Can someone share a screenshot of how an external door should be drawn in AutoCAD so that it gets picked up by the AutoDefine function in Hevacomp, please? Windows work great but however I draw doors they never get recognised and need be added manually. (I use the appropriate layers). Thank you for your help.
Hi Adam,
All you should need to do is to assign the correct layers as below. If the doors are not being picked up then I suspect that perhaps the outline of the room may be overlapping the plan of the door. If you delete the part over the door it should work fine.
However personally I would suggest that simply entering the door surface in Hevacomp would be far quicker than altering your DXF drawings and re-importing it etc. In practice Autodefine nearly always requires a certain amount of manual tracing as well to complete a model.
Shane Regan | Principle Building Performance Support Engineer
Hello Shane,
Thank you for your reply. I have drawn the doors like this. No overlap. However, still no luck. What should be the geometry of the door? Is a simple rectangle enough? Is the quarter circle needed as well? (tried both ways by the way). Any help is appreciated.
Regards,
Adam
In general I would simplify geometry as much as possible. The code solely looks for the layers so will not require door swings or anything like that. The exact same principles as for windows apply. Out of interest are there many doors in the project?
If you wanted I could take a look at the project and DXF?
Shane
Hi Adam, just a quick note to let you know I have reproduced what you describe and I am investigating this for you - I will be in touch as soon as I have any info for you.
From my testing I have encountered the same as you describe. I will follow this up so that future define options can recognise doors. Currently you can use Autodefine to define the vast majority of your building and then simply add the doors thereafter. Alternatively, should you have many doors, you may wish the treat them as windows - once they are Autodefined they will be shown as windows, and you can then easily tweak the surface type to door and adjust is height accordingly:
I hope that is of assistance with your models.
Answer Verified By: Adam Horvath
Thank you very much for looking into this issue, I really appreciate it. And thank you for the workaround. In a separate message you recommended Openbuildings Designer and Energy Simulator. I have Openbuildings as well, the reason why I stick with hevacomp (for now) is that, honestly, Openbuildings feels a bit clunky and it is very unstable at times (random crashes, freezes, becoming non-responsive, etc) and just setting up a project in it is a separate exercise. At the same time Hevacomp is agile, setting up a project is quick and easy and it does the job quickly and well. So for me it's going to be a slow transition to Openbuildings
Hi Adam, thanks for the feedback. I would firstly ensure you are on the latest version as it sounds like you may be running on an older install - the latest is currently update 8.
However I have also searched our records here but cannot see any issues or queries raised in relation to this from you so if you are struggling I would urge you to get in touch - please log Service Request or post to the Energy Simulator forum and we'd be more than happy to assist.
For example in relation to creating projects you need to create a new Workset - a video demonstrating this and a guide on each step can be found here.
Thank you for the thorough response. As I understand OpenBuidlings designer is not a finished product. For example at this stage domestic water system sizes is not as comprehensive as it is in Hevacomp. I understand Hevacomp System Builder is being retired but has it or is it going to lose any of it capabilities or can I still use it as before just not expect any updates or support?
As Hevacomp consists of so many individual programs such as Design Database, Netsys, Connect, and System Builder, the full transition needed to be divided up into separate stages, with Design Database being the first to be developed in OpenBuildings Energy Simulator. Pipe and Duct sizing is scheduled for Update 10 next year. You can continue to use Hevacomp throughout this transition and it remains supported until the capabilities are present in OpenBuildings.