The Configuration File

The City Energy Analyst uses a configuration file for storing user preferences. User preferences are inputs to simulation runs like what weather file to use, what scenario to use and script-specific inputs.

When you first run the cea tool (e.g. with cea install-toolbox during the installation process), the default configuration file is copied to your home folder.

On Windows systems, the home folder is usually something like C:\Users\YourUserName, so the configuration file would be stored in C:\Users\michelle\cea.config, assuming that your username is michelle.

Setting values in the configuration file

The most important values to set when working with the CEA are probably those under the [general] section, specifically scenario, and weather

Open the cea.config file with a text editor (notebook.exe will do just fine) and update the values.

Note

We expect to implement an editor for the configuration file soon.

The configuration file and the command line interface

When you run the CEA from the command line (with the cea command), then the values to use as inputs to the scripts are taken from the configuration file. You can override each value by adding it as a parameter to the cea command, using the syntax -- + parameter-name + `` `` + value. Example:

$ cea demand --scenario C:\scenario\baseline --weather Brussels

The configuration file and the ArcGIS interface

The values in the configuration file are used as the default values when you open up a cea tool in the ArcGIS interface.