Add Internal Variable

The Add Internal Variable dialog is accessed by clicking on the Add Internal variable link in the Info panel of the Edit Script dialog when editing an EMS script. With the Add Internal Variable dialog open you can select from a list of Internal variable based on the actual model.

At the point the dialog is opened DesignBuilder asks you if you would like to update the list of available sensors by automatically running a preliminary simulation to generate an edd file with a list of all available sensors for the current model. If you agree to this there will be a delay (of several minutes for larger models) while EnergyPlus is run to generate the .edd and .rdd files.

Select the one of the Internal Variables listed in the right hand data panel by either a) double-clicking on the required internal variable, or b) by single-clicking on the required internal variable and then clicking on the Select icon.

When you press the OK button Erl code for the internal variable is inserted into the script at the cursor position.

Loops

You can get DesignBuilder to set up a DB Erl loop to include script to generate multiple internal variables by checking the Add loop checkbox. For more information about setting up DB Erl loops see the Add Sensor dialog help.

Data

Name

Enter the name of the internal variable to be used in Erl script.

When an internal variable is selected from the list, the internal variable Name is automatically set to be the name of the internal variable, but with all illegal characters such as spaces replaced with "_". If the Add loop option is activated then one of the following DB Erl keywords is appended to the name, preceded by the "_" character:

• <LoopZoneVariableName>,
• <LoopSurfaceVariableName>,
• <LoopWindowVariableName>.

Object IDF name

Enter a specific object name such as a zone or surface IDF name, or enter "*" to indicate all relevant objects.

When the Add loop option is selected and an appropriate internal variable is selected from the list, the internal variable Object IDF name is automatically set to be one of:

• <LoopZoneIDFName> when the loop Model object type is set to 1-Zones.
• <LoopSurfaceIDFName> when the loop Model object type is set to 2-Surfaces.
• <LoopWindowIDFName> when the loop Model object type is set to 3-Windows.

Data type

When an internal variable is selected from the list, the internal variable Data type field is automatically set. This is the same as the name of the internal variable listed.