I'd like to incorporate version control (Git) into my workflow and am wondering which files within the model directory would be required to successfully revert back to a previous version of the model. Are there IES VE users who have done this before or does the IES VE consulting team use version control internally?
It's relatively easy to use version control with OpenStudio because the model is contained in a single file. With IES VE the number of files required for a complete model might make this difficult, but the benefit is potentially greater since the file sizes are several times larger.
Version Control for IES VE Models
-
MatthewSteen
- VE Graduate

- Posts: 51
- Joined: Mon Nov 17, 2014 5:43 pm
- Location: Denver, CO, USA
Version Control for IES VE Models
Building Performance Engineer | Ambient Energy | http://ambient-e.com/
Q+A Resource for the Building Energy Modeling Community | https://unmethours.com/questions/
Q+A Resource for the Building Energy Modeling Community | https://unmethours.com/questions/
Re: Version Control for IES VE Models
Hi,
The VE Project structure is such that all files in the project will make up parts of the model and they can't be out of sync so if you are using VCS then it would need to have a way of preserving the states of all files in the subfolders together. This is why we usually recommend using the archive facility for your backups, this way it creates a single file (cabinet) of all the project files and their state and structure is preserved when it is extracted again.
Development have an intention to develop a single file format for VE projects but it is still some way away
Phil
The VE Project structure is such that all files in the project will make up parts of the model and they can't be out of sync so if you are using VCS then it would need to have a way of preserving the states of all files in the subfolders together. This is why we usually recommend using the archive facility for your backups, this way it creates a single file (cabinet) of all the project files and their state and structure is preserved when it is extracted again.
Development have an intention to develop a single file format for VE projects but it is still some way away
Phil
IES Worldwide Technical Support
Re: Version Control for IES VE Models
Matthew,
It's not really meant for the purpose, but git will work with any filetypes, not just text files. So if you have your model saved in a git repository, you could revert back to any time that you commited changes. Of course you wouldn't be able to dig in and see these changes for the non-text files, but I think it would still serve your purpose.
I'd agree with Phil though that it's best to keep a cab, especially for major changes, but the cabs would be part of your git repository too!
Ben
It's not really meant for the purpose, but git will work with any filetypes, not just text files. So if you have your model saved in a git repository, you could revert back to any time that you commited changes. Of course you wouldn't be able to dig in and see these changes for the non-text files, but I think it would still serve your purpose.
I'd agree with Phil though that it's best to keep a cab, especially for major changes, but the cabs would be part of your git repository too!
Ben

