MIT Sustainable Design Lab
Quick Simulations

Christoph Reinhart

Download DIVA-for-Rhino | Download UMI

There is a widely held perception that environmental performance simulations are complicated and take a long time. This site links to a series of "quick" simulation workflows that may be useful for practice, teaching and research. To use the exercises, you will need Rhinoceros 3D and Grasshopper as well as DIVA-for-Rhino (version 4 or higher) and/or UMI (verison 2.2 or higher).

  Topic area Description Requirements Download
  Urban, PV analysis This script shows how to automatically conduct a PV analysis of all rooftops in an UMI model and load simulation results back into the UMI database. UMI project Grasshopper file, UMI file
  Urban, Outdoor Thermal Comfort This Grasshopper definition provides a simplified calculation of Universal Thermal Comfort Index (UTCI) distributions. The tool calculates the impact of the sun and sky on the Mean Radiant Tempperature (MRT) at any point within the scene using DIVA. It approximates wind throughout the scene as being identical to the wind provided by the weather file for a given point in time. Contributions of surrounding buildings are approximated assuming that the surface temperature of the buildings trails the air temperature. Rhino scene set up as a DIVA project, reference surfaces relative to which the UTCI calculations are mapped Grasshopper file, Rhino file