A conceptual model is a representation of an evolving system, made up of developing concepts that are used to help people know, understand, or simulate a subject the model represents.

In energy modeling, a conceptual model is used to begin the first round of analysis. This begins in the earliest design stages, where a massing model that roughly corresponds to the project's desired building form or zone organization is used to define the initial parameters of the project. Running energy simulations at this stage may assist designers to determine appropriate massing, orientation, glazing percentages, and load distributions.

Conceptual models are made in modeling software initially only require exterior walls, floors, and roofs. As the complexity of the project grows your model can begin to include glazing, shading, skylights, contexts, interior walls, and core zones. A guide to setting up your first conceptual model for cove.tool can be found here.
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Pro Tip: cove.tool's Grasshopper, SketchUp, and Revit plug-ins are custom-built to handle any geometry import, so no matter what stage your project model is in, or the extent of its complexity, we can bring them into our software and help you run various energy simulation and cost optimizations.