Download

The BCVTB release includes the binary files that are compiled for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux.

To install the BCVTB, proceed as follows:

1. Follow the user installation instruction. This is sufficient for most users.

2. Next, if you like to develop new code for Ptolemy or for the BCVTB interface, follow the developer installation instruction.

Note for users of Microsoft Internet Explorer: Internet Explorer may save the file with the extension .zip instead of .jar. To avoid this, click "Save Target As..." (using the right mouse button) and then enter the name of the installation file, for example, bcvtb-install-0.6.0.jar. (Or use Firefox to avoid this problem.)

1. Release 1.1.0 (January 31, 2012)

1.1. Download

Note that these versions work with EnergyPlus 7.0, which needs to be downloaded separately from http://www.energyplus.gov. To fix a bug that may occur when exchanging a large amount of data with EnergyPlus 7.0, build 36, proceed as described here.

1.2. Release notes

^(a) On Windows 64-bit, to use Dymola, the Microsoft Visual Studio Professional is required.

This version contains the following updates:

1. The example files have been updated for EnergyPlus 7.0.

2. An actor has been added that allows reading CSV files.
3. The BCVTB has also been compiled for Windows 64 bit (in addition to Windows 32 bit, Linux 32/64bit and Mac OS X 64 bit).

2. Release 1.0.0 (February 28, 2011)

2.1. Download

Note that these versions work with EnergyPlus 6.0, which needs to be downloaded separately from http://www.energyplus.gov. To fix a bug that may occur when exchanging a large amount of data with EnergyPlus 6.0, build 23, proceed as described here.

2.2. Release notes

This version contains the following updates:

1. Added interface for analog/digital converter.

2. Fixed a bug that occured when hundreds of data were exchanged. Note to EnergyPlus users: To fix this bug also in EnergyPlus 6.0.0, build 23, proceed as described here.

3. Release 0.8.0 (November 17, 2010)

3.1. Download

Note that these versions work with EnergyPlus 6.0, which needs to be downloaded separately from http://www.energyplus.gov. To fix a bug that may occur when exchanging a large amount of data with EnergyPlus 6.0, build 23, proceed as described here.

3.2. Release notes

This version contains the following updates:

1. Improved documentation for all actors, including the examples for how to use the different actors.

2. Added examples for EnergyPlus 6.0.

3. Fixed a bug that occured when hundreds of data were exchanged. Note to EnergyPlus users: To fix this bug also in EnergyPlus 6.0.0, build 23, proceed as described here.

4. Release 0.7.0 (August 9, 2010)

4.1. Download

Note that these versions work with EnergyPlus 5.0, which needs to be downloaded separately from http://www.energyplus.gov.

4.2. Release notes

This version contains the following updates:

1. Addition of the BACnet interface that can read to and write from BACnet devices.
2. Addition of examples for Radiance.
3. Completely revised manual.

5. Release 0.6.0 (April 27, 2010)

5.1. Download

Note that these versions work with EnergyPlus 5.0, which needs to be downloaded separately from http://www.energyplus.gov.

5.2. Release notes

This version contains the following updates:

1. For the EnergyPlus client, the official version of EnergyPlus 5.0 can be used. EnergyPlus needs to be downloaded from http://www.energyplus.gov

2. The example files have been updated for EnergyPlus 5.0.

3. All configurations settings are now in the file systemVariables-*.properties.

4. The files bin/setenv.sh and bin/setenv.bat have been renamed to bin/setDevelopmentEnvironment.sh and bin/setDevelopmentEnvironment.sh. These files have been changed so that they get all environment variables from the file bin/systemVariables-*.properties. This avoids duplicate entry of system variables.

5. The Apache Ant build system is now distributed with the BCVTB installation. It will be installed in bcvtb/apache-ant. Existing installations of Apache Ant will not be affected by the BCVTB.
6. The expat library is included for Windows and Linux. (The default installation of Mac OS X already contains the expat library.)

6. Release 0.5.1 (February 9, 2010)

6.1. Download

• bcvtb-install-0.5.1.jar

• ep-4.0.zip This zip-file requires a password. To obtain the password, email the password of the official EnergyPlus installation to ZhengweiLi.

6.2. Release notes

This version contains a bug fix that caused a NullPointerException if the SystemCommand actor is called from a finite state machine.

7. Release 0.5.0 (February 4, 2010)

7.1. Download

• bcvtb-install-0.5.0.jar

• ep-4.0.zip This zip-file requires a password. To obtain the password, email the password of the official EnergyPlus installation to ZhengweiLi.

7.2. Release notes

This version contains the following updates:

1. Added a compact schedules to the EnergyPlus interface.

2. For the EnergyPlus interface, changed variable names in xml configuration file variables.cfg. The following name changes have been made

   • old	new
     dayschedule	(Replaced by schedule)
     n/a	schedule

Note that the new object schedule is similar to the Schedule:Compact in EnergyPlus and hence should not be used with a Schedule:Week.

