ElumTools - The first fully-integrated Add-in lighting software for Autodesk Revit

ElumTools is from Lighting Analysts, Inc. who produces calculation tools for the architectural lighting marketplace. Today, they author four design tools for the lighting industry: AGi32, Photometric Toolbox, FlashTools, and the newest addition, ElumTools, a fully integrated lighting calculation add-in for Autodesk Revit.

This new tool will be a much more efficeint way of doing point-by-point lighting calculations rather than importing 2D plans into AGI, creating 3D spaces and 3D objects that are representing the rooms in AGI, (which has already been done by the architect in Revit), so why redo that work?  Then as the model updates and changes, you have to redo all that work of reimporting the 2D autocad file, and recreate the 3D spaces and 3D objects.  That takes a lot of time.  Using a software that is an add-on of Revit, you can do the calculations right within Revit, and not have to continuously update separate models.  (Construction document Revit model, and the AGI lighting calculation model.)  Then when you make changes to your light fixtures, you make those changes in the Revit model only, (one place) instead of making the changes in the Revit model and in the AGI model. 

SNIP FROM THEIR WEBSITE:
The growth of BIM (Building Information Modeling) software is exploding, and in many architectural design and engineering firms it is almost completely replacing CAD software for the purposes of architectural and building system design. To date, the industry standard illumination design software programs lack the ability to easily exchange information with models in the BIM environment. The reason for this is two-fold: current illumination software utilizes a complete environment approach to the calculation of illuminance, which is burdened by the large size of the BIM model, and the complexity of exported geometry from BIM is beyond the needs of practical calculation of workplane or surface illuminance. With today’s illumination design software not getting the job done, there remains a need to quickly compute basic illuminance from electric sources within individual environments in a BIM model and tabulate the results in a way consistent with the behavior of the BIM software.

What is ElumTools?
ElumTools is a calculation Add-in used to predict the performance of electric lighting systems within the Autodesk® Revit® Architecture or MEP software. With ElumTools the need to utilize external software to compute illuminance from light sources placed in Revit is no longer necessary.
When ElumTools is installed in Revit, it appears with its own tab on the top menu bar. Selecting the ElumTools tab reveals the icons for the various ElumTools commands.
How does ElumTools work?
The entire concept of ElumTools as a Revit Add-in is based around the ability to leverage content that is already present in the Revit model. Utilizing existing content from Revit allows the lighting software functionality to be simplified to only those tasks necessary for the accurate modeling of light.
The accurate calculation of illuminance on a workplane or surface requires the following components: surface geometry, surface reflectance/color, luminaire locations and luminaire photometry. ElumTools is able to extract surface geometry in the form of “Rooms” or “Spaces” as defined in Revit Architecture or MEP, or if necessary, the user can simply select the surfaces to be included in the calculation using Revit commands. Surface reflectance and color can be interpreted from the Revit “Graphics Shading” properties of the surface and “mapped” to more suitable reflectances and/or colors if desired. Luminaire locations already present in Revit can be consumed by ElumTools and photometric file associations created if not already present. With these elements known, ElumTools has the information required to utilize a radiosity process to compute the lighting for the selected geometry and present an interactive visualization depicting the luminous exitance of all surfaces. However, there is an additional fundamental need to allow the user to assign calculation sampling points to any surface or workplane to verify illuminance present from the Revit layout of luminaires. This is easily accomplished using ElumTools’ Calculation Points command. With materials mapped, luminaires defined and sampling points placed, ElumTools calculation commands enable the computation of the selected geometry. Revit-defined Rooms or Spaces can be computed alone or as a group if they contribute light to one another. The computed results can then be examined in an interactive visualization window (a separate window for each Room or Space) and point-by-point results seen directly in the Revit model. Finally, all statistics are available to Revit’s scheduling tools for summary and inclusion in the BIM model.
Anatomy of a typical workflow
Manage luminaires – This is the process of assigning all of the necessary elements to each luminaire family within the Revit model that will be used for lighting calculations. Required input includes: a valid photometric file in IES format (LM-63), assignment of a light loss factor and a validity check on lumens and watts figures as retrieved from the manufacturer’s photometric file.
The ElumTools Luminaire Manager provides simple access to the necessary inputs for all luminaire families. The luminaire list can be shortened to show only luminaire families currently in use in the Revit model, if desired.
Map materials – ElumTools has access to the “Graphics Color” in Revit for all materials in the model, allowing the reflectance of the surfaces to be calculated from the RGB color.* If a Revit graphics color is not an accurate color from which to calculate reflectance, it is necessary to map that surface to a different and more appropriate color. Glass and other translucent or transparent materials must also be mapped to the appropriate surface type in ElumTools for accurate lighting calculations.
The Materials Mapping feature in ElumTools is very easy to use. All Revit materials are listed on the left side of the dialog and ElumTools materials on the right. The drop-down selection in the center allows individual materials to be mapped from Revit to ElumTools and vice-versa, or ignored entirely. Additional pull-down menus allow the selection of color, reflectance, surface transparency and more (Advanced Properties button).
*As of the release of Revit 2012, the Revit Application Programmers Interface (API) provided by Autodesk does not provide access to the materials’ “Render Appearance” information. This may change in a future release providing more accurate material color and reducing the need to map some materials.
Locate point-by-point areas – ElumTools makes it easy to assign a grid of sampling points to your choice of surfaces and workplanes in the Revit environment. Simply select the Calculation Points command and drop an instance of the sampling points family on surfaces as required. The points will automatically attach only to the selected Revit surface. Other surfaces such as windows or doors would not be included and could be covered with another instance of the family, if necessary. Workplane calculations are simply points on the floor with an offset equal to the workplane height. Calculate Room or Space – Rooms and Spaces are spatial placeholders created by Revit Architecture and MEP. If the Revit model does not have Room or Space designations, it is only a matter of a few clicks to add them. ElumTools allows the calculation of either Rooms or Spaces using a single or multiple selection technique. When selecting multiple Rooms or Spaces, ElumTools allows multiple calculations to be performed simultaneously on multi-threaded processors. If separate environments may exchange light with one another, they can be computed in a single execution.
Calculate Other Geometry – Occasionally it is necessary to select all the elements to be included in a calculation independently of Revit Rooms or Spaces. ElumTools provides the capability to select all elements to be considered manually using Revit commands and compute the propagation of light within this subset.
Interactive visualization – ElumTools provides a fully interactive visualization in a pop-up window as a by-product of every calculation. This rendering is designed to allow validation of lighting results (are all my luminaires included?) and a verification of the behavior of light and surface (scalloping from downlights on an adjacent wall). The visualizations are fully navigable, and additional evaluation tools are available, such as scaled pseudocolor analysis, radiosity mesh display and visibility of sampling points.
View point-by-point results in Revit – The illuminance values at all sampling points placed in the Revit model can be seen directly in Revit. The appearance of the value color can be changed using Revit’s Analysis Visualization Framework (AVF) to scale the gradient of illuminance values for improved readability.
Schedule – All illuminance statistics computed by ElumTools are available to be summarized with Revit’s schedule feature.
Exceedingly simple & efficient
The concept of computing the lighting results directly within the Revit environment using a Space by Space (or Room by Room) methodology fosters a fast and efficient workflow, removing the long calculation times associated with the whole-environment approach of external software. Designers can utilize the software as a design tool on an iterative basis as needed. Point-by-point results provide validation of required lighting criteria, and interactive draft visualizations yield an understanding of the lighting system only possible with radiosity rendering. Unlike many of today’s all-encompassing lighting simulation programs, the ElumTools software is exceptionally intuitive, streamlined and approachable. By design, the software can be productive for any Revit user with basic lighting knowledge, and very little if any training is required.

