Efficient way to draw geometry in Rhino/Grasshopper

grasshopper honeybee-legacy
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Hello,

I am still pretty new to Ladybug Tools and have watch many videos and tutorials on the workflow. I am starting to understand the Ladybug Tools work flow (which is quite different from our current IES software). I have several questions specific to drawing/setting building geometry in Rhino/GH. As I have not seen any videos that focus on these subjects (if there are, pls point me to them).

  1. What is the best way to draw multi-zone geometry in Rhino/Gh from 2D PDF/CAD plans? From outline to 3D closed polylines?

  2. Can live parametric objects generated in Grasshopper be used for geometry or do they have to be baked in for use in HB?

  3. How do you create custom names for individual zones instead of auto-generated names?

Thank you!
Eugene

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Welcome @eugene_s to the community.

This post is useful. Either you can create zone from masses or from surfaces. In both cases, you can specify zone names. This is easy when the number of zones is small. But becomes a challenge when hundreds of zones are involved.

Yes. That is why Honeybee lives in grasshopper

Import them in Rhino. Create surfaces. extrude surface, cap polysurfaces.
You can also create a workflow to do this in grasshopper.

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Thanks @devang this is very helpful!

In regards to zone naming, I will explore the suggested script more. But our projects have many hundreds of zones since we often work on high-rise residential buildings with many non-typical floors. I would like to utilize Honeybee to calculate design cooling/heating to size room AC equipment (in addition to energy analysis) that is why we split into many zones. Are there other methods that would suit large amount of zones?

Thanks,
Eugene

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You will most likely go forward by creating zones from masses. The only way to name them is when you’re creating zones using massToZone component. If your zones are not going to change later on then you can think about this one-time investment in naming zones.

@MingboPeng has used Honeybee to model buildings with hundreds of zones. Hope he can share his exxperience.

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@eugene_s
I typically manage zones by program types on layers. Here is an example: Customized bldgProgram & zoneProgram lists - #9 by MingboPeng

After getting geometry organized, I will create customized program types for each of them so that I can be very flexible later when adjusting loads or schedules.

In the brand new version of Honeybee (for Rhino+Grasshopper) that we are working on, this workflow will be officially recommended, and there will be more useful tools to support this workflow.

Hope this is helpful,
Mingbo

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Thanks @devang and @MingboPeng, I will try your suggested method/workflow.