Testfit is widely recognized for its leadership in feasibility design through its innovative work in automating unit mixes, road layouts, parking configuration, and much more. With Testfit, users can generate the massing of the building on the real site’s GIS data while also taking into account all financials such as land, soft and hard costs, income and expenses & yield-on-cost. In December 2021, cove.tool and Testfit announced a soft collaboration where users can take advantage of both platforms' key capabilities via a new plugin.
Follow these easy steps below to use the plugin and export buidling geometry from TestFit to generate a cove.tool energy analysis.
Written Guide
Begin by creating a TestFit project.
You can use their Quick Start Guide if you haven't used TestFit before!
Next, create a project in cove.tool.
You must have login credentials to access the app. You will need a project on both platforms in order to send information back in forth. Testfit will be used primarily in this process to create the geometry, and cove.tool will receive the model and run various performance simulations. At the moment, only manual data is being sent, this means for the time being, Testfit users will not access the 3D analysis page but will have access to every other page with manual data. Learn more about the difference between 3D Mode and Manual Mode here.
Create a new project in cove.tool by completing the first page of details and clicking the "Save & Continue" button. Once you are on the geometry page, the project may be referenced by TestFit, to receive geometry data.
Once you have created your geometry in Testfit, go to the Energy tab and sign in with your cove.tool account.
If you don't see an energy tab, make sure your TestFit application is up to date.
Select your percent glazing.
%WWR is required for energy calculations. In order to generate a thermal model for energy analysis cove.tool needs surface area for Roofs, Floors, Walls, and Windows. If you are unsure what value to use for your building, the recommended ASHRAE %WWR is 40% and also the preset in Testfit.
Select the cove.tool project and click the ENERGIZE button.
From your project list, select the name you will send your building data to. Once a project is referenced you will be allowed to generate a Baseline EUI.
View your EUI Breakdown
You can now see the total EUI for your geometry as well as the breakdown of the EUI which includes cooling, heating, lighting, equipment, fans, pumps. Learn more about what an energy model is here, and what each energy consumption category means here.
Do this for all your schemes and compare.
All the building geometry that is needed to calculate your EUI is constantly updated as you manipulate your TestFit buildings. Easily add the percentage of glazing and send the data to cove.tool to get your EUI back in a few seconds.
Export to cove.tool for further analysis
Back in cove.tool, you can calculate operational carbon (kgCO2e emissions), embodied carbon (a1-a3, aka cradle-to-gate), the estimated number of earned LEED points, Benchmarking information, a climate report, water usage, energy utility costs, and some cost estimation related to envelope and systems by exporting your TestFit data to cove.tool.
Happy Modeling!
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