IES <Virtual Environment> Training

Trainee notes

ModelIT

VE 2018

Session B

SI units

Introduction
In the previous ModelIT session (Session A) you were shown how to create a <Virtual Environment>
project and how to create basic room shapes using ModelIT, IES’s building modelling tool. A simple
five-room building was created.

In this session you will be shown how to modify the simple building created in Session A. You will see
how to add glazing, modify the existing rooms, create space groups, draw shading obstructions and
set the site orientation.

The trainer will show you how to perform various functions as shown in the following pages, and images
are included, to act as a memory jogger after the session.

For more detailed help you can use the VE Help menu.

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Opening a previously created project.
Here you will be shown how to open your project created in Session A.

When you start the VE (or use the File>Open Project menu option from the VE), the Start Page
appears, from where you can open an existing project from recent projects, or you can browse for a
project and select the .mit file in the project folder.

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Editing room names
You can select the room in the model browser, right-click and select the Properties option, and change
the name on the Properties dialogue.

You can also change the name of a selected room in the Space Name field at the bottom of the model
view.

Tabular Space data

You can use the Tabular Space Data icon from the ModelIT menu to view geometrical and other data
for selected rooms.

You can change the room name in the Space Name column.

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You can leave the Tabular Space data dialogue open and continue to work in ModelIT. If you select
multiple rooms or deselect rooms, the dialogue will automatically update to show the currently selected
rooms. Data from tabs can be copied and pasted into a spreadsheet (e.g. Excel) for record/QA
purposes.

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Space groups
Space groups are a useful way of organizing your model, allowing you to quickly select rooms of a
particular type. The groups created will also appear in other VE applications such as Apache, In
ModelIT, groups also allow you to switch sections off during the modelling process, giving you clarity,
especially when creating geometry for larger buildings.

First we create the space groups by clicking on the Edit Room Groups tool:

We can create and edit grouping schemes, and create and edit space groups for a selected scheme.

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Assigning rooms to groups
The easiest way to assign rooms to groups is via the Space Groups tab in the Tabular Space Data
dialogue. Here you will see the additional schemes you have created:

Selecting rooms in a group

Once you have assigned rooms to groups you can select a group of rooms in the model by selecting
the appropriate scheme from the drop-down in the model browser. The browser will then show the
groups within that scheme and the rooms within each group. If you select a group in the browser, all
the rooms in the group will be automatically selected.

Note: The ‘HVAC Zones and Zone Groups’ scheme is a special and different type of scheme used by
ApacheHVAC and is not covered in this training session.

If you just wish to see the basic list of rooms in the browser, simply select the ‘Spaces’ scheme.

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Levels of Decomposition
The model is comprised of three ‘levels of decomposition’:

Up to now, we have been working at the top level (Model level), where we have drawn rooms and
renamed them.

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Moving down through the levels.
You will see how to move down a level to the middle level (Space level) for a selected room using the
‘Move down one level’ button.

At the middle level we will remain at the default Surface mode:

At the middle level you will be shown how to select a surface for that room.

If you need to move back up a level you can use the ‘Move up one level’ button:

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You will then move down to the bottom level (Surface level) for the selected surface where you can
select Openings mode or Adjacency mode.

Note: at the bottom level you are viewing the surface from the perspective of being inside the room.

Adding doors/windows/holes
At the bottom level in Openings mode, you will be shown how to add openings (doors, windows and
holes) into the selected surface.

Note: if you are using the Apache thermal tools, you must not add holes into external surfaces.

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Using this method we will add glazing into two walls and a roof element of the Studio.

Adjacency mode
If you switch to Adjacency mode at the bottom level of decomposition, at the bottom of the screen you
can view adjacency conditions for the surface. The Adjacent Space Name field will normally either
display the adjacent room name, or ‘EXTERIOR’ depending if the surface is an internal surface or an
external surface respectively.

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Moving up and down levels using the model browser
Instead of using the ‘Move up’ and ‘Move down’ buttons, you can move up and down the three levels
of decomposition using the tree structure in the model browser:

Edit glazing/doors tool

Here we will add glazing to three selected rooms in one operation, rather than having to add glazing in
each individual surface as done previously. This is done at the top level of decomposition.

We will see how to use the Edit Glazing button to add glazing to the selected rooms in three different
ways.

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We will use the Add by Height/Width/Spacing tool to add one row of windows to the selected rooms.

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Adding openings at the top or middle level of decomposition
You can also add doors, windows and holes at the top or middle level of decomposition. This uses the
Place Opening dialogue which contains a list of ready-to-use opening configurations. This tool can be
used to place openings in any vertical surface, and can be used in any view perspective.

For example you could use this in a plan view with a DXF file attached, and place windows to match
the windows in the DXF file.

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Connecting spaces
Here we will see how to connect two rooms together to make one room. Select one of the rooms that
you want to connect (e.g. Ground floor office), then click on the ‘Connect/merge spaces’ tool. Then
click the room(s) that you want to connect to (e.g. Store).

Click the Connect button to combine the two spaces into one composite space (which will be comprised
of two sub-spaces).

Note: the Merge button merges rooms into one space as above, but there are no sub-spaces.

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Separating composite spaces
You will also be shown how to ‘unconnect’ two spaces that have been connected together. This is done
at the middle level (Space level) for the selected composite room, using Edit mode.

The Edit Space dialogue will open. Go to the Separate Composite Space tab, and use the Separate
button to separate a selected sub-space.

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Editing vertices
Here, you will see how to move the corner points (or vertices) of a room to change its shape. This is
done at the middle level (Space level) for the selected room, using Edit mode. We will do this for a new,
temporary room, so as to preserve the existing building.

The Edit Space dialogue will open. Go to the Edit Vertices Space tab then select the appropriate
vertices on the room or in the list. Enter a positive or negative shift amount in the x, y or z boxes and
click Move Vertices to move the vertices.

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Creating shading objects
If you will be subsequently using SunCast, IES’s solar simulation tool, or RadianceIES, IES’s
daylighting simulation tool, you will be shown how to draw shading objects in your project.

You can change the category for objects after they have been drawn, via the Space Basics tab in
Tabular Space Data dialogue:

You can also set the object category in the Shape Settings dialogue before you draw objects:

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Right-mouse click menu
When you right-mouse click over selected rooms in Plan or Axonometric view, a menu appears which
allows you to make edits on the selected rooms.

Many of these menu items duplicate the functions of the ModelIT buttons described in this training
session.

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Setting the site rotation
Next, we will see how to set the site North position.

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Setting the site location using APlocate
If you will be subsequently using SunCast, the Apache thermal software, VE Compliance software,
RadianceIES, or other tools which require site data, you will be shown how to use the APlocate utility
to set the location and site data which is required by the above applications. Setting of the weather
data in APlocate will be covered in the training sessions for the applications which use weather data.

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You have now finished creating the simple building together with obstructions, and you have set the
site rotation and location data. The building model is now ready to use for any other <Virtual
Environment> applications. Please keep this model in this configuration for future training sessions
which will use this building. Remember to save your project periodically.

This concludes Session B.

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