BIM

ZeroSkin+ integration with BIM enables an easy adoption and adaptability of the renovation building solution

Multicriteria optimization is crucial for developing an adaptive modular panelization system for holistic residential building renovation. This involves determining optimal panel configurations, including dimensions, thickness, and material, to minimize energy consumption and construction costs. Achieving this involves complex computational tasks, utilizing Building Information Modeling (BIM) as input for energy performance simulation and panel generation, and an optimization solver for parametric output.

The primary goal of this research is to demonstrate and validate the multicriteria optimization methodology for facade panelization and material computation based on energy performance analysis. While not focusing on energy performance and thermal measures themselves, the research emphasizes the interoperability between BIM modeling and EnergyPlus simulation for generating facade panels. The detailed energy performance measures are addressed separately.

As a case study, Autodesk Revit is used to design the BIM model, and an add-on called 'PanelizeTool' is developed with a user interface integrated into Revit. This tool, based on the Ladybug Tools core SDK, enables automatic rewriting of building panels' parameters by extracting data from the model components through Revit API methods and properties. The add-on's functionality is available in both CPython and IronPython, facilitating interaction with Revit API and EnergyPlus for simulation.

Users can set up existing BIM models within the add-on interface, defining geometric and material constraints for facade layout and generating panels while assessing their impact interactively with simulation results.