IES-VE User Forum

Hi Phil
Well, that's good to know, at least. I did send you a PM on 26th Feb, in which I copied the auto-response I was now getting each time I send an email to support. I also used the support contact form twice on that same day, once replying to an email from Pete, I can't remember the content of the second one - but as I say, neither were replied to.

Jerry

I feel your pain Jerry! Having been working with IES for a few year now I have encountered many of the issue/bugs you mentioned.
Since I've came up with my own list I thought I'll post it here for the record.

Generally, the IES software should focus on the User Interface which is terrible and full of bugs.
It should be updated to a modern look as used across many other software nowadays, everything should be arranged in a ribbon style.
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/librar ... s.85).aspx
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/librar ... s.85).aspx

But for now it is the minor things that are driving the users crazy like: (in no particular order)
• Can't have more than one project open at a time (requires to launch IES again separately)
• When renaming a room, can't use arrow keys to move the cursor!
• If the mouse cursor leaves the name editing area it unselects the live selection and you can’t type anymore!
• Can't hit TAB key to switch data entry fields especially in the Range window in vista !!
• In Vista pro, it is not as easy to quickly select variables as in vista.
• No keyboard shortcut for zooming features
• No keyboard shortcut for plan view
• It is not possible to merge several rooms at once
• It is not possible to create sub-groups in room groups
• The "save project as" has no option to save the vista results files associated
• UK NCM System type drop-down list in wizard is not in alphabetical order!!
• The Edit Glasing tools is confusing not very user friendly (Azimuth and tilts !?)
• Macroflo proportions dropdown list choices are confusing and not very user friendly Length/height (user needs to calculate every time to make sure)
• The 10 alternative skies in model viewer II are all cloudy haha!

Just for the record I thought I'll add my own list:
generally, the IES software should focus on the User Interface which is terrible and full of bugs.
It should be updated to a modern look as used across many other software nowadays, everything should be arranged in a ribbon style.
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/librar ... s.85).aspx
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/librar ... s.85).aspx

But for now it is the minor things that are driving the users crazy like: (in no particular order)
• Can't have more than one project open at a time (requires to launch IES again separately)
• When renaming a room, can't use arrow keys to move the cursor!
• If the mouse cursor leaves the name editing area it unselects the live selection and you can’t type anymore
• Can't hit TAB key to switch data entry fields especially in the Range window in vista.
• In Vista pro, it is not as easy to quickly select variables as in vista.
• No keyboard shortcut for zooming features
• No keyboard shortcut for plan view
• It is not possible to merge several rooms at once
• It is not possible to create sub-groups in room groups
• The "save project as" has no option to save the vista results files associated
• UK NCM System type drop-down list in wizard is not in alphabetical order!
• The Edit Glasing tools is confusing not very user friendly (Azimuth and tilts !?)
• Macroflo proportions dropdown list choices are confusing and not very user friendly Length/height (user needs to calculate every time to make sure)
• The 10 alternative skies in model viewer II are all cloudy haha!
Regards,
Max

This is a pretty annoying and immature thread. There also seems to be a trend of rudeness in your posts across this site. I'd certainly ignore you if I continued to get responses from you in that tone.

Having said that, there are of course issues and bugs with the VE, as will all software, butdespite what you might think, other users have different preferences to what should be fixed than you do, and the IES team are constantly working to make the changes that make the most sense on the whole. I know this because over the past few years I have provided similar feedback and lists to the developers as you have, though with a little less whining, and for the most part I've received responses either in the form of changes to the software, or explanations on why they deliberately didn't make those changes, or aren't currently prioritizing them. I'd suspect that I received these responses because I didn't go on massive immature rants on online forums like a teenager who doesn't understand why their homework is so hard. Grow up.

I have worked on more than 50 energy modeling projects using IES<VE>. It is DEFINITELY my favorite! None of the other modeling software could match its complexity along with flexibility! ModelIT and APACHEHVAC are my favorite modules. If you ever used eQuest, TraneTrace, OpenStudio, TYNSYS, the pain of developing geometry is beyond speaking. Or lots of energy modelers just don't care about geometry. But if you can't have a detailed geometry, how could you say you have a good model? Just defining area and shape? Also, I think for title 24 projects, using detailed geometry in IES and generate XML file to CBECC-COM is the BEST! Using SketchUp is soooo painful!

The way how IES handles HVAC is way more advanced than other software. With more and more complex HVAC systems nowadays, I really appreciate the flexibility in APACHEHVAC.

Energy modeling is never being an easy task. It needs so much knowledge of different building aspects. And also patience! I enjoy very much learning energy modeling with IES<VE>!

Respectfully,
Allen

I recently re-read this thread out of a kind of morbid curiosity and I'll admit that many of the issues the OP lists are things I've had first hand experience with and, yes, they can be annoying and I chuckled reading through them. But none of it has ever caused me massive problems because I simply adapted and found ways to avoid the issues. Also, I don't seem to experience anywhere near the amount of software crashes as the OP seems to have but that could be down to the differences in the ways we use the software.

