[Radiance-general] Just discovered

[Lars O. Grobe]

Hi Achim & list!

12.11.2010 10:25, Achim.geissler wrote:
> that might be what you are looking for.
 > https://gaia.lbl.gov/bcvtb

I think so, this is quite an advanced system for embedding Radiance into 
a simulation framework.

Still, as a general answer to how to communicate with Radiance:

Radiance closely follows the Unix philosophy of breaking up the problem 
into many small tasks, that are performed by specialized tools. So 
Radiance consists of dozens of programs, and all these talk to each 
other - or external programs. Communication happens through files (or 
pipes). More or less all data that is exchanged in between the tools can 
be ASCII text, allowing to apply all kind of filters. They can be binary 
if needed in some cases (mostly for performance reasons), the only tool 
that I am aware of always producing binary output is oconv.

So basically, you can connect anything that can handle text in- and 
output and start processes. This generic approach has e.g. made it 
possible to run simulations over clusters easily, scripting of scenes 
and processing of output.

While "Building Controls Virtual Test Bed" is a comfortable help to 
create the tool-chains, it is nothing else but adding some clever 
front-end to the chaining ability of Radiance and similar tools. Worth 
to be aware of. Another recent development is the idea to create a nice 
python-interface to Radiance, something that may be helpful if you want 
some more specific application.

Cheers, Lars.

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