Overview

Design simulation calculations can be time consuming to run. Many factors are considered during the calculation process. Not least of these would be air flow networks, window opening criteria and occupancy schedules Method et al. All of this can be considered over large number of days, and potentially for a large number of rooms. In the case of PartL (level 5) this may need to be considered three times to calculate the Notional, Reference and actual building.

There are a number of things that can be done to speed up the calculation process.

The first four options, below, are general good practice and will help with any program that requires a lot of resources to function correctly. The final items are Design Simulation specific.

Method

• Stand alone (client only) installation
  Incorporating a client machine only installation can improve access time to the program, removing the need to access the server machine if other parts of the program need to be loaded.
   
• Local copy of the project
  Storing the project on the client machine that is running the calculation,. This will cut down a lot of cross network traffic.
   
• Hardware
  Where possible you should try and run the software on the computer that has the highest core speeds and available memory. (Multi-core processors can help in some instances - see below)
  
  A fast core speed will equal faster calculations, and you should also consider freeing as much memory as possible. A computer that is running low on resources will resort to frequent read/write cycles to the systems page file, causing considerable slow down.
  
  It is always a good idea to ensure you do not run other memory intensive applications while running simulation calculations.
   
• Multi-core processers
  New version of Windows (Windows 7 and 8) will attempt to share out core loadings to enable faster processing, however as the Simulator program is only running one process, you may only see loading on one core. In the case of PartL, however, the program will run 3 calculations. If spare cores are available then the software will shunt each calculation onto a unique core, speeding up the overall time required by a factor of 3.
   
• Opening Windows
  Passive ventilation (such as opening Windows) can be considered within a project. If a large number of opening windows are included it can cause a slow down as the impact of any airflow is felt throughout the project.
  
  If you have a room with a large number of windows on the same façade, and using the same opening schedule then you could design this as a single window of appropriate size, with the correct opening schedule maintained. This will reduce the number of air flow networks from multiple windows to one window.
   
• Cracks
  Cracks can be treated in a similar way to windows. For e.g. if there 3 Wall diffusion special airflow objects in a surface then they can be defined as a single Wall diffusion object with the combined area of all 3.
   
• Reducing the number of polylines - Circular surfaces
  A number of angled poly-lines can be used to reasonably accurately define a curved surface. However this can adversely affect the speed of the calculation as the number of poly-lines can be excessive. It is possible to produce a reasonable facsimile of the curved surface by using the minimum number of polylines without compromising the room volume.

• Reducing the number of polylines - Room Outlines
  You can often remove unnecessary convolutions from a room outline without compromising the volume of the room or the surface area of a wall. As this reduces the number of poly-lines in the room, this will help with the speed of calculation.

• Reducing the number of polylines - Rooflights and roof sections
  The calculation process breaks down roof surfaces to ensure they fit correctly over their respective rooms. This can turn into a complicated and slow process if there are a number of rooflights in a room. Combining the rooflights for a particular room into one rooflight can reduce the number of poly-lines significantly.
   
• Reducing the number of polylines - External walls and windows
  Care should be considered when designing external walls. Splitting a wall into more sections than Is required or including multiple windows on a façade may not be necessary. As seen here, these can be combined and will help reduce the number of polylines overall.