Chien,<br><br>IES's Virtual Environment is a software suite for MEP / Building Services engineers. It offers things like energy modeling, thermal load analysis, CFD, and analysis tools of that sort. One of the modules is called RadianceIES, which translates the model in VE to Radiance geometry and calls Desktop Radiance.<br>
<br>You can set most of the switches, pick sky types, apply materials, set patterns on the materials, set camera views, and add luminaires.<br><br>More information is here: <a href="http://www.radiance-online.org/radiance-workshop5/2006_Radiance_Workshop/Presentations/DonStearn.pdf">http://www.radiance-online.org/radiance-workshop5/2006_Radiance_Workshop/Presentations/DonStearn.pdf</a><br>
<br>Honestly, if you know what you're doing, there aren't many things you can't do with it that you would be able to do interfacing with Radiance directly, but I'll try to hit a few:<br><br>VE is set up as a walled garden, performing the tasks for you in the background. This can be troublesome if something goes wrong, and you're trying to retrace where the problem is. Also along these lines, they don't allow for scripting within VE, nor an API to script from the outside, so you can't do fancier things like multiple iterations of geometry, data manipulation, or things of that nature. Another thing is that the models are catered toward the thermal modeling, so they are mostly massing geometry. For more complex geometry, you either have to have generated it separately (an external RAD file) or brought the model through something like Sketchup, in which case I'd recommend su2rad instead. As I recall, sensor points are limited to one per room, so you cannot generate a grid of values.<br>
<br>
Personally, I'm not a fan of the intensely hierarchical nature of VE, there are
some settings which are 5, 6, 7 windows deep, but I gather you're used
to this through the thermal/energy modeling bits of the software. All that said, version 6 is being released in a month or so, maybe there will be a different song to be sung then.<br><br>--Dave<br><br><br><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5Cdsmith%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><link rel="Edit-Time-Data" href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5Cdsmith%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_editdata.mso"><style>
<!--
/* Font Definitions */
@font-face
{font-family:Helvetica;
panose-1:2 11 6 4 2 2 2 2 2 4;
mso-font-charset:0;
mso-generic-font-family:swiss;
mso-font-pitch:variable;
mso-font-signature:536902279 -2147483648 8 0 511 0;}
@font-face
{font-family:Tahoma;
panose-1:2 11 6 4 3 5 4 4 2 4;
mso-font-charset:0;
mso-generic-font-family:swiss;
mso-font-pitch:variable;
mso-font-signature:1627421319 -2147483648 8 0 66047 0;}
@font-face
{font-family:Calibri;
mso-font-alt:"Times New Roman";
mso-font-charset:0;
mso-generic-font-family:auto;
mso-font-pitch:auto;
mso-font-signature:0 0 0 0 0 0;}
/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{mso-style-parent:"";
margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:Calibri;
mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";}
a:link, span.MsoHyperlink
{color:blue;
text-decoration:underline;
text-underline:single;}
a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed
{color:purple;
text-decoration:underline;
text-underline:single;}
span.EmailStyle16
{mso-style-type:personal;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-ansi-font-size:10.0pt;
mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial;
mso-ascii-font-family:Arial;
mso-hansi-font-family:Arial;
mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;
color:windowtext;
font-weight:normal;
font-style:normal;
text-decoration:none;
text-underline:none;
text-decoration:none;
text-line-through:none;}
@page Section1
{size:8.5in 11.0in;
margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in;
mso-header-margin:.5in;
mso-footer-margin:.5in;
mso-paper-source:0;}
div.Section1
{page:Section1;}
-->
</style>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";">
<hr tabindex="-1" align="center" size="2" width="100%">
</span></div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;">From:</span></b><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;">
<a href="mailto:radiance-general-bounces@radiance-online.org">radiance-general-bounces@radiance-online.org</a> [mailto:<a href="mailto:radiance-general-bounces@radiance-online.org">radiance-general-bounces@radiance-online.org</a>]
<b>On Behalf Of </b>Chien Si Harriman<br>
<b>Sent:</b> Monday, May 18, 2009 6:02 PM<br>
<b>To:</b> <a href="mailto:radiance-general@radiance-online.org">radiance-general@radiance-online.org</a><br>
<b>Subject:</b> [Radiance-general] questions from newbie</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Hi all-</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I’m being asked increasingly to perform more daylighting and
artificial daylight studies. I typically use IES Virtual Environment as
the interface for Radiance, and I find I like it a fair amount, in terms of
ease-of-use. Since this is where I started using Radiance, I’m wondering
if anyone has any insights into what IES Virtual Environment can/cannot do when
compared to scripting from scratch. Anyone offering insight here would be
greatly appreciated.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial; color: navy;">Chien Si Harriman, LEED AP</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial; color: navy;">Senior Building Performance Engineer</span></i><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Helvetica; color: rgb(255, 255, 204);"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><a name="OLE_LINK1"></a><b><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial; color: navy;"> </span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial; color: navy;">G U T T M A N N </span></b><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial; color: red;">&</span><b><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial; color: navy;"> B L A E V O E T </span></b><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial; color: red;">|</span><b><span style="font-size: 8pt; font-family: Arial; color: red;"> </span></b><span style="font-size: 1pt; font-family: Arial; color: navy;"> </span><b><span style="font-size: 8pt; font-family: Arial; color: red;">C o n s u l t i n g E
n g i n e e r s</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: Arial; color: navy;">2351
Powell Street </span><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: Arial; color: red;">|</span><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: Arial; color: navy;"> San Francisco, CA 94133 </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 8pt; font-family: Arial; color: navy;">Committed
to the </span><a href="http://architecture2030.org/" title="http://architecture2030.org/"><span style="font-size: 8pt; font-family: Arial; color: navy;">2030 Challenge</span></a><span style="font-size: 8pt; font-family: Arial; color: navy;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: Arial; color: navy;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: Arial; color: navy;">Direct
415.655.4005 </span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial; color: red;">|
</span><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: Arial; color: navy;">Main 415.655.4000 </span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial; color: red;">|</span><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: Arial; color: navy;"> Fax 415.655.4001</span><span style="font-size: 1pt; font-family: Arial; color: navy;"><br>
</span><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: Arial; color: navy;">Email
<a href="mailto:charriman@gb-eng.com">charriman@gb-eng.com</a> </span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial; color: red;">| </span><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: Arial; color: navy;"><a href="http://www.gb-eng.com">www.gb-eng.com</a></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 8pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(51, 153, 102);"><br>
</span><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: Arial; color: navy;">San Francisco</span><b><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial; color: navy;"> </span></b><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial; color: red;">|</span><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: Arial; color: navy;"> </span><span style="font-size: 1pt; font-family: Arial; color: navy;"> </span><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: Arial; color: navy;">Sacramento</span><b><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial; color: navy;"> </span></b><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial; color: red;">|</span><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: Arial; color: navy;"> </span><span style="font-size: 1pt; font-family: Arial; color: navy;"> </span><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: Arial; color: navy;">Santa Rosa</span><span style="font-size: 8pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(51, 153, 102);"><br>
Certified Green Business, San Francisco, Sacramento, and Santa Rosa </span><span style="font-size: 8pt; font-family: Arial; color: red;">|</span><span style="font-size: 8pt; font-family: Arial; color: rgb(51, 153, 102);"> 2007 Sacramento
Sustainable Business of the Year Award Recipient</span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Helvetica; color: rgb(255, 255, 204);"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p>
<br>