BuildingSync

The BuildingSync-Gem is a repository of helpers for reading and writing BuildingSync XML files, and for using that data to drive energy simulations of the subject building. See full documentation here.

All of the following are supported:

• convert BuildingSync XML file into:
  • an OpenStudio Baseline model
  • an OpenStudio workflow for each scenario defined in the XML file
• enable simulation of the baseline model and all workflows and
• insert simulation results back into the Building XML file.

Installation

The BuildingSync Gem requires installation of OpenStudio, specifically OpenStudio v3.4.0. The newer versions of OpenStudio have minor breaking changes that have not been addressed in this repository yet. After OpenStudio is installed, then export the path of the folder that contains the openstudio.rb file to RUBYLIB environment variable (e.g., export RUBYLIB=/Applications/OpenStudio-3.4.0/Ruby)

After installing OpenStudio and setting the environment variable, then add this line to your application's Gemfile:

gem 'buildingsync', '0.2.1'

And then execute:

bundle install

Or install it yourself as:

gem install 'buildingsync'

Usage

All of the features described above are provided by the translator class, as shown in the following sample code. There are also BuildingSync Gem example files in this repository.

require 'buildingsync/translator'

building_sync_xml_file_path = 'path/to/bsync.xml'
out_path = 'path/to/output_dir'

# initializing the translator 
translator = BuildingSync::Translator.new(building_sync_xml_file_path, out_path)

# generating the OpenStudio Model and writing the osm file.
# path/to/output_dir/SR and path/to/output_dir/in.osm created
translator.setup_and_sizing_run

# generating the OpenStudio workflows and writing the osw files
# auc:Scenario elements with measures are turned into new simulation dirs
# path/to/output_dir/scenario_name
translator.write_osws

# run all simulations
translator.run_osws

# gather the results for all scenarios found in out_path,
# such as annual and monthly data for different energy
# sources (electricity, natural gas, etc.)
translator.gather_results(out_path)

# Add in UserDefinedFields, which contain information about the
# OpenStudio model run 
translator.prepare_final_xml

# write results to xml
# default file name is 'results.xml' 
file_name = 'abc-123.xml' 
translator.save_xml(file_name)

Testing

Check out the repository and then execute:

bundle install
bundle exec rake

Documentation

The documentation of the BuildingSync-Gem is done with Yard (https://yardoc.org) To generate the documentation locally do the following:

gem install yard
SITEMAP_BASEURL=https://buildingsync-gem.buildingsync.net bundle exec yard doc --plugin sitemap

Documentation for the develop branch is automatically released when code is merged into the branch.

Releasing

1. Update CHANGELOG.md
2. Run bundle exec rake rubocop:auto_correct
3. Update version in lib/buildingsync/version.rb
4. Create PR to main, after tests and reviews complete, then merge
5. Locally - from the main branch, run bundle exec rake release
6. On GitHub, go to the releases page and update the latest release tag. Name it “Version x.y.z” and copy the CHANGELOG entry into the description box.

TODO

• Support BuildingSync 2.3.0
• Update to OpenStudio version 3.2.0