Solar analysis in Revit using Rhino Inside, Ladybug and Grasshopper!

Today on the channel we revisit a topic in more detail and depth than previous takes, solar analysis in Revit. Don't bother using Dynamo for this, Rhino/Grasshopper/Ladybug is THE best way to do this.
0:00 Intro
3:11 Revit model setup
5:55 Begin Rhino Inside
6:49 Export/import to Rhino
9:48 Get rooms using Rhino Inside
11:22 Filter apartments only
12:11 Rooms to test surfaces
14:15 The problen with Ladybug meshes
15:27 Managing bottle necks
15:58 Process room surfaces
27:16 Re-reviewing test points
29:24 Bake surfaces to Rhino
31:36 Referencing surfaces
32:20 Generate testing geometry
36:20 Analysis period
37:36 Import epw/location
38:29 Sunpath and true north rotation
40:49 Sun hour analysis
44:47 Processing the result
46:50 Comparing two studies
50:21 Returning results to Revit
54:18 Outro
I hope you enjoy the session and learn something new! Feel free to comment any feedback/questions below, or follow my channel if you enjoyed this.
Software used;
Autodesk Revit 2020: www.autodesk.com/products/rev...
Rhino 7: www.rhino3d.com/
Grasshopper: www.grasshopper3d.com/
Rhino Inside: www.rhino3d.com/inside/revit/
DaVinci Resolve: www.blackmagicdesign.com/au/p...
OBS: obsproject.com/
Hardware used;
Webcam: support.logitech.com/en_us/pr...
Laptop: www.msi.com/Workstation/WT75-...
Microphone: www.jbhifi.com.au/products/ro...
Audio interface: focusrite.com/en/usb-audio-in...
#revit #grasshopper #bim

[@valerierauh7280]

This is such a game changer! Thank you!

[@AussieBIMGuru]

You're welcome!

[@1insp3ru16]

wow you are absolutely talented, please carry on making these type of videos, i love the workflow between rhino and revit.

[@AussieBIMGuru]

Will do, thanks!

[@byDevCreates]

Amazing video thanks for sharing as always Gavin.

[@AussieBIMGuru]

Cheers mate!

[@saskiazaaura]

I didn't realize if Rhino has energy analysis, huffttt thank you for tutorial

[@AussieBIMGuru]

Youre welcome! Energy analysis is a bit different to direct solar. Check out the honeybee module of ladybug tools which focuses on that aspect.

[@saskiazaaura]

@@AussieBIMGuru Thank you, i will get into ladybug addons

[@minggangyin17]

Great sharing!

[@AussieBIMGuru]

Thanks!

[@shaneyeestudio]

Nice

[@AussieBIMGuru]

Thanks!

[@leightonSS55]

Thanks Gavin! glad to see you are back up and running with integrated workflows with Ladybug tools Was just wondering if the issue of the offset distance is due to LBT always requiring input data in metres? Also, i have found the HB-Radiance toolset to be useful when combining with other analysis workflows - e.g. autogenerating grids from energy model rooms. In the UK the BRE guidance for sunlight & daylight specifies an offset distance for the working plane and so, whilst potentially being less flexible as you say; i've found that the these components are more descriptive/tuned to repeatable & standardised assessments.

[@AussieBIMGuru]

Not 100% what the cause was here. Generally at work I use my own remeshing clusters but it may be unit related, although I was in metres here I believe. Typically I do my own remeshing as some of the studies we do have an average result required for measurement, so we cant afford to have extra results skewing the true average on a gridated basis.

[@parametricbim2023]

Perfect tutorial.. could you please make a video about how to measure thermal comfort ( indoor and outdoor) using rhino inside And how to export materials and parameters because materials are very important in measuring thermal comfort.. Many thanks

[@AussieBIMGuru]

Goes a bit beyond my experience currently but Phll Galvan has a great channel where he covers how to set up a study like this: kzbin.info/www/bejne/np-oqahtg9pqh7M Might be difficult to get the right spaces/values from revit unless you have all the thermal values in the lining elements 100% correct, Revit isnt a great thermal performance program so i believe is quite inaccurate for these things.

[@parametricbim2023]

@@AussieBIMGuru yes you are right .. so your advise to use only ladybug for setting up the material? There is no way to export materials from revit and use them in ladybug.. it is easier to supply all thermal properties in revit components and export compared to setting up materials in ladybug .. Anyway thanks for your reply 🌹

[@AussieBIMGuru]

@@parametricbim2023 if you have good data in revit then you could export those elements and bake their parameter values from revit (e.g. structural material layer type, U value) as attributes in rhino using elefront and rhino inside. Generally the issue there is most modellers dont include all thermal layers and properties in walls, roofs, windows etc.

[@parametricbim2023]

@@AussieBIMGuru yes I see.. In fact I am asking the best workflow to adopt in my PhD thesis.. So I am searching for unique workflow instead of the traditional one of using rhino/ grasshopper- ladybug honeybee… etc.. as in most researches.. I am thinking to connect my topic ( the effect of kinetic facade on thermal comfort indoor/ outdoor) with BIM workflow I wish that I explain well the idea.. So if you see that my idea can be done please advise me.. thank you 🙏

[@AussieBIMGuru]

@@parametricbim2023 its certainly manageable but will need a lot of data to be carefully set up in the BIM model. The theory usually fails in practice because architects do not conduct thermal comfort analysis, ESD engineers do. But the architect has the BIM model so there is a mismatch in how much the model can achieve unless the architect does more work than they are paid for, which they wont. Same issue with LCA.

