Question-and-Answer Resource for the Building Energy Modeling Community
 | 1 | initial version |
As of April 2020, the OpenStudio Application (graphical user interface for making changes to OSM files, assigning measures, etc.) is managed by the OpenStudio Coalition. This is due to a Department of Energy decision to transition the of ownership/maintenance of the application from NREL to private third parties. This affects OpenStudio Application v1.0.0 or later, which made updates that require the use of SketchUp Pro 2019 or later to use the OpenStudio plug-in for SketchUp. You can see this under the OpenStudio plug-in for SketchUp compatibility matrix created by the OpenStudio Coalition.
If paying for a SketchUp Pro license is cost-prohibitive, then you have two options.
You can keep using the latest versions of the OpenStudio Application from the OpenStudio Coalition, but use the free FloorspaceJS tool to create geometry within the OpenStudio Application and not use SketchUp anymore. The downside of this is reduced flexibility in defining complex geometry that SketchUp provides.
Use previous versions of the OpenStudio Application managed by NREL (v2.9.1 or earlier), which works with SketchUp Make (free version) from 2017 or earlier. The downside of this is being forced to use a "static" older version of the application that works with EnergyPlus v9.2, so you will miss out on updates to the application and the SketchUp plug-in made since then. EnergyPlus updates will also keep occurring, but you could manually update EnergyPlus input files generated from the OpenStudio Application to the latest version if you really wanted or needed to.
| | 2 | No.2 Revision |
As of April 2020, the OpenStudio Application (graphical user interface for making changes to OSM files, assigning measures, etc.) is managed by the OpenStudio Coalition. This is due to a US Department of Energy decision to transition the of ownership/maintenance of the application from NREL to private third parties. This affects OpenStudio Application v1.0.0 or later, which made updates that require the use of SketchUp Pro 2019 or later to use the OpenStudio plug-in for SketchUp. You can see this under the OpenStudio plug-in for SketchUp compatibility matrix created by the OpenStudio Coalition.
If paying for a SketchUp Pro license is cost-prohibitive, then you have two options.
You can keep using the latest versions of the OpenStudio Application from the OpenStudio Coalition, but use the free FloorspaceJS tool to create geometry within the OpenStudio Application and not use SketchUp anymore. The downside of this is reduced flexibility in defining complex geometry that SketchUp provides.
Use previous versions of the OpenStudio Application managed by NREL (v2.9.1 or earlier), which works with SketchUp Make (free version) from 2017 or earlier. There is a separate compatibility matrix for these older versions. The downside of this is being forced to use a "static" older version of the application that works with EnergyPlus v9.2, so you will miss out on updates to the application and the SketchUp plug-in made since then. EnergyPlus updates will also keep occurring, but you could manually update EnergyPlus input files generated from the OpenStudio Application to the latest version if you really wanted or needed to.
| | 3 | No.3 Revision |
As of April 2020, the OpenStudio Application (graphical user interface for making changes to OSM files, assigning measures, etc.) is managed by the OpenStudio Coalition. This is due to a US Department of Energy decision to transition the of ownership/maintenance of the application from NREL to private third parties. This affects OpenStudio Application v1.0.0 or later, which made updates that require the use of SketchUp Pro 2019 or later to use the OpenStudio plug-in for SketchUp. You can see this under the OpenStudio plug-in for SketchUp compatibility matrix created by the OpenStudio Coalition.
If paying for a SketchUp Pro license is cost-prohibitive, then you have two options.
You can keep using the latest versions of the OpenStudio Application from the OpenStudio Coalition, but use the free FloorspaceJS tool to create geometry within the OpenStudio Application and not use SketchUp anymore. The downside of this is reduced flexibility in defining complex geometry that SketchUp provides.
Use previous versions of the OpenStudio Application managed by NREL (v2.9.1 or earlier), which works with SketchUp Make (free version) from 2017 or earlier. There is a separate compatibility matrix for these older versions. The downside of this is being forced to use a "static" older version of the application that works with EnergyPlus v9.2, so you will miss out on updates to the application and the SketchUp plug-in made since then. EnergyPlus updates will also keep occurring, but you could manually update EnergyPlus input files generated from the OpenStudio Application to the latest version if you really wanted or needed to.
