Climate Consultant — The Complete Guide: Climate Analysis and Passive Design Strategies
Climate Consultant from UCLA turns an EPW weather file into clear charts and a psychrometric chart, and suggests shading, ventilation and thermal mass. Free.
Guides and Articles
ESP-r — The Complete Guide: Integrated Open-Source Building Performance Simulation
ESP-r from the University of Strathclyde models heat, airflow, moisture, light and power in a building together, with natural ventilation. Open source, GPL.
eQUEST — The Complete Guide: Annual Building Energy Simulation with Friendly Wizards
eQUEST runs a full-year hourly simulation on the DOE-2.2 engine: a building wizard sets envelope, lighting and HVAC; an EEM wizard compares design options.
Hazus — The Complete Guide: FEMA’s Loss Estimation for Floods, Hurricanes and Earthquakes
FEMA’s Hazus estimates physical damage, economic loss and social impact of floods, hurricane winds and earthquakes. Free, but runs only inside paid ArcGIS Pro.
MapServer — The Complete Guide: Open-Source Publishing of Maps and Web Mapping Services
MapServer is an open-source map server that publishes layers from files and PostGIS as fast OGC services for QGIS and websites, configured in plain text files.
GeoNode — The Complete Guide: A Free Organisational Map Portal and Spatial Data Infrastructure
GeoNode is a web platform for an organisational GIS portal: browser uploads, styling, metadata, user and group permissions, and OGC services that open in QGIS.
pgRouting — The Complete Guide: Routing and Network Analysis Inside a PostGIS Database
pgRouting adds routing algorithms to PostGIS: shortest paths, K shortest paths, the travelling salesman problem and turn restrictions, with costs set in SQL.
PROJ — The Complete Guide: Open-Source Coordinate Transformation and Map Projections
PROJ is the coordinate engine behind most free GIS tools: converting between reference systems and datums, checking pipelines and geodesic distances.
Orfeo ToolBox — The Complete Guide: Open-Source Satellite Image and Remote Sensing Processing
Orfeo ToolBox processes large satellite and aerial images: orthorectification, pansharpening, land-cover classification and SAR — from the CLI, Python or QGIS.
Giswater — The Complete Guide: Free Water, Sewer and Drainage Network Management in QGIS
Giswater manages water, sewer and drainage networks inside QGIS on a PostGIS database, and exports them to EPANET and SWMM for hydraulic modelling.
PostGIS — The Complete Guide: An Open-Source Spatial Database for Infrastructure Data
PostGIS turns PostgreSQL into a spatial database: geometry types, spatial indexing and hundreds of SQL functions for infrastructure, parcel and survey data.
Affinity — The Complete Guide: Vector, Photo Editing and Layout in One Free App
Affinity by Canva joins vector graphics, photo editing and page layout in one app, free for individuals: presentation boards, catalogues and report graphics.