• You will have to manually update your files variables.cfg from earlier BCVTB versions.

• For the EnergyPlus interface, changed variable names in idf files. The following name changes have been made

  • old	new
    BCVTB	ExternalInterface
    PtolemyLink	PtolemyServer
    Schedule:Day:Dynamic	(replaced by ExternalInterface:Schedule)
    n/a	ExternalInterface:Schedule
    n/a	ExternalInterface:Actuator

  You will have to manually update your idf files from earlier BCVTB versions.

8. Release 0.4.0 (November 5, 2009)

8.1. Download

• bcvtb-install-0.4.0.jar

• ep-3.1.zip This zip-file requires a password. It is the same file as the one that is distributed with the BCVTB version 0.2.0. To obtain the password, email the password of the official EnergyPlus installation to ZhengweiLi.

8.2. Release notes

This version contains the following updates:

1. Added a new actor called SystemCommand that allows to call any system command from Ptolemy. See the example for further information.

2. Added option to start the BCVTB from a java jar file. This allows to start the BCVTB from a file explorer or from a command line with several options. See Files/BCVTBJar for a description.

3. Added the example examples/dymolaEPlus31-singleZone, in which an air-based HVAC system that is modeled in Modelica is linked to a building model of EnergyPlus.

9. Release 0.3.1 (September 4, 2009)

9.1. Download

• bcvtb-install-0.3.1.jar

• ep-3.1.zip This zip-file requires a password. It is the same file as the one that is distributed with the BCVTB version 0.2.0. To obtain the password, email the password of the official EnergyPlus installation to ZhengweiLi.

9.2. Release notes

This version is a minor update that addresses the following issues:

1. For the Simulink interface, fixed a bug that prevented the BCVTB library to be displayed in Simulink's library browser.
2. Fixed compilation problems on Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard).

10. Release 0.3.0 (August 24, 2009)

10.1. Download

• bcvtb-install-0.3.0.jar

• ep-3.1.zip This zip-file requires a password. It is the same file as the one that is distributed with the BCVTB version 0.2.0. To obtain the password, email the password of the official EnergyPlus installation to ZhengweiLi.

10.2. Release notes

1. This version contains a subset of Ptolemy. Users do not need to install their own Ptolemy version.
2. Cygwin is not required anymore.

3. In the files variables.cfg, the header needs to look like

   <?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
   <!DOCTYPE BCVTB-variables SYSTEM "variables.dtd">
   <BCVTB-variables>

   i.e., you need to add the second line to your existing file.

4. Due to shipping a new Ptolemy version, the files system.xml and system-windows.xml had to be changed. Previous files can be updated by running the following bash script from the examples directory fixModels.sh.

11. Release 0.2.0 (June 30, 2009)

11.1. Download

• bcvtb-install-0.2.0.jar

• ep-3.1.zip This zip-file requires a password. To obtain the password, email the password of the official EnergyPlus installation to ZhengweiLi.

11.2. Release notes

1. The parameters of the Ptolemy Simulator object changed. To update your files system-windows.xml (or system.xml on Linux or Mac), run from cygwin (or a bash shell) the command

   $BCVTB_HOME/bin/updateSystemFiles.sh system-windows.xml

2. The EnergyPlus object DAYSCHEDULE:DYNAMIC has been renamed to SCHEDULE:DAY:DYNAMIC.

3. Due to a change in the parameters of the Simulator object, file names must not be quoted anymore. I.e., in system.xml or in system-windows.xml, change "socket.cfg" to socket.cfg.

4. The Simulator object now writes the simulation output to a log file (default is simulation.log) and to the console. However, console output is currently only working on Linux and on Mac OS X. The reason is that Ptolemy on Windows is started using javaw which does not write the output stream to the console.

5. The build system has been changed from Makefiles to Apache Ant. Cygwin is still needed to compile Ptolemy on Windows, but the compilation of the BCVTB does not require cygwin anymore.

12. Release 0.1.1 (September 30, 2008)

12.1. Download

12.2. Release notes

1. The EnergyPlus executable that contains the BCVTB interface is not part of this distribution. To obtain the EnergyPlus 2.1.0 executable with the BCVTB interface, email a request together with the EnergyPlus installation password to ZhengweiLi.

2. Improved reporting to log files by the socket library.
3. Improved the make files.
4. This release contains the following bug fixes:
   1. Fixed a buffer overflow in the socket library.

   2. Updated the example in example/timeSync so that it also runs on Windows.

13. Release 0.1.0 (July 17, 2008)

13.1. Download

13.2. Release notes

1. The EnergyPlus executable that contains the BCVTB interface is not part of this distribution. To obtain the EnergyPlus 2.1.0 executable with the BCVTB interface, email a request together with the EnergyPlus installation password to ZhengweiLi.

2. This release compiles and runs fine on Mac OS X and on Linux. On Windows, the example file example/timeSync does not yet work.