Multi-disciplinary views to an integrated simulation environment

This paper examines the application of simulation tools to daylighting and heating energy use in the context of what questions the designers wish to ask and what answers they seek. We describe a framework to provide an integrated simulation environment which the designer can use to pose such questions and receive the required answers. While the structure of the integration framework is similar to many comparable projects in the field of integrated environments, we concentrate on the methods required to provide tailorable user-interfaces to the base models. These can be created for any designer. These user interfaces provide views of a building which allow the designers to view and modify the information required for design and analysis, in a form that suits their requirements at various stages of the design process.