AixLib and Modelica IBPSA Library (IBPSA Project 1, former Annex 60)
AixLib is intended to be used for building performance simulation by engineers, researchers, and students. In the past, development of Modelica libraries for building performance simulation suffered from uncoordinated parallel development and incompatibility between different libraries. In order to overcome this unsatisfying situation, several developer groups have joined forces within the Annex 60 project (http://www.iea-annex60.org) of the International Energy Agency's Energy in Buildings and Communities Programme. Together, these groups have developed the Annex 60 library, that was intended as a common base library for other Modelica building libraries for end-users. By using common base classes, the aim is to ensure compatibility between different libraries. The development ran between 2012 and 2017 through the Annex 60 project and continues through the IBPSA Project 1 of the International Building Performance Simulation Association (IBPSA).
Taken from the description of the Annex 60 library:
The Modelica Annex60 library is a free open-source library with basic models that codify best practices for the implementation of models for building and community energy and control systems. The library is developed within the Annex 60 project (http://www.iea-annex60.org) of the International Energy Agency's Energy in Buildings and Communities Programme.
This library is typically not used directly by end-users. Rather, it is integrated by developers of other Modelica libraries for building and community energy systems, who then distribute it to end-users as part of their respective library. Currently, the Annex60 library is used as the core of these libraries:
- AixLib, from RWTH Aachen University, Germany: https://github.com/RWTH-EBC/AixLib
- Buildings, from LBNL, Berkeley, CA, USA: http://simulationresearch.lbl.gov/modelica
- BuildingSystems, from UdK Berlin, Germany: http://www.modelica-buildingsystems.de
- IDEAS from KU Leuven, Belgium: https://github.com/open-ideas/IDEAS
This concept is also illustrated by the following figure:
How to merge the IBPSA core library into the AixLib is explained here