How to start working in OpenStudio app with an empty Library tab

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I am considering using OpenStudio to model complex, prototype residential buildings. (I have chosen OpenStudio over BEopt because BEopt isn't quite suitable for my use case for several reasons.)

Because (as far as I can tell) a comprehensive library of low-rise residential components is still not available in the Building Component Library and because none of the default OpenStudio libraries are intended for low-rise residential buildings, I would like to start with a blank slate when I create a new OpenStudio model. In other words, I would like to start without default libraries. What is the recommended way to do this?

Here is what I have discovered so far (please correct me if I am wrong):

The two libraries (hvac_libarary.osm and office_default.osm) located in the Resources/default/ folder are automatically loaded.
Removing them in the Preferences > Change Default Libraries dialog doesn't work because they automatically reappear when I reopen Change Default Libraries and they still populate the Library tab. I assume this happens because the app automatically loads everything in the default/ folder.
When I manually remove the hvac_library.osm and office_default.osm files from the default/ folder and then try to repeat the step above, I get a "Failed to load the following libaries..." error that references these same files. If I acknowledge the error a few times, it eventually goes away and the library contents are removed from the Library tab on the right side of the interface.
When I create a new OpenStudio model after manually removing the two aforementioned files, these file paths still appear in the Change Default Libraries dialog, but the library contents do not appear in the Library tab.

Am I using the best possible approach to start with an "empty" OpenStudio model? Eventually, I would like to populate the Libarary with my own custom residential libraries that I create in BCL, but I do not want the Library tab to be "contaminated" with library contents that will never be used.

MikeWazz

asked 2018-06-29 02:45:09 -0500, updated 2018-06-29 15:02:09 -0500

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Maybe there's a bug or some additional documentation needed on default library selection, but you can get something like what you want by deleting all of the contents of the files (after maybe saving a backup first) rather than deleting the files. It does seem to want to have those files all the time. That may be intentional, but the app seemed to work OK when I tried it just now.

Deleting the file contents is probably not a great idea, but the main reason I am answering is to say that I think you're conflating "model" and "library" here. The model itself doesn't necessarily include all those objects just because they are available in the app library. If you change the title/question to reflect that, you might get a better answer, and it is possible that there's a bug here.

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Jason DeGraw

answered 2018-06-29 10:50:53 -0500

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Thanks @Jason DeGraw. I changed the title per your suggestion.

Some documentation about management of default libraries specifically and libraries in general would be helpful. The docs and videos touch on the topic of using the Library tab, but I can't find anything about library management (creation and removal, specifically).