Question About Future Recipes for HB-Radiance

atthaillahb · October 4, 2020, 3:30pm

Wonderful job, I have tested it and I am amazed of the calculation speed. Furthermore, Just wondering for the HB-Radiance, I am assuming it has fully used 2PH-DDS matrix method of calculation. Will other matrix methods (5PH and 6PH) will be available under LBT? Or they are already there?

chris · October 4, 2020, 4:25pm

Hi @atthaillahb ,

This question is probably best answered by @mostapha as he has the roadmap for the Radiance recipes that will be added before the next stable release. I can tell you that we plan to generally recommend that people use 2-phase unless they really know what they’re doing with the higher-phase studies. Mostapha will probably have more to say.

atthaillahb · October 5, 2020, 2:46am

Thanks @chris for your response. Again this is amazing job. I might have to use higher phase for my research and I have discussed with @sarith through email communications and read some his articles. That’s why I am wondering about higher-phase for Radiance. With the speed demonstrated in LBT 1.0.0, I am thinking, so much can be achieved in shorter time.

mostapha · October 5, 2020, 8:07am

It’s slightly different from DDS method and calculates the sun positions more accurately. But yes, it does calculate an accurate direct sunlight contribution.

It will be but the details needs to be figured out. From the experience from our initial release with Honeybee[+] making 3 and 5Phase available can be tricky as most of the users will not take the time to understand the logic behind the methods and misuse the components. We have to make sure they will come with enough documentation and resources to avoid those issues.

atthaillahb · October 5, 2020, 9:34am

Thanks @mostapha for your answer. Hope a good news of integration the higher phased in LBT come in the near future. Anyway HB [+] is also wonderful. Even I feel it is still not as efficient LBT in term of calculation speed. I see this (LBT) as a game changer in daylight simulation practice. Again, You and your team and everyone involved are awesome!

atthaillahb · October 12, 2020, 12:52am

Hi @mostapha and @chris,
I am wondering where is the .bat files go in the LBT 1.0.0? While in HB[+] I still can find it in my working directory.

Atta

chris · October 12, 2020, 8:03pm

Hey @atthaillahb ,

All of the simulations are run out of the following folder: C:\Users\[USERNAME]\simulation. We aren’t using .bat files for any of the recipe execution anymore (we use the Python subprocess module) but you can see the command that is being run to execute the simulation, you can see it here in the “HB Run Recipe” component:

github.com

ladybug-tools/honeybee-grasshopper-core/blob/master/honeybee_grasshopper_core/src/HB Run Recipe.py#L111-L119


queenbee_exe = os.path.join(hb_folders.python_scripts_path, 'queenbee.exe') \
    if os.name == 'nt' else os.path.join(hb_folders.python_scripts_path, 'queenbee')
cmds = [queenbee_exe, 'luigi', 'translate', _recipe.path, _folder_,
        '-i', inputs_json, '--workers', _cpu_count_]
if rad_folders.radlib_path:  # set the RAYPATH environment variable
    cmds.extend(['--env', 'RAYPATH={}'.format(rad_folders.radlib_path)])
if rad_folders.radbin_path:  # set the PATH environment variable
    cmds.extend(['--env', 'PATH={}'.format(rad_folders.radbin_path)])
cmds.append('--run')

atthaillahb · October 14, 2020, 4:48am

Thanks @chris, I’ll have a look at it.