Overview

In certain projects, plan drawings may not be available to base your Energy Simulator model upon. 

This article outlines the options available should need to model such rooms/buildings based on room dimension data only.

Method

There are several methods of creating building models in OpenBuildings Energy Simulator - these are outlined here.

There are two possible approaches to modelling buildings using dimension data only:

1. Using the Conceptual Modeller function.
   
   This can be used for early-stage preliminary design work to assess a buildings performance, with dimensions entered manually which the software uses to automatically generate the building model.
   
   Further guidance can be found at: Conceptual Model - Bentley Communities
   
   
   
   
2. Using Accudraw Coordinates.
   
   Create a standard Energy Simulator project, and import a blank drawing for your floor plan. Then instead of tracing rooms as normal, you can model rooms freehand by using the AccuDraw coordinates to enter room dimensions directly, for example:
   
   
   

Detailed guidance on how to use AccuDraw can be found here.