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**Stable**: Helpers to run E+
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:Status: Stable - *good to use in production code*

EP-Launch Functionality with eppy
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Most people use
`Ep-Launch <https://bigladdersoftware.com/epx/docs/8-3/getting-started/ep-launch-program.html>`_ to run Energyplus simulation. The usage is straightforward. The steps are as follows:

- select an idf file to run
- select a epw weather file to run
- hit the run button

The results are generated by the run:

- The result files are in the same folder as the idf file
- The result files have the same name as the input file. The extension or suffix will be different.
- The template objects are expanded

Eppy has an idf.run() function that is a thin wrapper around the shell script that runs the simulation. The result files are not named or located in the same way as the EP-Launch does.

It would be useful to have a function that runs Energyplus the same way the EP-Launch would run it. Witheppy has a function does this. It works in the following manner

Try the following code::

    # works with eppy > 0.5.49
    fname = "witheppy/resources/idffiles/V8_5/smallfile.idf"
    weatherfile = "./witheppy/resources/weather/USA_CA_San.Francisco.Intl.AP.724940_TMY3.epw"
    import eppy
    idf = eppy.openidf(fname, epw=weatherfile)
    import witheppy.runner
    witheppy.runner.eplaunch_run(idf)