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User guide

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This part of the site is for people who build energy models with BEMGen in Grasshopper. If you want to change BEMGen itself, go to the developer documentation.

Reading order

Read the pages in this order the first time.

  1. Getting started

    What you need, how to install the plugin, and a first definition that runs.

  2. What's new

    1.10.0: atlas release 2.4.0, the unoccupied lighting cap on Convert2IDF, Schedule Draw on generator 4.1.1, the stand-alone retail's core and front, the IECC offices, and DOE skylights by family. 1.9.0: atlas release 2.3.0, the IECC programs on the DOE Programs components, Get from Atlas… on Mix Programs and Construction JSON, Schedule Draw on generator 4.1.0, code-rule daylighting on Convert2IDF, and the fixes since 1.8.0. 1.8.0: programs from the atlas site with Get from Atlas… on Program JSON, the DOE Programs components, and Schedule Draw, and a JSON editor window. 1.7.0: Schedule Draw on the atlas's schedule generator 4.0.0 and atlas release 2.2.0. 1.6.0: Schedule Draw with the atlas's schedule generator, DOE Reference Program, atlas release 2.1.0, and merged coplanar surfaces in the IDF. 1.5.0: the DOE reference generators, Program JSON and Construction JSON for atlas release 2.0.0, and glazing per orientation. 1.4.0: Construction JSON and a Construction input on Convert2IDF. 1.3.0: an IDF ready to simulate, with a Weather input, hourly outputs, and shading of the storeys a floor multiplier leaves out. 1.2.0: Program JSON and richer programs. 1.1.0: Conditioned Merge and Join Pieces, Mix Programs, and infiltration on Envelope Preset. And what happens to definitions saved with an earlier version.

  3. Concepts

    The words this guide uses: plan, zone, program preset, simplifier, floor aggregator, multiplier, validation, provenance, levels of detail.

  4. Workflow

    Every step from presets to Convert2BEM and Convert2IDF, with the choices at each step.

  5. End-to-end example

    One complete definition with every input value and the results you should see.

  6. Typologies

    The eighteen plan generators, their inputs and defaults, and their example definitions.

  7. Component reference

    Every component with its icon, inputs, outputs, and defaults, generated from the plugin.

Conventions

  • Component names are in italics, as they appear on the Grasshopper canvas with Draw Full Names on: Linear Plan Generator, Perimeter Core, Stack Floors. Nicknames, the short names shown by default, are given in parentheses the first time, for example Perimeter Core (Z2).
  • Input and output names are in italics too: the Depth input, the Provenance output.
  • All BEMGen components are on the BEMGen tab of the Grasshopper toolbar, in panels numbered along the pipeline: 0 Info, 1 Program, 1 Program Presets, 2 Generate, 3 Simplify, 4 Aggregate, 5 Convert, 6 Inspect.
  • Lengths given to plan generators and simplifiers are in metres, whatever the units of the Rhino model. Areas are in m², volumes in m³, temperatures in °C, angles in degrees.