Activity 1.4: Workflow automation tools

Today, workflow automation tools play an important role in the scope of building and community energy performance simulation as models, tools and engineering tasks become incleasingly complex. Running a script in order to start tools in batch mode and to preprocess variables is common practize in simulation. This is especially true if, for example, multiple domains are coupled, different scenarios shall be investigated, if input parameters are frequently varied, if multiple times a similar task shall be performed or if a conversion of input parameters or data formats becomes necessary. Another issue is that computational capabilities are increasing steadily following Moore's law. Hence, dealing with simulation models becomes more complex for both, users and developers. Challenges for practitioners in the field of building energy simulations therefore include the handling of bigger amounts of input/output data (many or huge data files). Furthermore, a greater number of simulations will need to be run in order to perform sensitivity or uncertainty analysis of single or multiple parameters. Analysis of the resulting data by means of visualization or statistical figures as well as mathematical operations on the inputs and outputs will increase in importance. The various data formats involved in simulation need to be converted and adjusted in order to allow comparisons and communication between models.