Topic: HVAC load calc data extraction.

[Lonnie]

English is my first language and I doubt people will understand this so bear with me.

I've tried this several ways. Nothing has worked.

This may be multi posted thread before I can convey what I am trying to do.

If anyone is familiar with HP's HAP (Hourly Analyst Package) you understand what I need.

HAP takes a building and figures out what the air needs are. To do this it needs walls by rooms.
A simple room wall looks like this
157 TRAINING
(E) WALL    44*19 =   970
WINDOW    2*7*8 =   112
DOOR    1*7.125*3.125 =   23

broken down it's
1 wall (always.)
that has
2 windows 7' tall and 8' wide.
1 door 7'3 tall and 3'3 wide.

Accuracy is really loose.
Wall within 10 sqft
doors and windows give or take a couple of inches any direction.
is fine.

All of this creates the envelope of the building.
See swamp 1

This is all created by going around the building putting the information into a text file then going into HAP and redoing it.
I could do all this with a block or a table but each has it's own problems.

See dwg.
I can't get the blocks to update the field totals.
I can't export the all the tables I need at once
Not figured out a combination that works.

Anyway I can't get the data to an excel spreadsheet without a lot of manual manipulation.
Any help even a direction would be appreciated.

[BIGAL]

The image was a bit small but are windows described in some way look at this image. Same with wall height, you can use THICKNESS to set a wall ht even in a 2d dwg the image is like a 2.5D working with thickness and Z.

[It's Alive!]

maybe you can make your window blocks have hidden attributes? then use data extraction?

[BIGAL]

Its Alive agree, need to take a step back and make life easier for yourself, the windows are lines rather than say a block. A dynamic block would be way to go, setting length and height.

[Lonnie]

Thanks for the answers.

We typically have very little relationship with the architect. He will use whatever he likes. It's almost always flat plans with elevations.
We pull our information out by hand by going around the building pulling off the distances then either by going into door and window schedules (or an elevation) and getting the window and door sizes.

The data is messy to pull together and easy to miss things. That is why we put it right by the wall it represents. Since all this information is pulled by hand once all entered I want pick it up easily and drop it into excel. I could perhaps let excel to the total calcs but for sanity checks doing them in the dwg is nice.

I really thought it would be pretty easy to pull out this information but it kicked my butt. I was hoping you all would have better luck.

As a side note I did stick the dwg onto the first post but I think it got lost. Here it is again.

[chaev]

If I understood correctly, you want to pull the data from the blocks you created and Extract it to Excel?
You could use the "attout" command from the express Tools to Export the data to txt and than just copy paste it into Excel. see attached image

[Lonnie]

You got it.

Only the field in the block won't update to the new attribute. It still points back to the original block. I need someway to point the fields the block I am trying to update.

I can sum them up in the spreadsheet but it's a nice sanity check to do in the dwg.

[chaev]

The command "regenall" should do the trick.

[BIGAL]

Looking again click on window dim get width and add a block that has 2 attributes width and your entry of height. Place this block inside room, copy etc as required. In dwg there are 3 in 1 room.

Ok you can get theses blocks inside room using a SSGET "WP" within polygon using lisp so could get a list of these blocks that are bounded by yellow line in your dwg, then pick room area.

Look at that all done.

So we can help you 1st step is make a block on a dummy no plot layer. Search for a lisp, get dimension value and also insert block with attributes using lisp.

Hint (command "-insert" blockname (getpoint "\nPick point") 1 1 0 att1 att2)

Repost dwg with block

[Lonnie]

Thanks!

I think that was what I am looking for. If it works you've given me the part I need to make the block behave. Once I can do that the rest should follow.

[Lonnie]

The command "regenall" should do the trick.

Even when I re-evaluate or update the field it's still pointing at the wrong (The original inserted blocks object's) attribute. It's getting that field to evaluate correctly that is my problem.

[BIGAL]

If you copy a block with a field it always remembers the original item, you need to update the attribute Id for every time the block is inserted. Not sure when you say using a field what it is linked to. If its window width then you need to get dim object ID number then add that to the block attribute, every time, each window has a different ID.

I would talk to the architect about improving his dim label not just the width but height also. Can be a 2 line answer.

8' 3"
x 6'