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What are the Best Unit Settings in SketchUp for OpenStudio Models?

asked 2015-12-16 10:09:44 -0600

updated 2016-10-20 13:32:19 -0600

I would like to draw an OpenStudio 1.9 envelope in the Sketchup 2015 OS plugin and avoid having tiny surfaces (area under 0.1 m²) or adjacent surfaces with tiny spaces between them (<1/16"). These two issues seem to be causing problems when I run the intersect and surface matching scripts. Is there an ideal Sketchup setting under "Window -> Model Info -> Units", particularly for the settings "Precision" and "Enable length snapping"? I have been using the program defaults seen in the screenshot below, but would like to know if changing these settings will affect the OpenStudio model, and if so, does anyone recommend a setting? @David Goldwasser or @macumber?

When I run the surface matching script, I have found many surfaces do no match because they have a tiny space between them (<1/16"), or a tiny surface on one of the surfaces (a line <1/16" from another line). These cannot be seen unless I zoom way in. I am not intentionally drawing tiny lines, and am thinking they are a result of Sketchup's precision and length snapping settings. image description

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This is an interesting question, however I haven't tried out different settings enough to know what works best.

macumber's avatar macumber  ( 2015-12-16 11:15:14 -0600 )edit

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answered 2015-12-16 10:54:09 -0600

The OpenStudio surface matching method uses code from OpenStudio's API vs. SketchUp's so these settings won't directly affect them. As far as drawing clean geometry, I would focus on using SketchUp's inference engine, in particular make sure when you draw lines you are snapping "To End" , to "Edge" etc so that SketchUp will precisely align them. I have not had to alter the default units preferences, but I don't think it will hurt. One case that is notoriously for matching issues is importing geometry from another Cad tool into SketchUp. I don't know if the settings in this dialog affect geometry importing, but it may. Lastly keep in mind, use the OpenStudio measure for geometry intersection instead of using the intersect in the surface matching dialog in the SketchUp plugin.

Here is a link to the measure. You can run it in apply measures now in the OpenStudio application. https://bcl.nrel.gov/node/39833

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Asked: 2015-12-16 10:09:44 -0600

Seen: 317 times

Last updated: Dec 16 '15