Weixuan Lu - Module 6

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https://acc.autodesk.com/docs/files/projects/d08eed5b-afe3-430c-815d-244f7b400fed?folderUrn=urn%3Aadsk.wipprod%3Afs.folder%3Aco.vrnWsI9JRwOJxJpRWG-S6g&viewModel=detail&moduleId=folders

Link to Student

Weixuan Lu

Journal Entry For

Module 6 - Evaluate Your Alternatives

The original building form

The recommended building form based on your evaluation and analysis

Step 1

Workflows for step 1. The two metrics I evaluated are construction costs and solar electricity revenues. Below are the custom nodes.

BuildingFormEvaluateValueByFloorAreaForTwoInputs

The two metrics I evaluated. More custom nodes are displayed below.

MassFloors

EstimateCostByFloorLevel

SelectGroundOrNongroundSurfaces

CustomedSolarAnalysis

I only considered self-shading here. I think considering surrounding buildings is not fair for the comparisons.

Step 2

I copied the table from the spreadsheet exported from Dynamo. Here, I recorded everything. The gross floor area always falls between 1,200,000 and 1,500,000 sf.

Test Cases	Building Width (’)	Top Rotation (°)	Gross Floor Area (SF)	Gross Surface Area (SF)	Gross Volume (CF)	Construction Costs ($)	Solar Electricity Revenues ($)
1	180	30	1214994	524599	18224817	1250570273	20197335
2	180	45	1214969	524922.1	18224314	1250550296	21483900
3	180	60	1214903	525367.1	18223116	1250496659	19923381
4	180	75	1214764	525924.9	18220764	1250383961	17593695
5	180	90	1214513	526587.6	18216820	1250179900	15992445
6	190	30	1353743	556623.6	20306041	1393382310	24291095
7	190	45	1353716	557002	20305541	1393360052	24975088
8	190	60	1353642	557523.2	20304111	1393300289	23458592
9	190	75	1353487	558179.5	20301535	1393174722	23148064
10	190	90	1353208	558959.7	20297042	1392947357	21130354
11	200	30	1499992	588952.8	22499815	1543913917	25681247
12	200	45	1499962	589392.4	22499121	1543889254	25958662
13	200	60	1499880	589999.7	22497642	1543823035	24888040
14	200	75	1499709	590764	22494797	1543683903	23058596
15	200	90	1499399	591675.1	22489796	1543431975	21099453

Step3

I used the spreadsheet to determine the optimization scheme. The instruction said I could either choose to do it in Dynamo or a spreadsheet, so I did not create a Dynamo workflow for this part.

What metrics are most important? Both are equally important.
How do they interact? Revenues can be directly subtracted from costs.
Is there a tradeoff? Yes. The ones with higher construction costs tend to have higher revenues.
How can you weight or scale the values returned by your evaluation metrics to compare them? I don’t need to weigh or scale them. I can directly calculate them to find the optimization scheme.
Can you create a new single measure that incorporates the individual metrics in a sensible way? I can add nodes in Dynamo to calculate the net costs. I can also calculate them in the spreadsheet.

Test Cases	Building Width (’)	Top Rotation (°)	Gross Floor Area (SF)	Gross Surface Area (SF)	Gross Volume (CF)	Construction Costs ($)	Solar Electricity Revenues ($)	Net Costs ($)
1	180	30	1214994	524599	18224817	1250570273	20197335	1230372938
2	180	45	1214969	524922.1	18224314	1250550296	21483900	1229066396
3	180	60	1214903	525367.1	18223116	1250496659	19923381	1230573278
4	180	75	1214764	525924.9	18220764	1250383961	17593695	1232790266
5	180	90	1214513	526587.6	18216820	1250179900	15992445	1234187455
6	190	30	1353743	556623.6	20306041	1393382310	24291095	1369091216
7	190	45	1353716	557002	20305541	1393360052	24975088	1368384963
8	190	60	1353642	557523.2	20304111	1393300289	23458592	1369841697
9	190	75	1353487	558179.5	20301535	1393174722	23148064	1370026659
10	190	90	1353208	558959.7	20297042	1392947357	21130354	1371817004
11	200	30	1499992	588952.8	22499815	1543913917	25681247	1518232670
12	200	45	1499962	589392.4	22499121	1543889254	25958662	1517930592
13	200	60	1499880	589999.7	22497642	1543823035	24888040	1518934996
14	200	75	1499709	590764	22494797	1543683903	23058596	1520625307
15	200	90	1499399	591675.1	22489796	1543431975	21099453	1522332522

The added column shows the net costs. The lower ones are better.

Step 4

Test Cases	Building Width (’)	Top Rotation (°)	Gross Floor Area (SF)	Gross Surface Area (SF)	Gross Volume (CF)	Construction Costs ($)	Solar Electricity Revenues ($)	Net Costs ($)
2	180	45	1214969	524922.1	18224314	1250550296	21483900	1229066396
1	180	30	1214994	524599	18224817	1250570273	20197335	1230372938
3	180	60	1214903	525367.1	18223116	1250496659	19923381	1230573278
4	180	75	1214764	525924.9	18220764	1250383961	17593695	1232790266
5	180	90	1214513	526587.6	18216820	1250179900	15992445	1234187455
7	190	45	1353716	557002	20305541	1393360052	24975088	1368384963
6	190	30	1353743	556623.6	20306041	1393382310	24291095	1369091216
8	190	60	1353642	557523.2	20304111	1393300289	23458592	1369841697
9	190	75	1353487	558179.5	20301535	1393174722	23148064	1370026659
10	190	90	1353208	558959.7	20297042	1392947357	21130354	1371817004
12	200	45	1499962	589392.4	22499121	1543889254	25958662	1517930592
11	200	30	1499992	588952.8	22499815	1543913917	25681247	1518232670
13	200	60	1499880	589999.7	22497642	1543823035	24888040	1518934996
14	200	75	1499709	590764	22494797	1543683903	23058596	1520625307
15	200	90	1499399	591675.1	22489796	1543431975	21099453	1522332522

This is the one with filtered and ranked results.

These are the top three options.

I recommend the second test case. This one has a low construction cost but high revenue from solar electricity generation, so the net cost is the lowest.

This may be due to the addition of areas for solar panels. My strategy is to add solar panels all over the facades, not just the roof.

Step 5

I did the scheme optimization in the spreadsheet, so I just selected the best case in Dynamo. I used the following custom node to select wall surfaces.

From the background, you can see the UV grid of points being created.

Step 6

Then I used my workflow in Module 4, Part 2, to define the panels’ color, width, and thickness based on the sun's positions. I used three custom nodes, which I had already described in Module 4, Part 2. Below is the Revit model.

These are the custom nodes I had already used before.

Panels.ComputeSunDirectness

PanelNormals.AllPointUpward

Map the Distance Value to a Color Range