Custom Variables/Filter Backup

[danylore]

Dear all,
I'm moving on another pc where I will install VE 2014 fresh new. In this months I've create a lot of custom variables and filter for variable selection in Vista PRO and I don't want to lose them or rewrite them. How can I "export" or save those information? There is no a specific function inside the software and I haven't find a configuration file in program folder/document folder (maybe I'm wrong...).

Can someone help me? Many thanks!

[JohnM]

All the VistaPro custom variables and filters are located in the ProgramData folder on your machine.

The exact location is %ProgramData%\ies\apps\VistaPro, which by default would look something like C:\ProgramData\ies\apps\VistaPro.

Simply copy this folder to your new machine.

I hope this helps.

Regards,
John

[danylore]

Hi John,
thank you very much, this works perfectly!

[JohnLloyd]

Hi Dany,

Out of interest, what are the custom variables you use? I've never really bothered with them.

John

[danylore]

Hi John,
sorry I've didn't notice your post until now!
I've tried to use the custom variables to create some more customized output to consider or not the air load. I explain it better: when you make a calculation to dimension an HVAC system, at room level you can only consider the peak load using Cooling + dehum plant load. If you select it, you can add to you report all the "partial" variables for that room like Solar Gain, Lighting, etc.

But this variable always consider the air system contribution (if present)! What if I have a centralized air treatment system and I want to calculate the peak load in a room exluding the air load? It's possible to manually sum and combine all the variables without air but you lose the possibility to create a report with the peak and all the variables. So I've simply create a few custom variables for both sensible e latent loads summing all the contributions except air so that I can create a report as I need.

in addition to this I've also created some custom variables also for change units (mc/h instead of l/s), to calculate chiller parial load, to sum external and internal conduction, for example.

Custom variables is an amazing tools for me but is still a lot buggy. At the end with 2014 version it was impossible to use them, I hope that with the new 2015 version they will work better.

[JohnM]

Can you explain what issues you've been experiencing with the feature?

Your feedback would be greatly appreciated.

[JohnLloyd]

I created a custom variable to let me have the floor area of a room available as Vista variable. Unfortunately the floor area reported by my custom variable is a little different to that reported by ModelIT (with either inner volumes switched on or off). The difference are minor so must be due to rounding errors, but are significant enough to put doubt in my mind.

[JohnM]

Each variable in Vista[Pro] displays values to a fixed number of decimal places.
This is determined by the unit type and could explain the rounding issues you've seen.

The floor area value reported is the internal floor area (i.e. it takes into account internal volumes) and should match what is reported in ModelIT.

A quick test you can do is to create a custom room variable with the expression '( A * 0 ) + RA' and set the Units to 'Moisture content - kg/kg'. This will display values to 5 decimal places.

[danylore]

The most frequent bug imply that the custom variable is not visualized in the results (for example in peak tables). This happen randomly, usually after spending some time in Vista Pro selecting and deselecting variables.
Here some examples:

1) Custom variable correctly displayed


2) Same variable after a while


3) Multiple selection of custom variables and normal variables


Other times it happened that some rooms have the correct value, others have a blank value (referring to the first image is like the first half of the table has correct values, the other half blank cells)

I hope it will be usefull to fix the bugs, for me custom variables is an incredible tool!

[JohnM]

If you can send in your model (including the aps results file) and your custom variables too, I can take a closer look.

Submit your files via the support form here.
Make sure to reference this forum topic.

Update:
Dany, as of VE 2015 FP2 the issue you were experiencing has been fixed.