Creating Geometry with Basic Shape Templates in OpenStudio

Abstract

Listen

Translate article

Typical geometry construction for energy models involves tedious line and plane drawing, which significantly slows down model creation when a simple energy model is desired. However, most buildings can be approximated as basic shapes, suggesting a way to make this process much faster. This study uses 14 basic shapes derived from a review of university campus buildings and the Commercial Building Energy Consumption Survey (CBECS). These basic shapes cover more than eighty percent of buildings on the demonstration campus, with the rest modeled by a combination of shapes or a custom polygon. The basic shape, number of floors, floor height, perimeter zone depth, window to wall ratios, and window type are all that are needed to quickly generate the geometry for an energy model with the OpenStudio API. This method is demonstrated for neighborhoods at the University of Maryland.