IES VE Plug-in for Google SketchUp

User Guide
Welcome to the IES <Virtual Environment> plug-in to Google SketchUpTM. This plug-in links SketchUp 6 and
SketchUp Pro 6 to the <Virtual Environment> suite of tools: VE-Ware, VE-Toolkits and the <Virtual Environment>.
This document is intended as a brief introduction to the plug-in to let you get started.
More detailed videos, how tos, help, forums and tutorials can all be found on www.iesve.com/SketchUp.

SketchUp:

Plug-in:

IES VE:

Plug-in Toolbar
The plug-in appears as a toolbar in SketchUp.

The toolbar has 9 buttons each will be described below:

<VE> Building Properties:

Set data for the entire building

Location is important for sustainable analysis so youll need to set the buildings location in the world; do this by
setting the Latitude and Longitude. The latitude and longitude can also be set by choosing Select Location from the
<VE> Building Properties dialog. This opens the <VE> Location Browser:

The <VE> Location browser allows the selection of major cities throughout the world. The browser has three levels:
Continent [Africa, Antarctica, Asia etc]; Country / State / Territory [UK, Arizona, Manitoba etc]; then City [London,
Phoenix, Winnipeg etc]. Using the browser, a location close to your building project can be ascertained. The local
carbon fuel mix and weather data is derived from this choice.
The <VE> Location browser allows the selection of many places throughout the world, for ultimate control over the
site latitude and longitude use Google Earth to find your sites location.
[HINT: Orientation is critical to sustainable design; North is located along the Green Axis. See later section to learn
how to use Google Earth to locate your site]

You will also need to set the buildings Constructions, Building Type and Building HVAC Service.

Building Constructions

Building Type Selection

Building HVAC Service Selection

Constructions: What constructions are used in your building? What glazing types do you wish to use?
Building Type: What is the principle function of the building you are designing?
HVAC Service: How is you building heated and cooled?

Identify Rooms & Set Room Properties:

Find all rooms in the model & set data for one room at a time

Identify rooms is used to find all the bounded rooms in the model. Bounded rooms are geometrical surfaces that
fully enclose a space or volume. The simplest form of this would be that a cube needs six sides to fully enclose the
room. A non-bounded box (or selected surfaces) will be treated as Shading Devices.
NOTE: Shading devices will be used by the VE to shade the building. Examples of shading devices are overhangs or
brise soleil. Surrounding buildings will also shade your building. Check out the later section to see an example of how
to create surrounding buildings that shade your building.
Set room properties; this dialog helps you set the constructions, type of use and Building HVAC system for the room
or rooms that you currently have selected. (Rooms can be selected from the list or by using the Select a Room
button)
Use the SAVE Icon to save Room Names. Sort rooms and floors by clicking on the Floor and Room column
headings.
Constructions: what is this room made from? How are you allowing daylight into the building?
Room Type of Use: what is the principle use of the room you have selected?
HVAC Service: how is this selected room heated and cooled?

Select a room:
Left click when the <VE> Room properties dialog is open to select rooms you want to edit.
NEW: Right click to get further options:

Display Properties Room: <Room Name>

Selection of this menu item opens the room properties menu for the selected room:

Insert Floors
Selection of this menu item allows you to split the currently selected zone into single or multiple separate floors. One
floor is inserted as a default. When Check to insert as many Storeys as will fit is selected multiple floors will be
inserted. Consider the following 2 examples on a sample 20m cuboid shape:

Toggle all Room names visibility

Selection of this menu item toggles the display of the room names on and off:

Toggle VE Model shading

The <Virtual Environment> has a convention to describe zones that will be modelled as thermal zones, and surfaces
that will be modelled as shading surfaces. Thermal zones are enclosed volumes, traditionally coloured blue in the
<Virtual Environment>. Shaded surfaces are non-enclosed volumes, or single surfaces, traditionally coloured yellow
in the <Virtual Environment>. To be able to identify these entities in SketchUp the Toggle VE Model shading menu
shows the SketchUp Model in the traditional colours of a VE Model:

The blue zones are thermal zones; these will be included in the energy calculations; the yellow zones are shading
elements (obstructions). The two types shown on this drawing are the parapet walls and the adjacent building. The
parapet is created as a single surface, the adjacent building has no floor (shown below):

<Virtual Environment> suite tools: (VE-Ware, VE-Toolkits, Full <VE>)

Click these buttons to link to VE-Ware, VE-Toolkits, or Full <VE>.

VE-Ware
[more info: http://www.iesve.com/content/default.asp?page=s133]

VE-Toolkits
[more info: http://www.iesve.com/content/default.asp?page=s158]

Full <VE>
[more info: http://www.iesve.com/content/default.asp?page=home_Our%20Software]

Help / IES VE Website:

Click to access the Help files, or to access the IES website [www.iesve.com]

Definitions Floors, roofs, walls:

Ground Floor Slab: horizontal surface that is not in contact with a room below.
Roof: horizontal surface that is not in contact with any room above.
Upper floors: horizontal surface that is in contact with a room above.
Exterior Wall: vertical surface that is not in contact with any adjacent room.
Interior Wall: vertical surface that is in contact with an adjacent room.
Exterior Window: a window on an exterior wall.
Interior Window: a window on an interior wall or floor.
Skylights: a window on a roof

Definitions Windows / holes / doors:

Door: a face drawn on another surface; opacity 100.
Window: a face drawn on another surface with an opacity setting less than 1-99.
Hole: a face cut-out or deleted from another surface; or an opacity of 0
NOTE: Exterior holes are treated as windows by the <Virtual Environment> suite of tools.

Using Google Earth to set location:

Google Earth can be used to set the Latitude and Longitude of the SketchUp model. Firstly you need to install the
Google Earth plug-in into SketchUp. The SketchUp website has guidance on this:
(http://www.SketchUp.com/index.php?id=408)
Once installed follow the steps below!
Step 1: Open Google Earth

Step 2: Navigate to the building location

Step 3: Get the current view from SketchUp Tools menu.

Step 4: Open <VE> Building properties [Latitude and

Longitude will have updated]

Note: you will need to add the City name.

Common drawing issues:

Not all of my zones/buildings have been identified [Part 1 Simple Cube]:
More often than not the cause of this is the surfaces that make up your building or room have not bounded the space.
Lets explain this using the simplest of room shapes the cube. Lets approach the drawing in two ways and *forget*
to completely enclose the cube:
Step 1: Draw a rectangle

Step 2: Use Push/Pull to create a cube

Step 3: Identify Rooms: SUCCESS!!

Diagnosis: Blue surfaces indicate zones [In the <Virtual

Environment> or via Toogle VE Shading]

Step 1: Draw a rectangle

Step 2: Use Push/Pull to create walls (but delete roof)

Step 3: Identify Rooms: FAILURE!!

Diagnosis Yellow surfaces indicate shading surfaces [In

the <Virtual Environment> or via Toogle VE Shading]

Not all of my zones/buildings have been identified [Part 2 Google

Warehouse models]:
Again more often than not the cause of this is the surfaces that make up your building or room have not bounded the
space. Lets explain this time by using some Google Warehouse models and then using the <Virtual Environment> to
diagnose the problem.
Step 1: Open Google Warehouse model

Step 2: Identify Rooms: Partial Success!!

Step 3: Open VE or select or via Toogle VE Shading,

blue is a zone yellow a shading device

Diagnosis: Spin the model and look at the base there is

no face here bounding the building

NOTE: if all you need to model is the lower building and the tall building is only required for shading than this
approach is correct!!
No rooms in model: If a user only creates non-bounded rooms it is possible that no rooms will be created, the user
will see the message and advice below: