IISiBat, developed by the Centre Scientifique et Technique du Bātiment in Sophia Antipolis, France, can be roughly translated from French as "Intelligent Interface for the Simulation of Buildings." IISiBat is a general simulation environment program that has been adapted to house the TRNSYS simulation software. By its flexible nature, many powerful tools and utility programs can be controlled from the IISiBat shell. In this way, a complete simulation package can be incorporated into one environment program, from simulation engine and graphical connection programs to plotting and spreadsheet software. The IISiBat package is designed to handle all the necessary tasks associated with TRNSYS. These functions include creating and editing input files, creating new components, displaying listing and output files, plotting results, offering online help, running parametric simulations, and providing shortcuts for several repetitive tasks such as Fortran compiling and linking.
The figure above shows the IISiBat Assembly Window used to create and work with TRNSYS simulations. This main window contains many
descriptive icons with lines connecting them to form a system. Each icon represents a different component (eg. pump, solar collector, steam trap, etc.).
The user drags the necessary icons into the Assembly Window from the directory structure on the right. The user then creates links between components that
share information. The lines connecting the icons represent the pipes and wires that connect the physical components. While several connections are possible
between two components, just one link is displayed. To view or change the input and output connections, the user clicks on the link itself to view a detailed
window. A series of Tools around the top and left borders of the Assembly Panel window allow the user to place icons onto the working area, connect the icons
as necessary, run the simulation, access the editor, access the spreadsheet and plotting packages, and perform many other functions.
Double clicking on any of the links between components allows users to set the data that flows between the two in a link window.
Double clicking on one of the components itself allows users to obtain detailed information about the component, its origin and its underlying assumptions.
The following links show some screen captures of other common simulation tasks:
The Main IISiBat Window
Specifying the Parameters of a Model
Connecting 2 Components Graphically
Connecting 2 Components on the Variable Level
A Finished Project in IISiBat
An IISiBat Documentation File for A Component
Sample Output from the Spreadsheet & Plotting Package
