Automate multiple simulations

Hi All,

I am running a climate based daylight simulation for each floor of a multi-story building. A slider controls the floor that is being analysed (and helps generate a unique file name for the result files for each floor).

Any ideas of how to automate the process so all floors are simulated so I don't have to be there to manually adjust the slider? Animating the slider has not proved so reliable as it generally just causes DIVA to simulate the first and top floors.

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Martin Dembski on April 4, 2013 at 4:57pm

Hello Elliot,

maybe you can try to use the Kangaroo Counter for this.

It will count one step further according to the time you insert in the timer.

(if you want to insert minutes in the timer you need to convert them to seconds)

Hope it will help.

Best,

Martin.

Permalink Reply by Jeff Niemasz on April 4, 2013 at 8:19pm

Hi Elliot,

I have used Martin's recommendation and inserted timers when necessary (I have found this especially useful when doing recursive scripts where the results file is given some time to be written then a part of the definition checks for the file after a certain amount of time and makes some if-then geometry or material change based on the result, then reruns the simulation).

But for your case the simple slider animation has worked great for me in the past. If the slider is part of the project name and simultaneously changes geometry and triggers a new simulation, a new result should be produced for each slider increment. I am curious what is causing the problem. Could you post more information about the definition so I can re-create the error?

Jeff

Permalink Reply by Elliot Glassman on April 5, 2013 at 7:36am

Hi Martin, hi Jeff,

Thanks for the responses! The counter seems like it may work, although I suppose I would have to make sure I leave enough time for the simulations to complete.

In terms of my definition, I have a plain building mass and I use a contour component to cut floor plans and then the rest of the definition automatically creates wall, floor, and ceiling surfaces as well as windows and the sensor plane. The slider selects the which floor's sensor plane to analyse and then that mesh is sent for a typical DIVA analysis.

Initially, it seemed the slider animation would work based on some preliminary tests. But the problem is when I set it to animate, it runs to the last number of the slider before the first simulation is done, and then simulates the top floor. Am I just timing things wrong as to when I set the slider to animate?

Thanks!

Elliot

Permalink Reply by Shamim Javed on November 12, 2013 at 5:03am

Hi Jeff,

Can you post (or point me to) an example of a definition of the two strategies you mention above (timer and simple slider)? I would like to automate 'daylight availability' runs for a light shelf as it changes height and rotation. Can this be done with a simple slider animation while documenting the result from each run?

Thanks in advance!

Shamim.

Permalink Reply by Christos Kollias on July 2, 2019 at 2:22am