Transferring simulation techniques to end-users application to trnsys

The objective of this paper is to present an overview of the latest developrnents of the CSTB R&D program Intelligent Simulation Environment (ISE). This project tackles; the problem of fácilitating the transfer of technologies from the research centers to engineers in consulting offices dealing with building related issues (indoor air quality, energy consumption, acoustics, structural analysis, etc.). 
The ISE can be seen as an open, extensible construction set that is well suited to tearn work and that allows one to encapsulate existing simulation codes into one homogeneous environment with minimum cost. This is done through the use of object orientation and innovative software techniques (layering of the set of classes, autornatic class generation, etc.). The main lines of the ISE architecture will be described and examples of use for the integration of new simulators will be given. 
The ISE focuses on the end user aspects. Three user groups are envisaged: model developers (users who invent new components), project developers (users who describe a simulation project by assembling components) and analysts (users; who will make economic and technical studies of existing projects). These user groups will be detailed and the ISE features to manage the team work around simulation projects will be presented.