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interior partitions in sketchUp are set as walls

asked 2016-10-18 07:49:34 -0500

poppo92's avatar

updated 2017-05-04 06:07:22 -0500

In my sketchup model I used the "surface matching". Then if i use "section plane" I can see trhough the inspector that the interior walls are not set as "interior partition surface", but as simple walls. I'm afraid that then OpenStudio could read these walls as exterior, and not as interior. Do you know a easy way to set these walls as interior surfaces? Or will OpenStudio recognize them automatically as internal, because of the boundary conditions?image description

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answered 2016-10-18 09:45:41 -0500

updated 2016-10-18 09:47:13 -0500

"Interior Partitions" has a very specific meaning in OpenStudio. These are surfaces that sit inside of their own group within a space that represent surfaces that are not thermal zone boundaries but represent a physical surface in the building that you want to model. Modeling cubicles would be an example use case. This is generally only done if you are going to use Radiance for daylighting, as the interior partition surfaces either are not exported to EnergyPlus or are exported just as internal mass objects.

An "Interior Surface" is a surface that has a "Surface" boundary condition meaning that it is thermally tied to another surface instead of the ground or the outdoor environment. The Surface Type being "Wall" just indicates that it is not a roof or floor, and doesn't indicate if it is an interior or exterior wall.

On your screenshot you do have a "Surface" boundary condition for the the "Outside Boundary Condition Field". As a note you can't manually set that field to "Surface"; instead by setting the "Outside Boundary Condition Object" to another surface, the boundary condition changes. In this case surface matching found "Surface 410".

To quickly inspect the boundary conditions of many surfaces, use the "Render by Boundary Condition" render mode as described here.

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thank you very much for the answer. Everything is clear now

poppo92's avatar poppo92  ( 2016-10-18 11:39:18 -0500 )edit

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Asked: 2016-10-18 07:49:34 -0500

Seen: 1,030 times

Last updated: Oct 18 '16