OpenStudio

OpenStudio is an advanced collection of programs for Windows that provide support for modeling building energy consumption using EnergyPlus and analyzing daylight with Radiance. The software distribution is an open source project developed to facilitate community growth, innovation, and private sector adoption.

Description

First of all, OpenStudio is both a Software Development Kit and a Command Line Interface. Conceptually, the package also comes with an Application Programming Interface to access the EnergyPlus modeling engine. The latter component provides many benefits such as stable, version-controlled interface, space typology abstractions, and language binding in Ruby, Python and C-Sharp.

Main capabilities

The package includes the SketchUp plugin, OpenStudio itself, and the Parametric Analysis Tool. The first item is an extension to Trimble’s popular 3D modeling software that allows you to create geometry needed for EnergyPlus. The main program supports import of gbXML and IFC files.

The graphical interface features envelope, loads, schedules, and HVAC. ResultsViewer is reserved for browsing, plotting, and comparing simulation output data. With the help of the last tool, you can study the impact of applying multiple combinations of measures to a base model as well as export the results for EDAPT submission.