Glossary

Overview

This glossary explains the central technical terms from VICUS Buildings and maps them to the English terms of the user interface and the data model. The tables are structured by topic areas: building structure and geometry, components and openings, usage and control, HVAC as well as simulation and results. At the end follow notes on inconsistent UI terms and on the unit conventions.

Building structure and geometry

Term	UI/data-model term (EN)	Short definition
Building	Building	Top level of the building structure; a project can contain several buildings.
Storey / building level	Building level	Level within a building with elevation and storey height; contains the rooms.
Room / zone	Room / Zone	Thermal zone with floor area and volume; the balance space of the dynamic simulation. Each room belongs to exactly one storey.
Surface	Surface	Polygonal bounding surface of a room (wall, floor, ceiling, roof) or a free-standing surface. Carrier of the component link.
Sub-surface	Sub-surface	Opening embedded in a surface: window, door or opaque sub-surface.
Hole	Hole	Opening in a surface without its own component (pure geometry cut-out), see Surfaces and holes.
Shading object	Shading object	Geometry without a thermal function that only acts as an obstacle in the shading calculation (e.g. neighboring building), see Shading geometry.
Structural unit	Structural unit	Freely definable group of rooms (e.g. apartment, usage unit) with its own color, crossing the storey structure, see Structural units.
Local coordinate system	Local coordinate system (LCS)	Movable reference cross of the 3D scene; determines the drawing position, axis locks and reference point of transformations, see Drawing aids.
Drawing	Drawing	Imported DXF or GIS underlay as a reference in the navigation tree, see DXF import. PDF and image files, by contrast, are embedded as an image underlay (bitmap), see GIS and PDF import.

Components and openings

Term	UI/data-model term (EN)	Short definition
Construction	Construction	Layer structure from material layers (from side A to side B); a database element, see Materials and constructions.
Material	Material	Building material with thermal conductivity, density and heat capacity; part of construction layers.
Component link	Component instance	Links one or two surfaces with a construction and the boundary conditions of both sides; from this, the construction instance is created in the simulation, see Component links.
Boundary condition	Boundary condition	Describes the heat exchange of a construction side (heat transfer, radiation) with a zone, the outdoor climate or the ground/fixed temperature, see Boundary conditions.
Component type inside/exterior/ground/adiabatic	Inside / Exterior / Ground / Adiabatic construction	Classification of a component link by the surface and boundary-condition assignment of the two sides.
Window component	Window	Database element for windows: glazing system plus optional frame and divider, see Window components.
Glazing system	Window glazing system	Optical and thermal properties of the glazing (U-value, SHGC/g-value), see Windows, glazing, solar shading.
Solar shading	Solar shading	Database element for (dynamic) shading elements of a sub-surface; activated via a shading control, see Solar shading.
Active layer	Active layer	Construction layer in which a surface heating/cooling adds or extracts heat, see Assigning surface heating.

Usage and control

Term	UI/data-model term (EN)	Short definition
Usage profile / zone template	Zone template	Bundles all usage sub-models of a room (internal loads, controls, infiltration, ventilation, ideal heating/cooling) into an assignable database element, see Structure of usage profiles.
Schedule	Schedule	Time course of a quantity: periodic daily/weekly plans or annual plans, see Schedules.
Internal loads	Internal loads	Heat inputs from persons, electrical equipment, lighting and other sources.
Infiltration	Infiltration	Unwanted air change through the building envelope (constant air change).
Natural ventilation	Natural ventilation	Planned, schedule-controlled air change; optionally bound to temperature limits via a zone control.
Thermostat	Zone control thermostat	Control with heating and cooling setpoints per zone; the basis for ideal heating/cooling and surface heating.
Shading control	Zone control shading	Controls the activation of the solar shading depending on the irradiance.
Ideal heating/cooling	Zone ideal heating/cooling	Idealized heating/cooling model with power limits that maintains the thermostat setpoints without a system model, see Ideal heating and surface heating.

HVAC

Term	UI/data-model term (EN)	Short definition
Surface heating	Surface heating	Water-based surface heating/cooling system assigned to the active layer of a component link.
Supply system	Supply system	Heat/cold supply of the surface heating systems, see Supply systems.
Heating curve	Heating curve	Supply temperature as a function of the outdoor temperature; a database element for supply systems.

Simulation and results

Term	UI/data-model term (EN)	Short definition
NANDRAD	NANDRAD solver	The dynamic simulation core of VICUS Buildings; the VICUS project is exported into the NANDRAD format before the calculation run, see Starting the simulation.
Construction instance	Construction instance	Solver-side representation of a component link with surface, orientation and inclination.
Shading factor	Shading factor	Pre-calculated reduction factor of the solar radiation per exterior surface and point in time (or per sky segment), see Shading factors.
False colors	False colors	Coloring of the surfaces in the 3D scene by a result or property quantity, see False colors.
FMU / FMI	Functional Mock-up Unit / Interface	Standard for co-simulation; the building model can be exported as an FMU and coupled, for example, with MasterSim, see FMU co-simulation.
Outputs	Outputs	Result quantities (time series) written by the solver, configurable per quantity, object list and time grid, see Outputs.
Summer thermal protection	DIN 4108-2 verification	Verification method to DIN 4108-2 (simulation method), see DIN 4108-2.

UI term vs. manual term

The user interface uses some terms inconsistently. This manual consistently uses the first-named term:

Manual term	Also found in the interface as	Refers to
Usage profile	Zone template	The same database element (Zone template)
Sub-surface	Sub-surface	Window/door/opaque opening in a surface
Storey	Building level	Level of the building structure
Component link	Component, component instance	Link surface–construction–boundary conditions
Window component	Window	Window database element

Unit conventions

• Internally, VICUS Buildings calculates consistently in SI base units (m, kg, s, K, W). The interface displays and expects common units, e.g. °C for temperatures, cm for layer thicknesses or kWh for energy quantities; the unit is shown next to the respective input field.
• Orientation of a surface: compass direction of the surface normal in degrees, 0° = north, 90° = east, clockwise up to 360°.
• Inclination of a surface: angle of the surface normal against the vertical in degrees, 0° = horizontal surface with the normal pointing up (flat roof), 90° = vertical wall, 180° = normal pointing down.
• Areas are given in m², volumes in m³, U-values in W/m²K.

Related topics

• Building structure and terms
• Database concept
• Keyboard and mouse