, and the same inputs and seed always give the same text. Apartment-unit and composition recipes are not supported yet.
  • The new example schedule-draw.gh opens with Run false, using the program's own schedules.
• DOE Reference Program. A new component in 1 Program gives source programs of the DOE MidriseApartment reference building (Chicago, 5A), with explicit acceptance of the geometry and daylight-saving departures.
• Atlas release 2.1.0. Program JSON and Construction JSON read the exports of atlas release 2.1.0, the one to download now; exports of release 2.0.0 remain valid (the contracts did not change).
• Fewer IDF surfaces. Convert2IDF merges a zone's coplanar floors, ceilings, and roofs, and windowless wall runs, into one surface where the result is a simple polygon. The IDF header lists the merges. This removes EnergyPlus view-factor warnings in large merged zones.
• Require Floor Research Eligibility. An opt-in input appended to Convert2IDF, false by default, for research comparisons of floor zonings.
• Fixes. Convert2IDF converts floors made of two rectangles meeting at one corner, and no longer writes tiny internal masses from rounding that made EnergyPlus fail.
• Tools beside the plugin. Test suites can draw schedules per test case (schedules:), the batch runner accepts one limited EnergyPlus warning about the outdoor wet-bulb iteration, and the test-suite generator builds the DOE prototypes for the geometric LOD study.

Changes that affect existing definitions

• Definitions saved with 1.5.0 open with their saved values. Convert2IDF shows the appended input Require Floor Research Eligibility, false.
• IDF files change where a zone has coplanar pieces: fewer surfaces, and annual loads that differ slightly from 1.5.0's (in the LOD study's pilot, by at most about 2 % of annual sensible heating for single-zone zonings over many rooms).
• The example definitions have been rebuilt with 1.6.0.

Install

Close Rhino first. Install BEMGen in one way only, because two copies of BEMGen.gha register the components twice.

• Yak package: drag bemgen-1.6.0-rh8_19-win.yak onto a running Rhino 8.19 (or later) window, then restart Rhino.
• Zip:
  1. Open the properties of bemgen-1.6.0-rh8-win.zip and tick Unblock.
  2. Unpack it and copy the BEMGen folder into %APPDATA%\Grasshopper\Libraries\, so the plugin is at %APPDATA%\Grasshopper\Libraries\BEMGen\BEMGen.gha. If an earlier version is there, replace the whole folder.
  3. Restart Rhino.
• Examples: bemgen-1.6.0-examples.zip holds the example definitions.
• Checksums: SHA256SUMS.txt lists the SHA-256 checksum of each of the three files.

Documentation: https://energy-atlas.github.io/BEMGen-docs/