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Eddy3D is a Grasshopper plugin for Rhino 8 for urban microclimate and airflow simulation. Everything now ships in a single Eddy3D package that bundles several modules:

  • Eddy3D Outdoor

    Decoupled microclimate simulations, via wind and mean radiant temperature simulations. Driven by OpenFOAM and Radiance.

    Outdoor

  • Eddy3D Outdoor+

    Fully coupled microclimate simulations, including wind, radiation, heat, and moisture transfer, driven by urbanMicroclimateFoam by ETH Zurich Building Physics.

    Outdoor+

  • Eddy3D Indoor

    Modeling airflow, moisture content, and passive scalars in indoor spaces.

    Indoor

Installation

Plugin

Install Eddy3D via the Rhino Package Manager (yak) on either platform — run PackageManager in Rhino and search for Eddy3D.

Simulation Engines (Windows / Mac)

Choose a simulation engine (one of the following):

The MRT component uses Radiance. The Install Engines component downloads and installs it automatically (Windows & Mac, release rad6R0P2) under the per-user Eddy3D folder — no manual install needed.

Requirements

Module Overview Core engine Package Rhino (ver) OS support OpenFOAM (ver) Radiance (ver)
Outdoor Decoupled wind + mean radiant temp OpenFOAM; Radiance Eddy3D 8.27 Windows / Mac 12 (Foundation) Auto (rad6R0P2)
Outdoor+ Fully coupled (wind, radiation, heat, moisture) OpenFOAM Eddy3D 8.27 Windows / Mac 12 (Foundation) —
Indoor Airflow, moisture, passive scalars (indoor) OpenFOAM Eddy3D 8.27 Windows / Mac 12 (Foundation) -

Downloads

Install Eddy3D from the Rhino Package Manager (run PackageManager in Rhino 8 and search for Eddy3D). For the current version and release notes, see the Eddy3D download page.

Previous Versions

View the required Rhino 8.27 build details (8.27.26019.16022, en-us).

One package

All modules — Outdoor, Outdoor+, Indoor, MRT, and FluidX3D — now ship in the single Eddy3D package on the Rhino Package Manager (yak). The former separate UMCF package (Outdoor+) has been retired.

Getting Started

Start from a template

Eddy3D ships with starter templates for every module. Right-click the Template component in Grasshopper to browse and load one, then follow the numbered markers through the canvas.

Starter template selection dialog

Modules

Outdoor — Wind & MRT

Decoupled microclimate simulations via wind (OpenFOAM) and mean radiant temperature (Radiance).

Parallel computation

There is currently an issue with Microsoft’s and BlueCFD’s MPI dll which is why a run with multiple CPUs might fail. You need both dlls to be the same file, see the CFD Online instructions for matching MPI DLL files to ensure that both DLLs are the same file.

Simple workflows

We value efficient workflows! See below for a one-directional urban CFD setup.

Example of a one-directional urban CFD setup canvas

Video walkthroughs are on the Video Tutorials page.

Outdoor+ — Coupled microclimate

urbanMicroclimateFoam simulation preview

Outdoor+ is the fully coupled microclimate module of the Eddy3D plugin, built on the open-source urbanMicroclimateFoam (UMCF) solver for OpenFOAM.

Key Features

🌊 CFD - Solves turbulent, convective airflow

  • Handles heat and moisture transport in the air subdomain

🏗️ HAM - Manages absorption and transport

  • Controls storage of heat and moisture in porous building materials

☀️ RAD - Calculates net longwave and shortwave radiative heat fluxes

  • Uses view factor approach

🌳 VEG - Solves heat balance for urban trees

  • Handles green surfaces

Analysis & Visualization showing wind patterns

Analysis & Visualization showing temperature and humidity distributions

Acknowledgments

Outdoor+ is based on the urbanMicroclimateFoam (UMF) open-source solver based on OpenFOAM, developed by the Chair of Building Physics at ETH Zürich the Canada Research Chair Tier I in Multiscale Building Physics at Université de Sherbrooke, Canada.

ETH Zurich logo

This project is partially funded by Perkins&Will Research. Their support has been instrumental in advancing this tool.

Perkins&Will logo

This project originated from the VIP - Surrogate Models for Urban Regeneration during Fall 2024. Visit the VIP - Surrogate Models for Urban Regeneration documentation for more details and view the final presentation.

Indoor — Airflow

Modeling airflow, moisture content, and passive scalars in indoor spaces.

See the Video Tutorials page for the Indoor Wind & COVID-19 walkthrough.