IES-VE User Forum

The fact that this isn't already a feature in some form is hard to believe. I've just finished updating a 90.1 PRM model inherited from a coworker - with 250 AHUs and over 400 total apacheHVAC systems. Reheat and demand controlled ventilation needed to be added to EVERY air handler manually by redrawing the schematic. Autosized fan and coil performance data needed to be overridden with actual scheduled performance data. Almost 1000 HVAC components to punch in performance data line by line, one by one. Who can I invoice for therapy I need after all that?

Kidding aside, I can't imagine I'm the only one who has found themselves in a similar situation. The task I needed to complete could have taken under an hour if this functionality existed (probably minutes), instead of a few days like it actually took. Having a tabular edit that can be copied/pasted from excel for things like fan performance values (TSP, motor/fan efficiencies, etc) and coil performance data - which often exist in the form of exported Revit schedules - makes so much sense logistically and couldn't be that difficult to implement (I'm basing that off the fact tabular editing functionality exists in many other areas in IES). The other issue with bulk editing HVAC system arrangements would be more difficult to implement I'd imagine, but could potentially save a great deal of time for many users.

It sounds like a large part of your issue is the workflow and nature of inheriting someone else's model (aside from the sheer scale of the project w/ 400 systems!!). Airside systems can (and should be) developed as a template first. Then they can be inserted into the .asp file in bulk with all the bells & whistles (i.e. Reheat, DCV as you mention) and then you can re-assign spaces/zones from grouping schemes (which is pretty quick if these are developed with such a workflow in mind). I'm also guessing some of your systems could be consolidated, but that's speculation.

No, there's no spreadsheet interface for bulk editing many HVAC systems.. However, there is a VE Python API that is targeted at this kind of efficiency, and would be very worthwhile for such a large project. It could write "hard sized" capacities, etc. to systems from a spreadsheet form, but you'd have to write the code to do so.