When running the example from the documentation for forming a condenser loop, the inlet and outlet branches are not included in the branchlist.

loopname = "c_loop"
sloop = ['sb0', ['sb1', 'sb2', 'sb3'], 'sb4'] # supply side
dloop = ['db0', ['db1', 'db2', 'db3'], 'db4'] # demand side
theloop = hvacbuilder.makecondenserloop(theIdf, loopname, sloop, dloop)

The branchlists formed are:

BRANCHLIST,
c_loop Cond_Supply Branchs, !- Name
sb1, !- Branch 1 Name
sb2, !- Branch 2 Name
sb3; !- Branch 3 Name

BRANCHLIST,
c_loop Condenser Demand Branchs, !- Name
db1, !- Branch 1 Name
db2, !- Branch 2 Name
db3; !- Branch 3 Name

which is missing sb0, sb4, db0, db4.

• quick fix would be to write a function that will delete the object.
• this would be a counterpart to IDF.newidfobject and IDF.addidfobject
• In the long term subclass list and override functions to let it affect idf.model.dt[key]

there are a lot of scripts written during the development process.

• remove them
• run unit tests
• run the tutorials in ipython notebook

Why when I execute the code at link
http://pythonhosted.org//eppy/Main_Tutorial.html,

without installing eppy, I have the following error:

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "C:\eppy\prova.py", line 3, in
from eppy import modeleditor
File "C:\eppy\eppy\modeleditor.py", line 20, in
from idfreader import makebunches
File "C:\eppy\eppy\idfreader.py", line 22, in
from bunch_subclass import EpBunch
File "C:\eppy\eppy\bunch_subclass.py", line 25, in
from bunch import *

ImportError: No module named bunch

Many thanks.

Hi,

I successfully created EnergyPlus project file for Visual Studio 2013 Desktop via CMake gui.
However I am experiencing problems building(compiling) the project. First of all, for each cc file I get a warning:
-warning C4530: C++ exception handler used, but unwind semantics are not enabled. Specify /EHsc

Most compiler errors are related to the IndexRange.hh, IndexSlice.hh file. Below is the example:

-IndexRange.hh(538): error C2589: '(' : illegal token on right side of '::'
-IndexRange.hh(538): error C2059: syntax error : '::'
-IndexSlice.hh(662): error C2804: binary 'operator ==' has too many parameters
-error C2614: 'ObjexxFCL::IndexSlice' : illegal member initialization: 'l_init_' is not a base or member
-error C2614: 'ObjexxFCL::IndexSlice' : illegal member initialization: 'l_' is not a base or member

and so on. I get over a hundred errors.

Can anyone help me and/or guide me how to successfully compile the project?

Your help is very much appreciated.

Vladimir

• simplest way would be to point to instructions.txt in tutorial
• better way would be to make an instruction document in ipython/html and point to it from the tutorial

Do this in the install.rst

see if code can be updated so that eppy can handle both /field and /Field

About 5 files in the example files fail.
Review and try to fix as many as possible.
All may not be fixable

see http://pythonhosted.org/eppy/dev_docs/data_eppy.html for the underlying need for this.

idf1.idfobjects['BUILDING'] is a list and is not connected to idf1.model.dt['BUILDING']
list has to be subclassed to solve this problem

• review the code to get a global understanding of it
• document the larger structure so that others can work on it
• fix the quick hacks
• revisit the strategies and data structure used

With the object Schedule:File in the idf, the path is erased after the colon after savinf in python

Schedule:File,
Test, !- Name
Any Number, !- Schedule Type Limits Name
Z:\exdir\output.csv, !- File Name
1, !- Column Number
0, !- Rows to Skip at Top
8760, !- Number of Hours of Data
, !- Column Separator
No, !- Interpolate to Timestep
15; !- Minutes per Item

becomes

Schedule:File,
Test, !- Name
Any Number, !- Schedule Type Limits Name
Z:
1, !- File Name
0, !- Column Number
8760, !- Rows to Skip at Top
, !- Number of Hours of Data
No, !- Column Separator
15; !- Interpolate to Timestep

The Field A2 and A3 of the object EnergyManagementSystem:Sensor can't be modified because of the colon in the field description.

keep up the good work !

• simples way would be to point to instructions.txt in tutorial
• better way would be to make an instruction document in ipython/html and point to it

I find logging really useful when developing. Are there any reasons why there isn't any logging at the moment? The only issue I've come across in the past is difficulty using it in conjunction with multiprocessing (though it's not impossible). That doesn't seem to be an issue in eppy though.

If this sounds useful, would it be possible to start a new branch to start adding logging code? I'm happy to make a logging config module and contribute new logging to bits I touch as I try to find my way around the code a bit better. It may also be useful to have some kind of a standard (or an EEP!) on what level of logging is appropriate for various situations and I can help out with that too.

