How to implement a custom OpenStudio measure

openstudio-measure
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Hi all,

I recently became interested in writing my own open studio measures to help automate some processes. I followed the steps found on NREL's github site titled Measure Writer's Reference Guide and have a very basic script I wanted to test to see if I'm understanding things correctly.

I'm likely being dense here, but now that I've written my ruby script, I want to begin debugging it and testing it. How does one go about applying their measure.rb script to a given osm? Is there a custom way for me to import it into OpenStudio to use like other OS measures from the BCL or should I be testing it in ruby elsewhere?

Any information regarding how to actually apply user generated scripts would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

681

jugonzal07

asked 2016-08-05 09:25:53 -0500

4.4k

__AmirRoth__

updated 2017-08-05 07:44:12 -0500

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did you create the measure from inside or outside OS/PAT?

MatthewSteen (2016-08-05 09:57:50 -0500) edit

I created it outside OS/PAT (I wrote it from scratch in RubyMine). From what I saw, if I create it from within OS, OS will create a sort of "template" for users to fill in the various parts of an OS measure (e.g. the arguments, run, and name function). Does it do more than that?

jugonzal07 (2016-08-05 10:28:19 -0500) edit

Starting a measure from the template also creates the measure.xml file that contains information about the measure that the application uses to run the measure using 'Apply Measure Now' or in the Measures tab. This way you can test/debug your measure by running it through the application. Another way is to set up a measure test, as explained in the Measure Testing section of the Measure Writing Reference Guide.

ericringold (2016-08-05 10:51:29 -0500) edit

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To create a new measure:

Set your My Measures directory
- Preferences > Change My Measures Directory
Create a new measure from the Measure tab
- Measures > Library
Name the measure
Describe the measure (optional)
Choose the appropriate measure type and taxonomy
Create measure and open for editing

The measure folder contains the measure.rb file, which contains the measure code, and the measure.xml, which contains the measure meta data that is updated automatically when the RB file is changed.

Open the measure.rb file and start editing it to write your measure or if you've already created a measure outside of OS/PAT, paste in the code and save.

If the measure is an OpenStudio measure, it can be tested in OS using the Apply Measure Now feature. If it's an EnergyPlus measure or Reporting measure, it can be tested by attaching it to the model as an Always Run Measure. Alternatively, OpenStudio's API can be used to test measure snippets from a command line/terminal (see the Optional - Install Ruby instructions).