VisualDOE FAQ
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Contents
INSTALLATION (click to see questions)
PROJECT
BLOCKS (click to see questions)
FACADES (click to see questions)
SYSTEMS (click to see questions)
PLANT (click to see questions)
ORGANIZERS AND EDITORS (click to see questions)
3D VIEWER (click to see questions)
RUNNING SIMULATIONS (click to see questions)
GENERAL (click to see questions)
GLOSSARY OF TERMS (click to see questions)
Project
- What is TMY2 weather data?
- The TMY2s are data sets of hourly values of solar radiation and meteorological elements for a 1-year period. They represent a typical meteorological year (TMY) and are derived from the 1961-1990 National Solar Radiation Data Base (NSRDB). They are based on more recent and accurate data and will make possible more accurate performance and economic analyses of energy systems, these data sets are recommended for use in place of earlier TMY data sets derived from the 1952-1975 SOLMET/ERSATZ data base.
- I can't see the weather file for my location in the climate list.
- The weather files are on the 'Green Design Tools' CD under the 'Weather' subdirectory. Copy the files that you want to the 'Green Design Tools' weather directory (the default path is 'C:\Program Files\GDT\Weather'). When launched, VisualDOE reads and displays all the weather files in the 'Weather' directory. You can rename weather files for ease of recognition.
- How can I view the weather data?
- Weather statistics can be viewed using the 'Climate Editor' from the 'Tools' menu in VisualDOE 3.0.
- Where can I get other weather files?
-
Weather Data Resources
![[offsite link]](/media/link_new_win.gif)
- Can I modify the weather data?
- UNPACKED WEATHER FILE (*.FT) FORMAT
The data required by the DOE2 weather processor is listed below. The first three lines of the file contain different information from the rest of the file. Note that the file is in fixed width format, which means that each variable must be located at the correct position in the row. See the end of this document for a portion of an example California file.
RECORD 1 IWDID,IWYR,WLAT,WLONG,IWTZN,IWSOL FORMAT (5A4,I5, 2F8.2, 2I5)
RECORD 2 (CLN (I), I=1,12) FORMAT (12F6.2)
RECORD 3 (GT (I), I=1,12) FORMAT (12F6.1)
IWDID LOCATION I.D. Any name — may be up to 20 characters.
IWYR YEAR For identification only.
WLAT LATITUDE In degrees and fractions to two decimal
places. Positive for northern latitudes
and negative for southern.
WLONG LONGITUDE In degrees and fractions to two decimal
places, i.e. ###. ## Positive for
locations west of Greenwich, and
negative for locations east of
Greenwich.
IWTZN TIME ZONE NUMBER (# Of hrs from prime meridian. 5 for
Eastern, 8 for Pacific, negative for
locations E of meridian)
IWSOL SOLAR FLAG IWSOL = IWSZ + (IFTYP-1)*2 - 1
IWSZ WORD SIZE 1 = 60-BIT, 2 = 30-BIT (use IWSZ = 2)
IFTYP FILE TYPE 1 = OLD (no longer used), 2 = no solar
(need to include CLDAMT and ICLDTY),
3 = data includes total horizontal and
direct normal solar data. (Either
include CLDAMT and ICLDTY or include
SOLRAD and DIRSOL. If solar data is
included, then CLDAMT and ICLDTY may be
set to zero for all hours. Conversely,
if solar data is not available, then
SOLRAD and DIRSOL must be set to zero.)
CLN CLEARNESS NO. Ratio of clear day radiation to average
clear day radiation. Should be close to
1.00, may be as high as 1.15.Only used
if solar data is not included in weather
file. If information is not available,
then use 1.00 for each month.
GT GROUND TEMP. In degrees Rankine, which is temperature
in degrees Fahrenheit above absolute
zero (= ���������°F + 459.7). Use format ###.#.
Used to calculate heat loss from
underground surfaces in DOE2. Typically
equal to the average daily air
temperature with a time lag of one to
two months.