Hi all,

I'd really like to get the EPlus output takes into pandas arrays to make it easier to manipulate and graph the data. Any help would be much appreciated!

Best wishes,
Amalia

Try to build a radiant system using eppy

There are geometry functions in ./eppy/geometry that use numpy.
It can be difficult to install numpy at times (for instance if you want to run epp in rhino http://www.rhino3d.com)

• rewrite the those functions to run without numpy.
• test if numpy is installed (use <try .. except> block to check)
• if it is not installed, use the new functions

Dear all,
I have one question about eppy. If I want to integrate eppy library in a Java Web Application, how can I do it? Into which folder I enter eppy?

Many thanks for your time.

Best Regards

Hi there,

Eppy is fabulous, thank you for creating it. I am having a slight problem with it breaking my idf file, however. I have a 3 story building with about 17 zones per floor. Each zone is included in a water outlet group, so in total I have 51 pieces of water use equipment.

When I run eppy on my input idf, it only transfers 10 pieces of water use equipment to the resulting idf file (under the WaterUse:Connections object). Subsequently, when I try to run the new idf file in E+ it crashes.

Any suggestions you could send along would be much appreciated. I can cut and paste the rest of the water use equipment into the new idf file, but that kind of cuts into eppy's usefulness...

Thanks so much for your help,
Amalia

WaterUse:Connections,
Water Outlet Group, !- Name
Water Outlet Group Water Inlet Node, !- Inlet Node Name
Water Outlet Group Water Outlet Node, !- Outlet Node Name
, !- Supply Water Storage Tank Name
, !- Reclamation Water Storage Tank Name
, !- Hot Water Supply Temperature Schedule Name
, !- Cold Water Supply Temperature Schedule Name
None, !- Drain Water Heat Exchanger Type
Plant, !- Drain Water Heat Exchanger Destination
1500.0, !- Drain Water Heat Exchanger UFactor Times Area
01FirstFloor:Office7 Water Outlet, !- Water Use Equipment 1 Name
01FirstFloor:Corridor Water Outlet, !- Water Use Equipment 2 Name
01FirstFloor:Office8 Water Outlet, !- Water Use Equipment 3 Name
01FirstFloor:Office1 Water Outlet, !- Water Use Equipment 4 Name
01FirstFloor:Office3 Water Outlet, !- Water Use Equipment 5 Name
01FirstFloor:Office2 Water Outlet, !- Water Use Equipment 6 Name
01FirstFloor:Office4 Water Outlet, !- Water Use Equipment 7 Name
01FirstFloor:Office6 Water Outlet, !- Water Use Equipment 8 Name
01FirstFloor:Office5 Water Outlet, !- Water Use Equipment 9 Name
01FirstFloor:Bathroom1 Water Outlet, !- Water Use Equipment 10 Name
[there should be 41 more items in this list]

Following the examples for creating an airloop with hvacbuilder.makeairloop and with the hvacbuilder.replacebranch function does not seem to work.

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "D:\projects\ASHRAE MaxTech 1651\Task2e\HS18-RadiantDOAS\eppybug\airloopbug.py", line 30, in
newDOASsupplyBranch = hvacbuilder.replacebranch(airloop_idf, doasLoop, mainSupplyBranch, doasListOfComp, fluid='Air')
File "c:/eppy046/hvacbuilder.py", line 393, in replacebranch
connectcomponents(idf, components, fluid=fluid)
File "c:/eppy046/hvacbuilder.py", line 326, in connectcomponents
outletnodename = getnodefieldname(thiscomp, "Outlet_Node_Name", fluid)
File "c:/eppy046/hvacbuilder.py", line 309, in getnodefieldname
nodename = nodenames[0]
IndexError: list index out of range

The test file is:

import sys
import os
from StringIO import StringIO

pathto = "c:/eppy046/"
sys.path.append(pathto)

import modeleditor
from modeleditor import IDF
import hvacbuilder

iddfile = "c:/eppy046/resources/iddfiles/Energy+V8_1_0.idd"
IDF.setiddname(iddfile)

airloop_idf = IDF(StringIO(''))
loopname = "a_loop"
sloop = ['sb0', ['sb1', 'sb2', 'sb3'], 'sb4'] # supply side of the loop

sloop = ['sb0', ['sb1',], 'sb4'] # supply side of the loop

dloop = ['zone1', 'zone2', 'zone3'] # zones on the demand side
doasLoop = hvacbuilder.makeairloop(airloop_idf, loopname, sloop, dloop)
airloop_idf.saveas("a_loop.idf")

dAirLpHvOAsys = airloop_idf.newidfobject("AirLoopHVAC:OutdoorAirSystem".upper(), 'DOAS_OA')
dCoilSysDX = airloop_idf.newidfobject("CoilSystem:Cooling:DX".upper(), 'DOAS_CoolCoil')
dCoilHtWtr = airloop_idf.newidfobject("Coil:Heating:Water".upper(), 'DOAS_HeatCoil')
dFanCV = airloop_idf.newidfobject("Fan:ConstantVolume".upper(), 'DOAS_Fan')
doasListOfComp = [dAirLpHvOAsys,dCoilSysDX,dCoilHtWtr,dFanCV]
mainSupplyBranch = airloop_idf.getobject('BRANCH', 'sb1') # args are (key, name)

