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Release notes

Release 0.9.x

SimStadt moved to a fast release cycle in 2018, with a Jenkins continuous integration server.

Release 0.9 (17.07.2018, rev. 2e0202ce)

Highlights

  • PVPotential : Facade integration
  • Updated BuildingPhysicsLibrary:
  • EnEV 2016 as refurbishment variant.
  • Integration of Interior Walls, Shared Walls and Intermediary Floors in the BuildingPhysicsLibrary Structure
  • Updated RegionChooser : Faster and automated parsing of every citygml file
  • PLUTO attributes are considered so that NYC buildings can be simulated
  • Cooling demand with DIN18599.
  • Updated RegionChooser interface.

Important Bug Fixes

  • Hourly temperatures were allowed to deviate 2°C from the measured monthly average.
  • Some values were incorrect in BuildingPhysics ( *concrete slab insul – 6cm * MFH 84-94 top ceiling * 1984-1994 MedRef)

Known Bugs and Limitations

  • Stopping of running workflows is still not implemented
  • Meteonorm files can be imported, but the 30 minute offset they include doesn’t fit well with irradiance calculations. Optimum azimuth might be off by about 30°.
  • Only works with Java 8.

Release 0.8 (29.06.2016, rev. 1831)

Highlights

  • Calculation of the embodied energy, embodied carbon, disposal energy and disposal carbon for the building materials integrated in the Environmental Analysis workflow (results to be found in the .out report of the workflowstep PrimaryEnergyAndCO2Balance.
  • The CityGML parameters storeysAboveGround and storeysHeightsAboveGround in the CityGML files are now considered in the BuildingPhysicsPreprocessing of SimStadt.
  • New radiation models :
  • INSEL Perez
  • tiled SRA, for large Citygml files
  • SRA without shadows, for comparisons with SRA
  • Possibility to specify pipe costs for DistrictHeating.
  • RegionChooser now accepts New-York City Citygmls.
  • PVPotential can be used with SRA.
  • Contour plots for irradiances are now available in SolarPotentialAnalysis

Important Bug Fixes

  • SRA calculations were using the wrong average, and were about 6% too high.
  • Cli files had a 1h offset.
  • Correction of the non-residential usage conditions of the building usage library.
  • Timezone was hard-coded to GMT+1, it now depends on the location.

Known Bugs and Limitations

  • Some workflows created with SimStadt 0.7 or earlier cannot be read and processed by the current release. Remove old workflows from repository if needed.
  • Stopping of running workflows is still not implemented
  • RegionChooser still needs a lot of RAM, and cannot process large (>400MB) CityGML files
  • Meteonorm files can be imported, but the 30 minute offset they include doesn’t fit well with irradiance calculations. Optimum azimuth might be off by about 30°.
  • ShadowProcessing only works in Eclipse, not in deployed Simstadt

Release 0.7 (4.4.16, rev. 1615)

Highlights

  • Many improvements on workflows Heat Demand Analysis and District Heating Network Analysis.
  • Documentation of workflows have been improved and are accessible now for all SimStadt users via the Redmine Wiki. Note especially the plausibility check for Heat demand analysis results.
  • New API and deployment mechanism for publishing workflows as web-services (see module MonthlyEnergyBalanceWebService as an example)
  • New workflow step to access real time monitor data from a web-service (EMTools)
  • Time consuming operations like selecting a workflow for the first time now give feedback to the user and block the GUI
  • Special workflow step for creating charts (see http://simstadt.hft-stuttgart.de/wiki/index.php/Chart_Step).

Important Bug Fixes

  • Copying, deleting and renaming workflows now work as expected
  • Cooling calculation in Map in Heat Demand Analysis not allowed as long as it is not validated
  • Probabilistic distribution algorithm in the Assessment scenario of PhysicsPreprocessor W-step has been corrected.

