Advice wanted: Updates to Spider gbXML Viewer for OpenStudio

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The National renewable Energy Laboratory is asking for an update to the version of the Spider gbXML Viewer to be embedded in their upcoming release of OpenStudio 2.9.0.What should be inthe update to help your workflow?

The development of the beta version is well underway. We hope that you will look at the beta and advise us as to what should be added or what should be taken away to fulfill the mission.

Here is a screenshot showing the new version but running in OpenStudio 2.8.0.

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You may try things out yourself by copying this file Spider gbXML Viewer for OpenStudio 2.9.0 into the “bin” folder of the OpenStudio program. Then run the app by following the instructions in OpenStudio documentation here: Working with gbXML.

Even simpler: you can also view and run the beta version in your browser by clicking on this link:

Spider gbXML Viewer test page.

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The full version of the Spider gbXML Viewer - with many bells and whistles - is available here:

Spider gbXML Viewer ‘Maevia’

BTW, the Viewer for Open Studio has a tough - and limited - mission:

  • Run in very old browsers and old hardware
  • Deploy into complicated and secure large organization environments
  • Deploy using almost any devops framework
  • Be instantly useful to any user
  • Provide immediately useful insights into the model in view

Can you help us get there?

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Hi @TheoA,

Thanks so much for working on this. What I would like to use the Spider for is surface filtering function, like showing the envelope only, or ground floors, etc. This will be very useful for energy modeling, to check if all boundary conditions are modeled correctly.

Thanks,
Mingbo

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@MingboPeng

Surface filtering - by surface type, by level and much more - are all available in the full Spider gbXML Viewer ‘Maevia’. The issue is: can we get all these features to work in browsers from 2015 (which is what OS uses) and how much time and testing will this take?

Once we start getting feedback from NREL, then we can work on adding more features. Or if you have a particular workflow in mind that needs a stripped down Viewer then let’s talk,