Now, what I'm about to say might upset some people, but I think it's quite important for anyone starting out with the VE.

IES is a specialist software with a relatively small user base. Compared with other professional software like AutoCAD or Revit or 3D Studio Max, IES has far less resources at its disposal to throw at development and so quality of life improvements like automating updates and making icons nicer will tend to take a back seat to functional stuff.

Is IES perfect? Hell no.
Would I like the VE to have the same slick user interface as a Mac? Sure I would.
Is it ever going to happen? Not in a million years.

Of course the above does not absolve IES of any responsibility to make the software more user friendly, but I'd argue that they have added features over the years that have made a much bigger difference to my efficiency than remembering which zoom level I was at when I return back to my high level model view. Features such as tabular room data, the ability to export to and import from Excel and the Python API are huge additions and, with the effort to learn to use them, can completely change the way one builds and works with models and results data. Compared to the alternatives available, IES is still by far the most user friendly option.

As a specialist software user and a pragmatist, I have come to accept that much of the software I use in a professional basis is going to feel clunky and old fashioned compared with the software I use in my personal life. When using MS Office or Windows or Mac OS, sure, I expect the user interface to be basically flawless and I tend to sit back and wait for the developers to fix minor annoyances rather than attempt to work around them.

But if I took this approach with IES I would be going mad, much like the OP.

Basically the TLDR is this: Don't expect IES to adapt to you. You need to adapt to it. If it was easy, anyone could do it and we'd be out of a job. I'm not saying that's the way it should be, simply that's the way it is.

You can stand around shouting at the rain clouds for making you wet, or you can bring an umbrella and get on with your day.

After using IESVE for a few months now I must add to this "very immature rant".

As many of you, IESVE is driving me crazy and I am considering switching to a more user-friendly software.

Some of the worst issues I have experienced are:

- You can't edit geometry that is not defined as a "room". No way to even move it, the only editing function that works is "copy". That is annoying and unnecessary.
- even when you build very simple geometry, using the grid and grid snap, you get overlapping geometries for no apparent reason.
- Face snapping doesn't work most of the times, especially not, when it is about very small distances, so there is no way to repair overlapping geometries other than redrawing.
- Why is the object snap yellow on a white background?!
- Sometimes you get totally wrong simulation results without any error message. This happens to me very often when it comes to windows: Solar gains are just not calculated correctly, even though there are no gemetry issues in the model report.
- VistaPro outputs seem to be in random order and there seems to be no way to change this.
- VistaPro can't give you results on a per-unit of m² floor area or facade area, so you have to export all your results to Excel and calculate those values manually. Pretty lame for a module that calls itself "pro".
- Apache doesn't allow to define materials or constructions with adaptive paramters (except for the shading elements in windows), doesn't allow to model passive design elemtents such as TIM or PCM, so as soon as you want to simulate a facade system more complex than a louvre that goes up and down, you need a different software.

Interesting observations there. I might have a few suggestions for you:

-You can't edit geometry that is not defined as a "room". No way to even move it, the only editing function that works is "copy". That is annoying and unnecessary.

As long as you are in ModelIT you should be able to edit local shading geometry (for example) by editing vertices, using the divide tool, with the connect and merge tool or the partition tool. This is the way it works for me so I'm a little confused by this one.

- even when you build very simple geometry, using the grid and grid snap, you get overlapping geometries for no apparent reason.

Check your snaps. IES is terrible at intelligently snapping but there's almost always a reason for this.

- Face snapping doesn't work most of the times, especially not, when it is about very small distances, so there is no way to repair overlapping geometries other than redrawing.

Never use face snapping TBH so I'll take your word for that.

- Why is the object snap yellow on a white background?!

Agreed this is a silly default, but the colours can be changed in the settings. I like to change my background to black.

- Sometimes you get totally wrong simulation results without any error message. This happens to me very often when it comes to windows: Solar gains are just not calculated correctly, even though there are no gemetry issues in the model report.

Never noticed this myself. Cant comment.

- VistaPro outputs seem to be in random order and there seems to be no way to change this.

Yes, this is a bit irritating although I've noticed that it is often dependent upon the order you select the variables in VistaPro. I deal with it by setting up V and H Lookup commands in excel so that when I update information and re-paste, the order doesn't matter.

- VistaPro can't give you results on a per-unit of m² floor area or facade area, so you have to export all your results to Excel and calculate those values manually. Pretty lame for a module that calls itself "pro".

VistaPro is already complicated enough. Frankly I think keeping the outputs in a simple format and allowing users to modify them manually is the lesser of the evils. I guess that's a difference of opinion.

- Apache doesn't allow to define materials or constructions with adaptive paramters (except for the shading elements in windows), doesn't allow to model passive design elemtents such as TIM or PCM, so as soon as you want to simulate a facade system more complex than a louvre that goes up and down, you need a different software.

Fair enough.