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Getting started: Running Your First Simulations
In this article, you will learn how to quickly set up your project for simulations on infrared.city. You will discover how to edit the site context, manipulate models, and run environmental simulations effortlessly. Follow these steps to get started.
In this tutorial you will learn how to quickly setup and run environmental simulations on your projects. Here, we want to go through the full process and get a first overview of how to add and run environmental analysis to your project.
In a more detail tutorial, we will go deep into how to identify the right simulation scenarios, and what to look for in the results.
Step 1: Edit the Site Context
After setting the location and site, the next step is to prepare the context for your simulations.
On the map, you can orbit by holding the right mouse button and zoom with the scroll wheel or with a double click. In order to navigate efficiently, and use the Pan tool, you need to click the hand button
Infrared.city allows you to directly perform necessary edit on geometry models directly on the web. To enable editing, click on the pencil icon. On mouse hoover, editable objects are displayed in a distinct color, making it easy to identify what can be modified.
You can see the keyboard shortcuts used to edit geometry on the bottom left information box.
The following operations are supported: move in XY plane; rotate in XY plane; and delete.
Moving buildings is done by holding the shift key while selecting the object. Rotating requires holding the alt key, and if you need to remove a building, you can simply press delete.
Step 2: Set Up Simulations
Once the context is ready, navigate to the Simulations Dashboard. This is where you define parameters and review results.
Click: Add Simulations to access the menu of available analisis and select from the dropdown list to add the desired simulation scenarios.
You can set multiple analysis with different parameters to run at the same time
Simulation models available
- Wind Speed Analysis: Simulates the airflow speed patterns at the pedestrian level. Allowing you to customize the input Direction and Speed, this can be used to evaluate the effect of a particular wind scenario.
- Wind Comfort Analysis: Delivers wind speed pattern results in a comfort classification defined according to Lawsons Criteria. The input wind speed and wind direction can be customized, allowing the comfort evaluation for a particular wind scenario
- Annual Wind Comfort Analysis: is connected to the weather data file and delivers pedestrian comfort classification by simulating up to 16 directions mapped to the local wind rose. The comfort classification is based on different standards in use.
Upcoming simulation models
- Heat stress analysis: provides a pedestrian-level evaluation of how often temperatures exceed the comfort range.
- Cold stress analysis: provides a pedestrian-level evaluation of how often temperatures are below the comfort range.
- Thermal comfort analysis: provides a pedestrian-level evaluation of what percentage of time temperatures fall within the comfort range.
Simulation settings can be customized by adding the desired parameters.
Once you have added the desired simulations, press Run All Simulations to generate the results based on your project geometry
You can now evaluate the results by pressing the Results dropdown menu.
You can chose to run all simulations at the same time, by pressing Run All Simulations; or run each simulation individually by pressing the play button with one simulation selected in the results panel.
Step 3: Upload your design
On infrared.city you can upload designs generated on your usual design software. Besides from using our plugins to connect directly your software to our solution, we also provide an easy upload option to add geometry from your device.
We currently support a few geometry formats, .obj being a well known standard.
Our geometry interpreter will be able to correctly display and communicate geometry to our model even in edge cases where the design model presents: intersections, unmatched vertexes, flipped faces, interior objects, etc.
In this example, we will use a design sample created in Rhino to understand the necessary settings.
We will select Export with Origin, select the geometry to export and set our origin point to be aligned to the bottom left corner of the building footprint. This will position the design aligned to the analysis plane origin point.
To correctly align your export geometry, you can draw a 500 x 500 m rectangle in your design software and use its lower left corner as the export reference point
In this case, our uploaded design will be placed relatively center to the analysis area. This can be drawn with precision using your design software capabilities
You may need to make a quick adjustment to the export settings depending on the defaults of your software. For this, please check the options or advanced options settings on the export menu.
It is a common standard for web based geometry formats to use a different coordinates system than the real world coordinates system. In some cases, the .obj export default options will align the design to coordinates axis where Y represents the up direction and Z represents the depth dimension.
In infrared.city, we mantain consistancy of coordinates throughout the web and software connectors, therefore we will map Y coordinates to Up direction on all platforms. Your .obj export must follow the real world coordinate system
If required to select a polygon count, or a level of subdivision, you may need to preview and experiment with different levels to ensure a good balance between accuracy and file size.
infrared.city uses geometry optimization processes to ensure even large and complex geometries can be added to the web app, but a smaller file size will be faster to manage.
You can now upload the exported file using the plus sign on the right toolbar.
Now you can run the simulation set, or use the play button on the left to re-run the active analysis
Step 4: Analyze and Iterate
With your design in place, rerun the simulations to observe its effects on the site. If the results indicate areas of discomfort or other issues, you can make further edits to your design, upload alternate versions, and reassess.
By running the Annual Wind Comfort simulation, we can also see the new design added an area categorized as Uncomfortable and an area that is not comfortable for seating or leisure activities according to the Lawsons general wind comfort criteria.
Through an iterative process you can improve the performance and minimize any negative impacts of your design. From testing minor position and orientation adjustments, to testing different designs, infrared.city offers a streamlined process that makes it easy to prepare, simulate, and refine your projects. By following these steps, you can ensure efficient and data-driven environmental analysis tailored to your specific design goals.
Are you still not using realtime environmental simulations?
In case you haven't yet, you can signup for a free trial here and test the full capabilities of our app and connectors.
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