Revit>>GBS>>eQuest floors not show up

[jkhmiller]

Dave, your space probably does not encompass the floor. Make sure the space begins at the bottom of the floor.

[daveh.242749]

My spaces do actually encompass the floor and for whatever reason the bottom floor does not come in. The only way that I have been able to get the bottom floor to come in, is if it is the floor of an "underground level" (basement). I now am having issues with the whole model not even being able to be loaded into GBS after adding unoccupied plenum spaces.

The specific error that I am getting is:

"It appears there are too many horizontal surfaces (floors and/or ceilings) in this gbXML file. The total horizontal area (4,520 m2) should be approximately equal to the building area (3,621 m2). Running this file through GBS would produce meaningless results. We suggest you review your model for completness, and if you need further assistance submit your model on our Support page."

Any thoughts?

[kyle.bernhardt]

My spaces do actually encompass the floor and for whatever reason the bottom floor does not come in. The only way that I have been able to get the bottom floor to come in, is if it is the floor of an "underground level" (basement). I now am having issues with the whole model not even being able to be loaded into GBS after adding unoccupied plenum spaces.

The specific error that I am getting is:

"It appears there are too many horizontal surfaces (floors and/or ceilings) in this gbXML file. The total horizontal area (4,520 m2) should be approximately equal to the building area (3,621 m2). Running this file through GBS would produce meaningless results. We suggest you review your model for completness, and if you need further assistance submit your model on our Support page."

Any thoughts?

GBS, and the DOE2 engine, have issues with un-conditioned plenum spaces that are physically modeled. I can try and get one of our folks to chime in on that specific issue.

Regarding the original issue you posted, I need to better understand what's going on in the Analytical Model generation on the Revit side. The best insight into this by far is to look at the gbXML export dialog.

When you have the Analytical Surfaces mode enabled (in the detailed tab), and turn on the shaded view instead of wire frame (bottom left button in the dialog), you see a 1-to-1 visualization of the output from Revit. The tree control on the right side of the dialog allows you to look at the Zone->Space->Surface hierarchy that is the core of the geometric portion of the analytical model. You can also use the Isolate buttons to look at specific Spaces to determine if you are actually outputting a Floor Surface into your gbXML file.

You want to start here in troubleshooting any problems.

Cheers,
Kyle B

[Mike Sealander]

I put a similar post on the GBS Augi forum. I'm using Revit Architecture. The gbXML file looks good in the preview, and the VRML file in GBS has floors in all zones, but the DOE output drops the floors, so that my eQuest model has no floors. I believe the heat flow calculations are not being affected (the missing floors are treated as adiabatic) but I think it's throwing off my daylighting calculations.

[kyle.bernhardt]

Mike,
Not sure from your description. Do you have a project file or images to illustrate the issue?

Thanks,
Kyle

[Mike Sealander]

Hi Kyle:
This is a screen shot from below of the 3d geometry in eQuest. Hopefully you can see that this model has no floor. However, the Revit model that I used to create a gbXML file had a floor. The VRML model in GBS also had floors. It had a floor for each thermal space. GBS recognized each floor as a floor. However, the file I exported from GBS to bring in to eQuest (the .inp file) had no floor. This is a one-story building, with floors only on the ground level. I therefore think GBS is somehow dropping my floors when it exports a .inp file.

[Mike Sealander]

Actually, it is so straightforward to create the missing floors in eQuest that I ended up doing that instead. The .inp file from GBS contains a polygon that represents the space outline in plan, which is just the geometry needed to create the floor. Right-click on the Space, create child element, pick underground floor, pick the geometry that represents the space in plan, pick bottom for location, and as if by magic the floor shows up exactly where it should.
GBS may have dropped the floor because it considered it an interior floor, not an underground floor.

[Mike Sealander]

In Revit Architecture, Floors which are labeled as Exterior and appear below the Ground Plane level export as gbXML slabs, not floors. I believe this is the key to getting slabs on grade to show up in eQuest after going through GBS.