Can I use the OpenStudio Python bindings to intersect surfaces and perform surface matching?

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I have a model of a building which has a number of adjacent buildings, some of which share a wall with the main building. My plan is to model the adjacent buildings as shading blocks, but where the buildings are connected the connecting walls should be adiabatic.

This is in models that need to be generated using Python with no manual intervention, and the geometry involved in intersecting surfaces is far from simple, especially when it needs to be converted into EnergyPlus surfaces, other sides need setting, etc.

Since this is a solved problem in the OpenStudio SketchUp plugin, is it possible to use the Python bindings to perform surface intersection and surface matching? I'm asking the question here before following the instructions for building the Python bindings as I don't want to have wasted my time getting Visual Studio set up if I won't be able to do what I need to do in the end.

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Jamie Bull

asked 2015-08-27 18:37:21 -0500, updated 2015-09-06 11:38:24 -0500

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Yes it is possible. If you are working in an IDF based workflow you could translate your geometry from IDF to OSM, perform the intersections, then translate back to IDF. However, there is not currently a built in method to intersect a heat transfer surface with a shading surface. I had never thought of that before but it is a valid use case. The current intersect methods are here and here. We could change these methods to take a vector of PlanarSurface groups, then they would intersect shading and interior partition surfaces.

We used to post Python builds for major releases so you could play with this without having to build yourself. @MarkAdams or @Alex Swindler might know where we are stashing those.

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