Geco - UserProblems

post here if you encounter any problems !!!

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by to] on March 5, 2011 at 1:34pm

Hi Noah,

thanks for reporting the error, indeed it was a bug.

I have just uploaded a new version

thanks again

[uto]

Permalink Reply by L]G on March 5, 2011 at 7:48pm

Hi, this is not really a problem to do with the sofware but more with me being a retard. where do u put the LIB file with ecotech default material library? thanks

Permalink Reply by to] on March 6, 2011 at 3:43am

Hi L]G,

don't be so excoriate to yourself. You only need to save the ecotect lib if you have changed something in the original installed one (this can happen due to radiance)

cheers,

[uto]

Permalink Reply by A Garcia Madero on March 10, 2011 at 4:12pm

Hi!

Im sorry but this is not a problem question either.. Im not familiar with Ecotec yet (and Im fairly new with grasshopper) so I guess thats why im having issues undesrstanding the way Geco components work with each other. I tried experimenting with the example files but these are hard for me to.. Are there any video tutorials I could follow? I also had a question about the weather file, I know you have to reference the .wea file but is this file from Ecotec too?? The reason I want to use Geco is to do the solar evaluation on a building´s facade..

Thank you!!

Permalink Reply by to] on March 11, 2011 at 5:28am

Hi Angela

The weather files which are shipped with Ecotect are located inside the program folder ( C:\Program Files (x86)\Autodesk\Ecotect Analysis 2011\Weather Data)

We do not have particular training videos but this are two links where you can see the workflow

http://lmnts.lmnarchitects.com/parametrics/pdx-video-scriptjigs/ and an older one from an earlier release http://vimeo.com/11506212

cheers,

[uto]

Permalink Reply by Ben Silverman on March 23, 2011 at 10:15pm

Hello,

I am new to Geco and I am having some unexpected results from the SolarAccessAnalysis Example. I have plugged in a shading form and it seems to be receiving less radiation where I am expecting it to get more and vice versa. I then checked it against the window without any shade and a window with a very basic horizontal shade. I used a very narrow time frame for analysis that should have very predictable results, but again with the horizontal shade, the area right under it tha I expected to have low radiation, had higher radiation than the area that is unshaded. I've attached the GH definition and the rhino file.

Any ideas? I am slightly colorblind, but I dont think im that bad that I am reading the ecotect legend upside down.

Thanks,

Ben

Attachments:

Geco_SolarAccessAnalysis_GH08_BHS.ghx, 1 MB
Geco_SolarAccessAnalysis_GH08_BHS.3dm, 576 KB

Permalink Reply by to] on March 27, 2011 at 10:48am

Hi Ben,

sorry for being late!

i tried your def (but i was missing a custom component?)

it seams to work fine (i guess you used New York)

but we will check if we find something with some additional tests

cheers,

[uto]

Permalink Reply by Ben Silverman on March 27, 2011 at 11:17am

Thanks for the response.

Yes, I did use New York. I have deleted the custom component and reattached the gh definition. Below is a screenshot of the radiation in Ecotect. For some reason the window all the way on the right has the same radiation right under the horizontal shade as the window without any solar shade. And the area beneath the cast of the shade has less radiation than the window without any shade. That part really makes no sense to me. Same goes for the shading on the window all the way to the right. The only part of the window that is directly exposed to light, is the part that is reading as having a lower cumulative radiation.

Thanks for the help.

Ben

Attachments:

Geco_SolarAccessAnalysis_GH08_BHS.ghx, 946 KB
Geco_SolarAccessAnalysis_GH08_BHS.3dm, 576 KB

Permalink Reply by to] on March 28, 2011 at 10:51am

Hi Ben,

so after checking your file i realized that you are working in inches.

Geco only takes care about Millimeters/Centimeters/Meters/Kilometers

all other scales have to be set by the user. This is why you get wrong results(this is also mentioned in the manual!)

see attached image after scaling to meters

cheers,

[uto]

Permalink Reply by Ben Silverman on March 28, 2011 at 12:59pm

Thanks. That works. I scaled it by 25.4, so that would be from an inch to a millimeter. What confuses me is that I cannot find where the units are set in Ecotect. So I had read about the scale issue in the manual, but when I measured my meshed elements after being transferred to Ecotect, they had the correct length if the units were in inches. I figured if it transferred it one to one then it should be fine. But I guess what you are saying is that Ecotect is set to the metric system as a default.

Thanks a lot for the program. Lots of fun to play with.

Ben

Permalink Reply by to] on March 28, 2011 at 1:28pm

Hi Ben,

great to here that it isworking now for you,

the settings are located in file/preferences

hope to see some progress,.....

cheers,

[uto]

Permalink Reply by Peter Liebsch on April 13, 2011 at 12:50am

Hi [uto]

Played around with Geco. Great tool that finally brings the fun back into Ecotect.

Based on one of your tutorial files I ran into the following problem. I have a base plane and several cubes on there. The calculation process and everything goes well and I think the values for the ground plane are correct. But if you look at the cubes the values are 'inverted'. So the side facing north has higher values than the side facing south. But if you look at the ground plane the shadow and therefore lower values are at the north side of the cubes. I tried to flip the normals of the cubes but that doesn't change the outcome...

Any idea?

Best,

Peter