Other Important Changes

  • Improvements of building and usage library data, e.g. new building typology, including EneV 2014 and Effizienzhaus
  • Modular and headless deployment of SimStadt platform, workflows and web-services, now including JavaDoc files and sources
  • Local test data and better naming of tests introduced in some modulesReplaced BuildingFilter by CreateSimStadtModel in all workflows
  • Improvement of overall modul structure and systems architecture.

Known Bugs and Limitations

  • Workflows created with rel. 0.6 or earlier cannot be read and processed by the current release
  • Stopping of running workflows is still not implemented
  • The button for suppressing maps which was a bad workaround for dealing with memory leaks has been removed. However, the leaks are still there (see bug #251) and must be addressed soon.

Release 0.6 (9.11.15, rev. 1401)

Highlights

  • GUI improvements:
  • Top level workflow are selected automatically when displayed and show the workflow type.
  • Rearranged file views and added a third view on files in the repository root
  • File and parameter panels may now be hidden (Task #486)
  • Rearranged SimStadt toolbar items
  • Result files are now written into the according workflow-step directory (Task #256).

Important Bug Fixes

  • Buildings without geometries are now ignored by the geometric preprocessor.

Other Important Changes

  • Changes in API for assembling workflows
  • Library controlsfx updated to release 8.40.9 (resolves rendering issues)
  • Enforce usage of JRE 1.8.0_40 or higher under windows.

Known Bugs and Limitations

Due to Java bug https://bugs.openjdk.java.net/browse/JDK-8136466 RegionChooser will not work with JRE versions between 1.8.0u60 and 1.8.0u71 (a bugfix is announced for 1.8.0u72). However, it works with all Java versions from 1.8.0u40 on if starting from Eclipse. Workflows created with rel. 0.5 can be opened and edited but not executed in rel. 0.6, since their type is regarded as unknown. If required, this can be fixed by manually by adding these lines to the top level params.xml with the respective path to the correct workflow provider class: 

<void property="workflowProvider">
    <object     class="de.hftstuttgart.simstadtworkflows.energy.MonthlyEnergyBalanceWorkflowProvider"/>
</void>

Release 0.5 (02.10.15, rev. 1373)

Highlights

  • Added a file panel for project files as well as a panel for the files belonging to the currently selected workflow step. Files can be opened by double click and moved/copied via drag'n'drop.
  • Modified vizualisation, with improved zoom
  • Updated Library Editor
  • Update to CityDoctor v2.1 which supports the CityGML vegetation feature.

Other Important Changes

  • GML-Ids of generated boundary surfaces will be named after the polygon for which it has been generated.

Known Bugs and Limitations

  • All workflow tests are broken. They will get fixed when Kai comes back.

Release 0.3 (21.07.15, rev. 1346)

Highlights

"RegionChooser" stand-alone application for interactively defining regions on a map to be imported from novaFactory or to define sub-regions of already imported regions (for details see http://dmz15.rz.hft-stuttgart.de/projects/simstadt/wiki#Using-the-RegionChooser) · These four new or improved workflows are tested and supported and, thus, may be used for project work: * Solar Potential Analysis (legacy with Gnuplot) * PV Potential Analysis * Monthly Heat Demand Analysis * Carbon and Primary Energy Analysis * Improved usage library version 2 and all new usage library editor. Some features: * Tabs for the end uses and profiles in these tabs instead to be in a pop-up * Alert when a mapping is missing * Text recognition in the mapping table * Unit converters * Variant table For details go to http://dmz15.rz.hft-stuttgart.de/projects/simstadt/wiki#Tutorial-on-the-Usage-Library-Editor. * New API for assembling workflows: * Workflows on top-level are not represented by a sequence of steps anymore, but by a single "top-level workflow step". That way, top-level and sub-level workflows can be unified, and there is no need for special "workflow start steps" anymore. * Starting with this release, workflows can be implemented and compiled in their own modules. The resulting jar files can be added to an existing SimStadt installation, that detects and incorporates the new workflows at start-up.

