SEMI-AUTOMATED GENERATION OF MULTI-ZONE THERMAL MODELS FROM BUILDING-INFORMATION-MODELING DATA

Building performance simulations are of rising importance when designing buildings. While Building Information Modeling aims to streamline the planning process by compiling relevant data, it is often unaware of simulation requirements, making them difficult. If based on models derived from BIM, simulations tend to have many zones. While good for detail, this makes them unwieldy and only acceptable if set up mostly automated. This paper presents an automated workflow, from extracting zones from architectural meshes from IFC4 building models, to setting up the thermal simulation in EnergyPlus. Implemented as plugin for Blender, this workflow features an intuitive, node-based interface which allows detailed control of the process.