Downloads

• Rhino3D - base computer-aided design (CAD) software used to model geometry of all buildings. Available with a free 90-day trial and reasonable license cost for students.

• Urban Modeling Interface (UMI), the energy (and other topic) simulation software plug-in for Rhino3d. Download the latest release here.

• Accelerad - speeds up UMI simulations by running daylight simulations on the GPU if you have a CUDA-enabled GPU.

Home heating fuel data by U.S. city

Determine breakdown of heating fuel for your U.S. city. Data from U.S. Census, here.

Weather Data

• EnergyPlus weather data

• OneBuilding.org

Geographical Information Systems (GIS)

• Intro to GIS Slides

• QGIS Crash Course in 30 mins

• QGIS Training Manual

Rhinoceros 3D (Rhino)

• Rhino 3D Basics / Tutorial

• Grasshopper Basics / Tutorial

Urban Modeling Interface (UMI) 

• UMI Getting Started

• UMI Tutorials

Relevant Papers and Readings

• Applications and use cases of urban building energy modeling

• Original urban modeling interface (UMI) paper

• Umi Building Template Editor paper

• Boston City-wide energy model case study