The data following the first three lines are listed below. This information is required for each hour of the year.
Records 4,8763
KMON, KDAY, KH, WBT, DBT, PATM, CLDAMT, ISNOW, IRAIN, IWNDDR, HUMRAT, DENSTY,
ENTHAL, SOLRAD, DIRSOL, ICLDTY, WNDSPD
FORMAT (3I2, 2F5.0,F6.1, F5.0, 2I3,I4, F7.4, F6.3, F6.1, 2F7.1,I3, F5.0)
Field Column Width
KMON 2
KDAY 2
KH 2
WBT 5
DBT 5
PATM 6
CLDAMT 5
ISNOW 3
IRAIN 3
IWNDDR 4
HUMRAT 7
DENSTY 6
ENTHAL 6
SOLRAD 7
DIRSOL 7
ICLDTY 3
WNDSPD 5
KMON Month (1-12)
KDAY Day (1-31)
KH Hour (1-24), solar time
WBT Wetbulb temp (�����°F)
DBT Drybulb temp (�����°F)
PATM Air pressure (in. Hg)
CLDAMT Cloud amount (0-10) 0 = no clouds, 10 = heavy clouds.
Only used if SOLRAD and DIRSOL are not available.
Otherwise set to 0.
ISNOW Snow flag (1=snowfall, 0=no snowfall). This value is not
used by DOE2, set to 0 for all hours.
IRAIN Rain flag (1=rain, 0=no rain). This value is not used by
DOE2, set to 0 for all hours.
IWNDDR Wind direction (0-15, 0=N, 1=NNE,...)
HUMRAT Humidity ratio (lb/lb of dry air)
DENSTY Density (lb/ft3)
ENTHAL Specific enthalpy (btu/lb of dry air)
SOLRAD Total horizontal solar (btu/hr-ft2). Set to 0 if solar
data is not available, then CLDAMT and ICLDTY must be
entered.
DIRSOL Direct normal solar (btu/hr-ft2). Set to 0 if solar
data is not available. Then CLDAMT and ICLDTY must be
entered.
ICLDTY Cloud type (0-2). 0 = Cirrus, 1 = Stratus, 2 = average
of Cirrus and Stratus (use 2 if type is unknown). Only
necessary if SOLRAD and DIRSOL are not available.
WNDSPD Wind speed (knots)
Below is an example of the beginning of an *.ft file as described above. The actual file must have 8760 hourly records following the 3 initial lines.
CZ12RV2 WYEC274 38.50121.5085
1.061.051.031.010.990.970.960.981.001.021.041.05
514.3 512.2 512.0 513.0 517.0 521.0 524.5 526.7 526.9 525.1 521.7 517.8
1 1 138.39.30.210.01 9 0.0045 0.08014.00.00.02 4.
1 1 239.40.30.110.00 8 0.0047 0.07914.50.00.02 4.
1 1 340.40.30.110.00 6 0.0052 0.07915.00.00.02 4.
1 1 440.40.30.110.01 5 0.0052 0.07915.00.00.02 4.
1 1 540.40.30.110.00 5 0.0052 0.07915.00.00.02 4.
1 1 640.40.30.110.00 5 0.0052 0.07915.00.00.02 3.
1 1 742.42.30.110.01 6 0.0056 0.07916.00.00.02 3.
1 1 843.43.30.110.00 6 0.0058 0.07916.50.00.02 3.
1 1 944.44.30.110.00 7 0.0060 0.07917.0 16.01.02 4.
1 11045.45.30.110.01 8 0.0063 0.07817.5 35.01.02 4.
1 11145.46.30.110.00 7 0.0060 0.07817.5 50.03.02 4.
1 11246.46.30.010.00 6 0.0065 0.07818.0 59.03.02 3.
1 11346.46.30.010.01 5 0.0065 0.07818.0 60.03.02 3.
1 11447.47.30.010.00 7 0.0068 0.07818.5 53.02.02 3.
