Ventus is developed by a team of experienced engineers and software developers to address the specific needs of building safety engineers. Ventus helps you design air handling systems for the crucial work of managing airflow and preventing the spread of contaminants during emergency scenarios inside of your building spaces. By strategically managing airflow, the systems you design will be able to maintain tenable conditions in critical Escape Routes, including Stairwells, Shafts, Atria, and Underground Facilities. With your system designs, Occupants will be able to avoid a cascade of hazards from obscured visibility that hinders evacuation efforts, to respiratory distress and incapacitation. Ventus leverages the power of CONTAM to provide you the insights necessary to perfect your system designs. With the streamlined user experience, visualization and communication tools, and detailed analysis available in Ventus, you can cut 30-50% off the time spent on your airflow control analysis projects, freeing up valuable resources and accelerating project timelines.
What's new in 26.2.0715
This release of Ventus has some powerful new features that all users will appreciate. Download the new version to work faster in 3D with multi-height Zones and Section Boxes. Zone Height Property Independence For this release, we have made the Zone height properties independent of Level assignment, allowing users to create multi-height Zones on each Level and multi-Level Zones. This change provides greater flexibility in modeling complex building geometries and allows for more accurate representation of real-world scenarios where different parts of a Level may have varying heights.
Figure 1. An example model with multi-height Zones This change matters because it expands the flexibility of using Ventus to model vertical airflow. For example, use a multi-hieght Zone to model an atrium in the updated example:
Figure 2. Using a multi-level (tall) Zone to model an atrium There are also updates to the 3D tools for drawing Flow Paths to accommodate multi-height Zones, ensuring that users can easily create and visualize models with more complex geometries. For example, when Level visibility changes, objects are now shown/hidden as whole objects. Read the 2026.2 Changelog for more details. Section Boxes We added support for Section Boxes for the 3D Workspace. The feature provides a flexible tool to limit the visibility of geometry to a user-defined region.
Figure 3. Section Boxes CAD Quality Adjustment For years, Ventus has supported importing CAD geometry. However, users do not always have access to concise models with relevant geometry. Often, there are many CAD objects that complicate and slow down Ventus. Enjoy new options to optimize performance with imported geometry and keep certain CAD details higher-quality. - On import, you can specify Object Quality (See the Creating Geometry from CAD page). This reduces the number of triangles used to represent imported geometry. - After import, you can perform a similar operation upon any selected imported geometry. The new context-menu action allows users to Simplify Imported Geometry.
Figure 4. Simplifying Imported Geometry HVAC Results Support Ventus 2026.2 continues support for modeling complex HVAC duct systems. Duct Junction and Duct Segment results can now be inspected in the Results panel.
Figure 5. An example model using ducts in Ventus. Also, HVAC results over time can be plotted with the 2D Plots tools. Read more in the Ducts section of the Ventus Documentation.
HVAC Support Ventus 2026.1 introduces preliminary support for modeling more complex HVAC duct systems, expanding the product’s capabilities for detailed airflow analysis. Users can now create Duct Junctions, Duct Segments, and Duct Flow Elements to represent realistic duct layouts, while results at Duct Junctions can be visualized directly in the 3D workspace as vector data. This new functionality allows for more intuitive inspection of airflow direction and magnitude, helping engineers design, analyze, and optimize HVAC systems with greater confidence.
Figure 1. An example model using ducts in Ventus. You can read more about Ducts in the Ducts section of the Ventus Documentation. Additional Flow Element Support Ventus also introduces support for several new flow element types, providing more precise options for modeling airflow and leakages. The Crack Description element allows users to simulate leakages using measured door crack dimensions, making it easier to represent real-world gaps and penetrations. Test Data (1-Point) and Test Data (2-Point) elements enable modeling of leakages based on empirical test data for well-studied building components, improving accuracy for validated scenarios. Additionally, the Darcy-Colebrook flow model has been added for duct flow elements, offering a more sophisticated method for simulating duct systems. You can read more about the new Flow Elements in the Powerlaw Models and Duct Flow Elements sections of the Ventus Documentation. …
26.1.0121
HVAC Support Ventus 2026.1 introduces preliminary support for modeling more complex HVAC duct systems, expanding the product’s capabilities for detailed airflow analysis. Users can now create Duct Junctions, Duct Segments, and Duct Flow Elements to represent realistic duct layouts, while results at Duct Junctions can be visualized directly in the 3D workspace as vector data. This new functionality allows for more intuitive inspection of airflow direction and magnitude, helping engineers design, analyze, and optimize HVAC systems with greater confidence.
Figure 1. An example model using ducts in Ventus. You can read more about Ducts in the Ducts section of the Ventus Documentation. Additional Flow Element Support Ventus also introduces support for several new flow element types, providing more precise options for modeling airflow and leakages. The Crack Description element allows users to simulate leakages using measured door crack dimensions, making it easier to represent real-world gaps and penetrations. Test Data (1-Point) and Test Data (2-Point) elements enable modeling of leakages based on empirical test data for well-studied building components, improving accuracy for validated scenarios. Additionally, the Darcy-Colebrook flow model has been added for duct flow elements, offering a more sophisticated method for simulating duct systems. You can read more about the new Flow Elements in the Powerlaw Models and Duct Flow Elements sections of the Ventus Documentation. …
Frequently asked questions
Is Ventus 2026 free?
Ventus 2026 is proprietary software from Thunderhead Engineering. Check the publisher's license terms for pricing and usage rights.
What is the latest version of Ventus 2026?
The latest version is 26.2.0715.
Is it safe to download Ventus 2026?
The download button links to the official installer published on thunderheadeng.net, the same file Windows Package Manager installs. You can verify the downloaded file by comparing its SHA-256 checksum with 26225361d53a31f8fea27ec144fea56a28b8f4fa447fdbf6fa049fd38ddcfb81.
Which Windows versions does Ventus 2026 support?
Ventus 2026 runs on Windows and is available for 64-bit (x64) systems.
How do I install Ventus 2026 silently?
Run the offline installer with msiexec /i "Ventus-2026-2-0715-x64-en.msi" /quiet /norestart, or install it with Windows Package Manager: winget install --id=Thunderhead.Ventus.2026 -e --silent.
How do I uninstall Ventus 2026?
Open Settings › Apps › Installed apps, find Ventus 2026 and select Uninstall. From the command line, run winget uninstall --id=Thunderhead.Ventus.2026 -e.
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