[@bogdanbrandiburg3504]

❤

[@AussieBIMGuru]

:D

[@kietvong2560]

i had problem when i constructed point for evaluate srf and those point didn"t look like yours. My constructed point didn"t vertically separate. I apreciate your instruction!

[@kietvong2560]

ATTUALY, THE FLOOR SURFACES ARE BIG AND THOSE POINT ARE TOO SMALL. I THINK THE PROBLEM IS ABOUT SCALING AND UNIT

[@AussieBIMGuru]

The scaling issue sounds to be the cause. Note I'm working in metres typically as it works best for Ladybug, so make sure your tiling value suits your chosen units.

[@kietvong2560]

hi Gavin! I follow your script but my surface connect to BBox and they become a box instead of flat bo. Do you have any idea of this, thank you

[@AussieBIMGuru]

The box must have a volume. Try deconstructing the bounding box and getting the top face only as a workaround.

[@pingchung6293]

Looks like the same workflow you did in your other videos. So this tutorial can be seem as a complete process in one video?

[@AussieBIMGuru]

Yes a complete process and a few more refinements along the way, as well as a more developed study model. I also incorporate a comparison of results as well as just a single study.

[@pingchung6293]

@@AussieBIMGuru Nice. Thanks for sharing!

[@luizmendes1625]

Thanks for the tutorial. Gavin, is it possible to do this, but for thermal analysis? How would it be?

[@AussieBIMGuru]

Generally thermal analysis requires materials and spaces to be modelled and is quite different, as heat transfer depsnds on material type, thickness etc. The honeybee module has nodes for this, suggest checking out LB tools website for examples.

[@luizmendes1625]

@@AussieBIMGuru I used the plugin Rhino Inside Revit to tranfer the geometry and the volumetry. Is it possible to configure material with these elements? The geometry comes with many layers, factor that can make the implementation difficult. My idea is to turn the volumetry into surfaces and apply the materials. How could I do that with the volumetry (rooms) that you taught to bring from Revit? I would also need to eliminate the spaces between the volumes caused by the walls in revit, and then follow Phillip's tutorial to apply data to the materials and help Ladybug understand what is an internal/external wallm floor, window. What do you think about that?

[@AussieBIMGuru]

@@luizmendes1625 revit isnt well set up for material analysis and settings. Generally where i work we tend to manually reclassify surfaces unless we have a clean model prepared before. Its all data at the end of the day, so if you have good data in revit thats the key, from there you can pass elements in and define them in rhino based on that.

[@luizmendes1625]

@@AussieBIMGuru Thanks for the help. If in the future you can exemplify in some video, that would be great. Thank you very much.

[@AussieBIMGuru]

@@luizmendes1625 unfortunately it goes beyond my skillset as I dont get too deep into energy analysis - more of an engineers role. Maybe check out Phillip Garvans channel as he covers radiance and therm a bit.

[@D-DiaaAbd]

Can I know why you do not use climate analysis through the Revit program (insight) Are the results of climate analysis in the Rhino program better? Or does it contain more options? In other words, what are the advantages of the Rhino program in climate analysis? Thank you for this great content

[@AussieBIMGuru]

It uses industry endorsed tools and is much more popular and developed regularly by Ladybug tools. Once people use insight and Ladybug they tend to notice the different very quickly. Revit models are also just not well set up for analysis and cannot support detailed mesh context which most solar analysis requires.

[@D-DiaaAbd]

@@AussieBIMGuru Thank you

[@luizmendes1625]

Gavin, how can I transfer geometry from Revit to Grasshopper in a way that it is as simple as possible for using Ladybug tools? I've tried various methods, and it seems that the easiest approach is to use masses and recreate the walls, and then generate the gbXML from those masses. However, this method is time-consuming. Typically, when using Rhino Inside Revit, the geometry ends up being too complex and open, which interferes with the simulation.

[@AussieBIMGuru]

Assuming you are using rooms id look at setting finish face to centre for room bounding then try getting their geometry. Generally ive found cleanup is always necessary unfortunately.

[@luizmendes1625]

@@AussieBIMGuru I managed to transfer the rooms from Revit to Rhino3D, and then I converted them into closed faces. It looks great, but there's a gap between each enclosed space, which represents the walls separating one room from another. Is there a way to eliminate these gaps by capturing the volume of each room using the center of the wall? This way, when transforming them into closed environments, these rooms would become adjacent, correctly identifying the interior walls, interior floors, and so on.

[@AussieBIMGuru]

@@luizmendes1625 you can use Revi API to force the bounding option to be centreline, which should give the line between. I have some nodes in crumple under rooms for reference that get boundary wirh a specified boundary optioh.

[@luizmendes1625]

@@AussieBIMGuru Do you have any video examples or a script? Could you share them?