External evaluation
Connection of the external evaluation tool PostProc 2 via session files as well as the structure of the result and log directory of the NANDRAD simulation
Overview
In addition to the built-in false-color display and the line diagrams of the results view, all simulation results can be evaluated with external tools. For this, VICUS Buildings connects the evaluation program PostProc 2 directly and stores the results as open, tab-separated text files (TSV), which can also be further processed in spreadsheet programs or scripting languages.
Starting PostProc 2
Access via Tools > External results… or the button 
External results in the left main toolbar.
The prerequisite is a valid path to the PostProc 2 program file. If none is stored, the notice Please first select the path to the external post-processing in the settings dialog! appears and the settings dialog opens automatically: Edit > Settings…, page Tools/Services, section External tools, field PostProc 2:. On Windows, the Automatic detection button next to the field finds installed versions on its own (installation paths under C:\Program Files\IBK\PostProc 2.x or C:\Program Files (x86)\IBK\PostProc 2.x).
The following happens on startup:
- If a project is loaded, VICUS Buildings creates a session file
<ProjectName>.p2in the project directory (next to the.vicusfile). If one already exists, the program asks Overwrite existing PostProc session file ‘%1’? — with No, your own, possibly customized session is preserved. - The session file points to the result directory of the project so that PostProc 2 displays the output files directly in the directory tree.
- PostProc 2 is started with this session. If an instance started by VICUS Buildings is already running, it is reused (brought to the foreground on Windows) instead of opening a second one.
Good to know:
The generated session file is only a starting point: diagrams created in PostProc 2 are stored in the same .p2 file when saved. Answer the overwrite prompt with No the next time you open it to keep your diagram collection — PostProc 2 reads the result files fresh from disk on every opening anyway.
Result directory and file structure
When starting the simulation, VICUS Buildings exports the project as a NANDRAD file <ProjectName>.nandrad next to the .vicus file. The solver additionally creates a directory <ProjectName>/ of the same name with three subfolders:
MyProject.vicus
MyProject.nandrad
MyProject.p2 (PostProc session, optional)
MyProject/
├── results/ result files (*.tsv or *.btf)
├── log/ logs and progress
└── var/ restart data, output reference listOutput files (results/)
For each output quantity, a file is created in the results/ directory, named after the quantity, the time type and, if applicable, the output grid, e.g. AirTemperature.tsv or IdealCoolingLoad-mean.tsv (see Outputs):
- TSV format (default): text file with tab-separated columns. The first column contains the time; the header per column contains the object name with ID, quantity name and unit in square brackets. These files can be opened directly in PostProc 2, Excel or with Python/Pandas.
- Binary format (
*.btf): created when the option Use binary format is enabled on the Outputs page — faster to write and read and more space-saving, but not evaluable with text editors. The built-in results view reads both formats.
Log directory (log/)
| File | Content |
|---|---|
screenlog.txt | Complete screen log of the solver; displayed via the button  Log (tooltip Open simulation log file…) on the simulation-start page |
progress.tsv | Simulation progress (simulation time, percent); the basis for the progress and status display in VICUS Buildings |
summary.txt | Summary of the solver statistics after the run is complete |
integrator_cvode_stats.tsv | Integrator statistics; written at the output points of every run, and with the option Write statistics for each internal solution step (see Starting the simulation) additionally for every internal solver step |
Working directory (var/)
restart.bin— restart data; enables resuming an aborted simulation via the Continue button in the start dialogoutput_reference_list.txt— list of all output quantities available in the model; read in by the Update output list function on the Outputs page
Good to know:
Since the NANDRAD file and the result directory are ordinary files in the project folder, parameter studies are easy to version: save a project copy under a new name, simulate — each variant automatically receives its own result directory, and in PostProc 2 the TSV files of several variants can be compared in the same diagram.