A side note: I always emphasize to my students that when you are using OpenStudio, you are dealing with three different file formats at the same time: SKP, OSM and IDF. You need to know which one is which, and each one contains what.
What I always teach: they all contains objects, but the objects may not work well together:
- SKP: never save to this format when modeling in OpenStudio. You can open SKP, but only if you need the SketchUp objects as a trace to your OSM model, e.g. when the architect gives you their SketchUp model. SKP object contains only geometry, but this is not OSM object (unless you convert it to OSM like projecting it as loose geometry), and definitely not IDF object.
- OSM: only save your model to this format. OSM contains a subset of EnergyPlus objects, plus additional objects not recognized by EnergyPlus.
- IDF: this is the end result that eventually simulated by EnergyPlus. OpenStudio will create this file right before simulating it in EnergyPlus (or you can export it in SketchUp plugin, but will only contain geometry). You need to know where this file is located if you run OpenStudio, because the error messages from EnergyPlus refer to IDF file, not to OSM file.
