Should I keep my version of OpenStudio up-to-date, and should I keep old versions?

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I just read that the guys form Group14 and NREL have added some new Measures to the BCL but the thing is that this new measures required the latest version of OpenStudio. I'm still working with the 1.4 version by the way.

Should I have my OpenStudio always up to date and never go back to my previous versions or should I keep my previous versions just in case?

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Julian Nino

asked 2015-02-10 07:44:09 -0500

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Jamie Bull

updated 2015-02-10 08:06:15 -0500

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Hi @Julian Nino. In case you hadn't seen and wondered why the edits, this link should explain. I also made the title more descriptive so hopefully someone will answer sooner.

Jamie Bull (2015-02-10 08:07:53 -0500) edit

Hi @Jamie Bull I'll avoid that on future post.

Julian Nino (2015-02-10 08:40:41 -0500) edit

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One issue that may or may not impact your decision - OS version 1.6 Sketchup plugin only works with 2015, and not previous versions. If you move to OS version 1.6 but don't have Sketchup 2015, this may cause you problems when you try to open the model for editing in Sketchup.

Perhaps some of the OS team here can work around this issue?

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Benjamin

answered 2015-02-10 10:57:17 -0500, updated 2015-02-10 10:57:50 -0500

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Good to know I'm still working with sketch up 8, I'm not a big fan of the newer versions.

Julian Nino (2015-02-10 11:26:25 -0500) edit

Thanks for pointing that out @Benjamin. It is true that we only support SketchUp 2015, although you can manually copy plugin files to SketchUp 2014. SketchUp 8 and SketchUp 2013, you are out of luck (unless you want a one way workflow where you use SketchUp 8 and old OpenStudio to create model and then bring it into 1.6.0. This works as long as you don't ever want to bring it back into SketchUp)

David Goldwasser (2015-02-10 12:07:44 -0500) edit

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This is a good question. Generally we think it is the best for people to have the latest major release of OpenStudio, as this gives access to the most recent features and bug fixes, however it isn't always critical to be on the very latest, and there may be times you don't want to, for example when you are working on a team and want to keep on the same versions. Universities also can typically only install once or twice a year. If you are working with some team members who may be using older versions of OpenStudio then it isn't a bad idea to keep old versions around. The OpenStudio SketchUp plugin typically is setup to use whatever version was more recently installed. There is a way to switch the Plugin between versions but requires hand editing configuration files.

To go back more specifically to your question about measures. In general measures can work on older versions of OpenStudio, but what version is supported is up to the measure writer. By default if yo make a measure in OpenStudio it will be flagged as 1.6. If you as the measure writer know that you are not using new objects or API methods or object types, you can back version it to for example 1.3.0. The GUI looks at the text below from the measure.xml file to decide if it should show the measure.

  <version>
    <software_program>OpenStudio</software_program>
    <identifier>1.6.0</identifier>
    <min_compatible>1.6.0</min_compatible>
  </version>

If you can't see the Group14 measures because your Installer is older, you could manually download them via the BCL website and alter the measure.xml, it may or may not work; but you should probably first ask Group14 if they used newer objects. If they did use newer objects or API methods, then you don't want to even bother trying to use it without newer versions of OpenStudio.