Kota, Sandeep (2020-05). Development of a Prototype for Integrating Building Information Model (BIM) with Daylighting Simulation Tools for Designing High-Performance Buildings. Doctoral Dissertation.
Thesis
The outcome of this study is the development of a prototype REVIT2RADIANCE add-in program for a Building Information Modeling (BIM) authoring tool Autodesk Revit to perform daylighting studies with ease by architects and simulation experts alike for designing High-Performance Buildings. To achieve this, first, a literature survey of several different daylighting calculation methods and tools was conducted to identify their capabilities and limitations, which include a comparative analysis of tools that are widely used and comparative analysis of daylighting simulation tools was ascertained from the comparative analysis. The results of the comparative analysis revealed that the state-of-the-art daylighting simulation tool RADIANCE has the most advanced capabilities to perform daylighting simulation, followed by RADIANCE based tool DAYSIM. Second, a survey of the previous methodologies that explored the integration of CAD (e.g., AutoCAD) or BIM authoring tools (e.g., Revit) with daylighting simulation tools was conducted. The survey provided: an overview of different aspects involved in the integration process; the shortcomings of each method; the necessity for a better integration process; and finally, the need for integration of Revit, a BIM-authoring tool with RADIANCE and DAYSIM. Third, for integrating Revit with RADIANCE and DAYSIM, different methods were explored. First, the conventional method that uses Radiance utilities that facilitate the translation of geometry created by various CAD-based tools into RADIANCE geometry and material information. Several significant limitations were observed in these methods, one of which is the partial translation involving only geometry but not the material information from Revit to RADIANCE. To address these limitations, a second method using a custom prototype REVIT2RADIANCE comprising of several Revit add-in programs was developed using the Revit API and C# programing language. The new prototype provides seamless integration of Revit with RADIANCE and DAYSIM, not only translating both geometry and material information but also simultaneously performing a daylighting simulation using RADIANCE and DAYSIM that generates results in a widely-used format. Finally, the prototype was tested using two different test cases, one with simple geometry and a second comprising of complex geometry. Validation of the prototype REVIT2RADIANCE was performed to check the accuracy in translating the Revit geometry and material in to RADIANCE and DAYSIM geometry and translating the material information necessary to perform the daylighting simulation. The first validation test was performed by visually comparing the Revit model with the rendered RADIANCE model, generated using the RVIEW program of the input file created by the prototype. In the second validation test, the parameter values of the RADIANCE Materials written by the prototype were compared with the parameter values obtained using hand calculations. Both the validation tests confirmed the accuracy in the translation of geometry and material information contained in Revit into the proper RADIANCE and DAYSIM formats.
