The ENVIguide, in previous version of ENVI-met known as Project Wizard, guides you through the process of creating a simulation file (*.SIMX) that you will need in order to start your simulation. It combines all processes and allows you to configure your simulation file according to your needs. For a complete overview please watch our tutorial.

As one of the first steps after choosing your workspace (1) and deciding whether you want to create a new simulation file or edit an existing one (2), you will need to provide some information needed for all simulations. This includes the simulation start and duration (3), names and folders (4), and the area file that you would like to be simulated (5). This process is the same no matter your level of expertise.

The steps following the initial setup will be different depending on the level chosen. The ENVIguide offers three different modes which are to facilitate the process on the one hand while making it possible to still use all available options of the program on the other hand. Depending on your level of expertise and the options needed in your simulation file, you can choose your level.

Beginner

The Beginner Level leads you through the further process by simply asking questions concerning the meteorological conditions of your simulation. This interview-style process makes it very easy to quickly create a simulation file and get started with your simulation as soon as possible. Depending on your specifications of the meteorological conditions, a Simple Forcing will be created as the basic Lateral Boundary Condition of your simulation.

Intermediate

The Intermediate Level offers some more options that can be defined in your simulation file. Here, you can decide whether you would like to use a Simple or Full Forcing in your simulation and adapt the soil, pollutant and cloud settings. It is advisable to only adapt these setting if you have a certain background about the meaning of these parameters and the correctness of your values.

• Soil Settings: This setting allows you to set the initial soil humidity and temperature in 4 different layers of the soil. This might make sense to use if you want to e.g. simulate a day in a long lasting dry period.
• Pollutant Setting: If you have pollutant sources integrated in your model area, you can adapt whether only the user-defined pollutant or multiple pollutants shall be calculated and whether active chemistry should be used. You can also adapt the settings for your user-pollutant.
• Cloud Settings: Here you can choose how the distribution of cloud coverage divided into low, medium, and high clouds should be set in your simulation.

Advanced

The Advanced Level makes it possible to adapt all options that can be set in the simulation to your liking. As these are some powerful options, it is even more so advisable to be sure of the meaning and the correctness of the parameters and values.

• Background Concentration: This setting allows you to set a general background concentration of different pollutants.
• Building Indoor Temperature: This setting makes it possible to adapt the initial temperature inside of buildings and gives you the option to keep this temperature steady over the course of the simulation.
• Indexed View Sphere (IVS): The IVS allows a detailed analysis and calculation of shortwave and longwave radiation fluxes within your model area. It takes multiple interactions between surfaces into account.
• Lateral Boundary Conditions: Here, you can decide how the lateral model borders are handled numerically. The default and recommended option is forced, you can change this to cyclic or open here.
• Output: In the Output Section, you can define the output intervals of receptor and building output files and decide whether you want netCDF, nesting grids, or BPS output files written during the simulation run.
• Plant Section: This sections allows you to decide whether you would like to use the user defined or default values for the leaf transmittance, whether your simulation uses a tree calendar with a change of foliage depending on the month of your simulation, and allows the change of the CO2 background level.
• Simulation Timesteps: This section provides the possibility to decrease the timesteps of the simulation in order to e.g. avoid stability problems. This setting is to be handled with utmost care.
• Solar Adjustment Factor: In this section, you can modify the irradiation of your model area by increasing or decreasing the solar adjustment factor.
• Update Timing: Define the time intervall of the updates of plant processes, surface data, radiation timestep, flow field, and emission rates.