The following line causes a Eppy error.

newDOASsupplyBranch = hvacbuilder.replacebranch(airloop_idf, doasLoop, mainSupplyBranch, doasListOfComp, fluid='Air')

Please let me know how quickly you can fix or if you know a work around.

document

• IDF.popidfobject
• IDF.removeidfobject

This may take some doing.

• I need to define area and volume for a zone
• The object may need data from other objects to do the calculations

write a function that will conert

• buildingsurfacedetailed object and make it into a wall, floor, ceiling etc.
• fenestrationsurfacedeatiled object and make it into a window

Currently, the IDD can only be set once - otherwise an IDDAlreadySetError shows up.

I think it would be more practical to have the IDD as a separate (possibly optional, see below) parameter to the IDF constructor. That way, you could have two IDF instances floating around that are bound to different IDD files - cache them by path name if that needs to be done for performance reasons.

This kind of functionality could be used, say, to create a pure python implementation of the version updater tool. Just one example.

If no IDD file is given, a simple function like this one could find the "default" IDD file in the system, given that EnergyPlus is installed and accessible via the systems PATH:

def find_idd():
    import os
    import distutils.spawn
    try:
        energyplus = distutils.spawn.find_executable('EnergyPlus')
        if not energyplus:
            raise DefaultIDDNotFoundError()
        energyplus = os.path.realpath(energyplus) # follow links in /usr/bin
        folder = os.path.dirname(energyplus)
        idd = os.path.join(folder, 'Energy+.idd')
        if not os.path.isfile(idd):
            raise DefaultIDDNotFoundError()
        return idd
    except:
        raise DefaultIDDNotFoundError()

print idf.idfobject[key][0].__functions

DesignBuilder generates zone names by joining the building name and zone name with a colon (e.g. MyHouse:SAPZone1). Colons break the digraph formatting which shows as an error when eppy calls pydot.create(). I'm not sure whether the solution is to replace colons with dashes after importing the IDF inside ex_loopdiagram.py or to advise the user to do so manually in the Eppy documentation (and potentially raise an error with this advice if the problem arises) but it's likely to be a common problem.

• The IDD file changes with release.
• Sometimes it changes in ways that may break eppy.
• It may break espy only with some input files.
• test espy with all the example files

When reading an HTML file the monthly reports that are created by users (any maybe the built in ones, I didn't look at those) do not have any string for the report title which follows the "Report:" and also do not include the "For:" string. Both are needed to find the correct report. I tried this with EnergyPlus 6.0. I will email you the files since I cannot attach them to an issue.

Right now there are three scripts here that need to be documented (9n useful_scripts folder):

• idfdiff.py
• eppyreadtest_folder.py
• eppyreadtest_file.py

It would be good to have a standalone script here for diagrams of the HVAC

document it it the tutorial with try: except statement

graphviz cannot make the diagrams if the object name has a colon ":" in it. This is because colons have meaning in the syntax of the dot file format that graphviz uses.

So loopdiaggram replaces the ":" with "__" but does not give any indication that it has done so. At the least it should warn that it has changed the names in the diagram. At the best it should give a list of the names it has changed, giving old and new names.

the present copy of idfdiff does not work in all circumstances

Hi Santosh

I am a big fan of what you guys have created here.

I have a file with many wind pressure coefficicent value objects. I want to operate on these using eppy.

trying something like this:

myidffile.idfobjects['AirflowNetwork:MultiZone:WindPressureCoefficientValues']
KeyError: 'AirflowNetworkMultiZoneWindPressureCoefficientValues'

i get a key error. I have looked through the keys, like so

idffile.idfobjects.keys()
long list of keys, with many objects, but not including the one I am looking for...

and I do not see the idf object of that type. Does that mean the AirflowNetwork:MultiZone:WindPressureCoefficientValues are not supported?