Other Important Changes * Enforce 64-bit architecture when starting SimStadtApp * Caching of intermediate weather and radiation data for faster workflow processing * 45% faster calculation of irradiance in the workflow step radiation processor * Tooltip indicating the ID of the building and its value in maps * New experimental workflow for shadow processing working fast on the graphics card with OpenCL including a new 3D Viewer which is still under construction * Better API and exception handling for accessing CityGML coordinate systems * New "About"-Dialog displaying version and system properties important for bug reports. The dialog is accessible from the tools popup menu in the toolbar.

Important Bug Fixes * CSV Export now works everywhere as expected * Bug #319 sometimes prevents starting a new version of SimStadt if the repository worked with recently has gotten incompatible with the new version.

Known Bugs and Limitations 1. Top-level workflow steps always display text "files: 0" that can be ignored. 2. Executing workflows in batch mode may crash at some time with an OutOfMemory exception. Workaround: Select "Suppress Maps" in the toolbar. 3. While you can add and copy workflows (workflow steps), commands for deleting or renaming projects and workflows are not implemented yet. Workaround for renaming or deleting a workflow step: Quit Simstadt, rename or delete the workstep folder, start SimStadt again. 4. Running workflows cannot be stopped yet. 5. For other bugs and limitations see our Redmine issue tracker.

Release 0.2.1 (31.03.15, rev. 1173)

Highlights

  • New module DistrictGraph for automatic generation of district heating networks and experimental workflow with StaNet integration (requires Gnuplot)
  • Auto-download of Open Street Maps
  • Many improvements and bug fixes in the workflow step's graphical output (feature #213), e.g. new options to export CVS and PNG files
  • Many improvements of the building physics library editor
  • Release requires JRE 8u40 (64 bit) or higher and citydoctordata/mathutils-1.3

Other Important Changes

  • Code refactoring and adding JavaDocs
  • Documentation of Geometric Preprocessing in Wiki (task #200)
  • Enhancements for monthly energy balance workflow DIN18599, e.g. sum up heat demand over building classes like public buildings
  • Adding SRA as an option for RadiationProcessor, e.g. in DIN18599 workflows
  • Enhancements for PVPotential workflow (feature #216)
  • SimStadtModel now extracts coordinateReferenceSystem from srsName attribute in CityGML. (rev. 1005)
  • Improved deployment, support of MacOS X (rev. 1013)
  • SunWindExposedEngine considers all LODs in any case (task #227)
  • Capability to map custom ALKIS codes to standard ones (feature #134)

Important Bug Fixes

  • Generated boundary surfaces for LOD1 geometries had no link to their corresponding polygons and building instances (rev. 962)
  • Solar gains through ground surface not calculate anymore (rev. 994)
  • Different results for one building AND multiple calls of FacadeCalculator.facadeCalc4Building() for one building (bug #211)
  • Adding polygons to generated boundary surfaces fails (bug #229)
  • Mixed usage types as displayed in UsagePreprocessor seem to be wrong (bug #241)

Known Bugs and Limitations

1. Executing workflows in batch mode may crash at some time with an OutOfMemory exception.
2. While you can add and copy workflows (workflow steps), commands for deleting or renaming projects and workflows are not implemented yet.

Workaround for renaming a workflow step: Quit Simstadt, rename the workstep folder, start SimStadt again. 3. Running workflows cannot be canceled yet. Workaround: Quit Simstadt. 4. For other bugs and limitations see our Redmine issue tracker.

Release 0.2 (17.02.15, rev. 946)

Highlights

  • First deployed (stand alone) release of SimStadt platform. Contains: Engine for hierarchical workflows, CityDoctor libraries
  • Reads and writes CityGML files with EnergyADE 0.2
  • Considerably stable and fast
  • Rich interactive GUI for parameterizing workflow steps and analyzing results
  • May also run in batch mode
  • Two tested workflows for project "Landkreis Ludwigsburg" (DIN18599 and PV Potential Analysis) and other experimental workflows are available
  • Comes with an sophisticated editor for building physics default data.