1 11547.47.29.910.00 8 0.0068 0.07818.5 40.02.02 4.
1 11647.48.29.910.01 9 0.0066 0.07718.5 22.05.02 4.
1 11747.47.29.910.0011 0.0068 0.07718.52.00.02 4.
1 11846.47.29.910.0013 0.0063 0.07718.00.00.02 4.
1 11945.46.29.810.0015 0.0061 0.07817.50.00.02 4.
1 12044.45.29.810.0015 0.0059 0.07817.00.00.02 6.
1 12143.44.29.810.0015 0.0056 0.07816.50.00.02 8.
1 12242.42.29.810.0015 0.0056 0.07816.00.00.0210.
1 12341.42.29.8 8.0015 0.0052 0.07815.50.00.0210.
1 12441.42.29.8 7.0015 0.0052 0.07815.50.00.0210.
1 2 141.42.29.8 6.0015 0.0052 0.07815.50.00.0210.
1 2 240.43.29.8 7.0015 0.0045 0.07815.00.00.0213.
- How can I get rid of the message asking me to select a library every time I start VisualDOE?
- The library (vdoe3.lib) is referenced by every project (*.gph) and template (*.gSI, *.gIP) in VisualDOE, and if the library path in the file is different from the current location of the library, the dialog box to find it is displayed.
To get rid of the message when you start VisualDOE, follow these steps:
- Start the program and click on "No"when the prompted to find the library.
- Select 'File|Save As Template' from the menu.
- Overwrite the template file standard.gIP.
- Exit and restart the program.
- Why do I get message asking me to select a library VDOELPCD.lib every time I start VisualPlant?
- The standard load profile library (vdoeLPCD.lib) is located on the 'Green Design Tools' CD under the 'Library' folder. VisualPlant needs to access this library when launched. To avoid the message at startup, follow these steps:
- Copy the library (vdoeLPCD.lib) from the CD and paste it in your installation path's (default is C:\Program Files\GDT\) 'Shared' folder.
- Start VisualPlant and select the copied library when 'Open vdoeLPCD library' message appears on startup.
- Exit and restart VisualPlant.
- The template contains all the default values for a project. It allows you to save a set of project schedules like constructions, openings and schedules as a template to serve as defaults for new projects. Any project file can be saved as a template. The template saves the defaults and values from the base case, all other cases are ignored. To create a template follow these steps:
- Set all the defaults for the base case using the 'Edit Defaults' or 'Set as Default' buttons.
- Copy all the schedule items to the project schedules and remove the ones you don't need.
- Save the file and then click on 'File|Save As Template' and select a new template file name.
- Exit the program.
- The new template is now ready to be used. You can open it by clicking on 'File|New' and select the new template. If you want this template to start up by default when the program is launched, rename it as standard.gIP, replacing the old standard template.
- Can I use SI units? Can I switch units for my project?
- You can model a building in either SI or IP units. The selection has to be made before you start the project, and can’t be changed after that. By default the program is launched in IP mode. To select SI units select an SI template (*.gSI) from the ‘File|New’ menu.
- I am using SI units but the weather data is still in IP units.
- DOE-2 does all the calculations in IP units internally even when you select SI units. For this reason, the weather data is always in IP units.
- How do I create new alternatives?
-
- Select 'Alternative|Define Alternatives' from the program menu
- Select one of the alternatives from the list. This will be used as the base case for the new alternative.
- Click on 'Add Alternative …' to create a copy of the selected case.
- Rename the new alternative and add a brief description.
- Exit the form.
- The newly created alternative will become the current case in VisualDOE 3.0. You can switch between alternatives by selecting them from the 'Alternatives' menu.
- When I create new alternatives, the case numbers aren't consecutive?
- If an alternative is deleted then the ID's of other cases are not reset.
- Can I use VisualDOE 2.5 project files with VisualDOE 3.0?
- No, VisualDOE 2.5 project files can't be used with VisualDOE 3.0. You should keep the old program installed for working on VisualDOE 2.5 projects.
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