Simulation Tool for assessing Natural Ventilation strategies in the early stages of building design. VentConcept allows the user to test out different Natural Ventilation strategies and scenarios, to improve their architectural design based on the simulation results. The program was built with the idea of simplifying the simulation process to a maximum, making it intuitive also for users with no background in simulation.
VentConcept code is based on Ladybug Tools. Other than Ladybug Tools, VentConcept has its own Graphical User Interface (GUI). The GUI was done with Kivy. Simulations are run through OpenStudio. Ladybug Tools libraries are slightly modified, especially due to pyinstaller incompatability of dynamicly imported packages (through importlib), a practice, commonly used in Ladybug Tools. Ladybug Tools Version 1.3.0 was used.
Download and install OpenStudio Version 1.2.1 (higher versions lead to error in the air changes per hour plots under the results tab of VentConcept). OpenStudio 1.2.1 can be downloaded by clicking on the following link: Download OpenStudio 1.2.1.
Then, download the VentConcept Installer VentConcept_Installer.exe from the above files. Install the program, preferencably outside the Windows program directories (use the preset options from the installer).
VentConcept is setup and ready to be used :)
The text inside the text fields of VentConcept must appear in black. If it is marked RED, it is not validated yet. Only by pressing the enter key the content of the text fields will be considered by VentConcep and turn BLACK again. Check the pdf file VentConcept__User Instruction.pdf, as it clarifies this doubt and other doubts!
- Windows 10
- Full HD Display (1920x1080 pxs) or higher resolution - Make also sure that under the Windows Settings -> Display -> Change the size of text, apps, and other items the scale is set to 100 % (in the case of FHD) or accordingly reduced in the case of higher resulutions. This is important to have all VentConcept items appearing correctly on the screen, as the scaling behavior of the current version is quite limited.
- Check the VentConcept_Software and System Requirements.pdf from the above files
AGPL, read the License Agreement