Exporting for DOE-2 Requirements

With rising energy costs and stricter regulations on energy usage in commercial buildings, it is becoming increasingly important to be able to estimate the energy cost implications of design strategies, especially during the schematic design phase. Energy usage programs develop these estimates. VectorWorks Architect can export the building geometry to a file in the format read by the DOE energy analysis engine.

To create a DOE-2 export file:

1.	The initial building space planning should be complete, with layers for all the building levels and spaces on those layers. Exterior walls are also required; create these automatically with the Create Walls from Spaces command, or manually.

Windows and doors should also be inserted into the walls where appropriate.

2.	Select AEC > Space Planning > Export DOE-2. The Export DOE-2 dialog box opens.

 

Parameter	Description
File Name	Enter the path and file name for the DOE-2 file, or click Browse to specify the location and file name
Confirm Layer Heights	Displays the floor elevation and ceiling heights as specified in the Layers Setup dialog box; these values can be edited
Up/Down	Scroll up and down through the list of layers (available when there are more than five layers)

3.	Click OK to create the DOE-2 text file. Send the file to your DOE consultant for analysis.

The relationship between VectorWorks entities and their corresponding BDL language entities is shown in the following table.

 

VectorWorks	DOE
Distance from layer Z to next highest layer Z	Floor height
Layer delta-Z	Space height
Description field in wall record	Construction type
Wall record R-value	Construction type U-Factor
Window vs. door record	Window vs. door