Thanks in advance

Document the following:

In [83]: branchlists = idf.idfobjects["branchlist".upper()]

In [84]: branchlist = branchlists[2]

In [85]: print branchlist

BRANCHLIST,               
    Chilled Water Loop Supply Branchs,    !- Name
    CW Pump Branch,           !- Branch 1 Name
    Purchased Cooling Branch,    !- Branch 2 Name
    Supply Bypass Branch,     !- Branch 3 Name
    Cooling Supply Outlet;    !- Branch 4 Name


In [86]: print branchlist.obj
[u'BRANCHLIST', u'Chilled Water Loop Supply Branchs', u'CW Pump Branch', u'Purchased Cooling Branch', u'Supply Bypass Branch', u'Cooling Supply Outlet']

In [87]: lst = branchlist.obj

In [88]: print lst
[u'BRANCHLIST', u'Chilled Water Loop Supply Branchs', u'CW Pump Branch', u'Purchased Cooling Branch', u'Supply Bypass Branch', u'Cooling Supply Outlet']

In [89]: print lst.pop(-1)
Cooling Supply Outlet

In [90]: print branchlist.obj
[u'BRANCHLIST', u'Chilled Water Loop Supply Branchs', u'CW Pump Branch', u'Purchased Cooling Branch', u'Supply Bypass Branch']

In [91]: print branchlist

BRANCHLIST,               
    Chilled Water Loop Supply Branchs,    !- Name
    CW Pump Branch,           !- Branch 1 Name
    Purchased Cooling Branch,    !- Branch 2 Name
    Supply Bypass Branch;     !- Branch 3 Name


In [92]: print lst.pop(2)
CW Pump Branch

In [93]: print branchlist

BRANCHLIST,               
    Chilled Water Loop Supply Branchs,    !- Name
    Purchased Cooling Branch,    !- Branch 1 Name
    Supply Bypass Branch;     !- Branch 2 Name


In [94]: lst.insert(2, "gumby")

In [95]: print branchlist

BRANCHLIST,               
    Chilled Water Loop Supply Branchs,    !- Name
    gumby,                    !- Branch 1 Name
    Purchased Cooling Branch,    !- Branch 2 Name
    Supply Bypass Branch;     !- Branch 3 Name


In [96]: # also take a look at - branchlist.objls

Document how the following is used in eppy documentation.

• restructured text
• sphinx
• ipython notebook

Right now this takes about 5 lines to do.

idftxt = "" # empty string
from StringIO import StringIO
fhandle = StringIO(idftxt) # we can make a file handle of a string
new_idf = IDF(fhandle) # initialize the IDF object with the file handle

new_idf is only in memory now.
will be written to disk only with a new_df.saveas(name)

This just a question as to whether Eppy is absolutely wedded to the GPL3 licence?

It's frustrating as this a project I'm really keen to use for more than just speeding up changes to IDF files. I'd like to be able to import it and use it in other Python software I develop. However the IP-sensitive nature of the clients (universities, government, management consultancies) means that any import which is released under GPL3 licence is off-limits due to the "copyleft" aspect - the part which means that any work which imports Eppy must also be released under GPL3.

Is this intentional? Or could the licence be changed to something (such as the MIT licence) which would be more palatable to end-users with IP concerns?

Hi there,

I'm trying to process output data and have been having trouble using named_grid_h on the ABUPS End Uses Summary. The error I'm getting is

ValueError: Field names cannot start with an underscore '_'

I'm wondering if it has something to with the blank 2nd to last row of the table that has values u'\xa0'?

In general I would really like to read the output tables into numpy or pandas DataFrame arrays, but I don't seem to be experienced enough in python coding to pull that off smoothly :)

Thanks much!
Amalia

just update the install instructions

read html is a bare skeleton now. Do the following:

1. have more header data for the tables
2. have more functionality to manipulate the table. Maybe make the tables into a dictionary with the headers as tuple keys

For my workflow, I'd like to be able to pass in a string containing the contents of the input file as opposed to the path to that file.

A file-like parameter with StringIO would work too...

Use the values in the idd to do the range checking

For most objects, the first field which serves to identify them uniquely within their object type is called Name.

For ZoneHVAC:EquipmentConnections the identifier is Zone_Name which is not picked up by the getobjects() function.

There are potentially two ways around this:

1. Have an optional parameter which defaults to Name but can be overridden with Zone_Name or whatever the identifier is
2. Look for the first item in the object as that is always the identifier

I have a rough implementation of option 2, though there may be a nicer way of doing it:

def getobject(bunchdt, key, name):
    """get the object if you have the key and the name
    retunrs a list of objects, in case you have more than one
    You should not have more than one"""
    # TODO : throw exception if more than one object, or return more objects
    idfobjects = bunchdt[key]
    try:
        id_field = idfobjects[0].objidd[1]['field'][0]
    except IndexError, e:
        return None
    id_field = id_field.replace(' ', '_')
    theobjs = [idfobj for idfobj in idfobjects if idfobj[id_field].upper() == name.upper()]
    try:
        return theobjs[0]
    except IndexError, e:
        return None

• Start a section in the documentation for developers
• The objective here is to give developers enough clarity to contribute the code of eppy.
• Contributors to eppy are likely to be not-professional programmers, and this documentation has to be tuned for such contributors.