ElumTools Licensing
For the initial release ElumTools is available in a single user license configuration only. A single user license can be installed on one computer at a time. Once registered, ElumTools is licensed to that computer only. This is a perpetual license for use with Revit 2012 only.

Subscription Plan
ElumTools is sold initially with a free one-year membership to the subscription plan. This means all product releases are available for download from your account at no charge until one year from your purchase date. At that point you may elect to renew the subscription plan to continue to receive product releases.

Autodesk® Green Building Studio® web-based energy analysis software

Autodesk® Green Building Studio® web-based energy analysis software can help architects and designers perform whole building analysis, optimize energy efficiency, and work toward carbon neutrality earlier in the design process. With faster, more accurate energy analysis of building design proposals, architects and designers can work with sustainability in mind earlier in the process, plan proactively, and build better.

• Whole building energy analysis software—Determine virtual building’s total energy use and carbon footprint
• Design alternatives analysis—Consider alternatives to improve energy efficiency
• Detailed weather analysis—Extensive weather data available for project site
• Carbon emission reporting—Emissions reporting for nearly all aspects of the building
• Daylighting—Qualification for LEED® daylighting credit
• Water usage and costs—Estimated water use, in and outside building
• ENERGY STAR® scoring—Scores provided for each design
• Natural ventilation potential—Summarizes mechanical cooling required and estimates hours design could use outdoor air to cool the building naturally

Autodesk Ecotect Analysis includes innovative building energy and carbon analysis tools made available through the Green Building Studio web-based service. The web service provides a user-friendly front end to powerful building energy analysis software. All of the computationally intensive hourly simulations are carried out on remote servers, and the results are provided to you in a web browser. The web-based service will collect data from three sources:

1. Your Revit® software model. All the building geometry comes from your model, including the number of rooms, the connections between rooms, and their relationship to the exterior, exposure, and aspect to the sun; and the shape and total area of built surfaces or openings.
2. Your responses to a few basic questions. In order to explain the building’s use or context, you will need to select a building type from a drop-down menu and enter the project location. You will also have a chance to select a weather station for the project, although the closest one is selected to be the default.
3. Regionalized databases. Based on the above information, the Green Building Studio web service will extract additional information about local weather conditions, construction, and materials. The service will automatically add any information you have not provided, so it can adapt to your requirements as your design evolves.

 Autodesk® Ecotect™ Analysis 2010 software is a comprehensive concept-to-detail sustainable design analysis tool, providing a wide range of simulation and analysis functionality through desktop and web-service2platforms. Powerful web-based whole-building energy, water, and carbon analysis capabilities converge with desktop tools for visualizing and simulating performance of the building model within the context of its environment. Use the desktop tools and web-service functionality together to help create more sustainable designs. This document describes how to access your Green Building Studio web-service account and manage projects, and provides tips to help you get started.

Pressure Drop Calculation

I got an call from a client last week asking about some of the calculations that Revit MEP does.

I am trying to get results for Duct Pressure drop in Revit MEP.



Can you please share your ideas, as how can I achieve this?

This post has some additional information but is based on the Revit MEP calculation white paper from Autodesk.  Revit MEP Duct Sizing calculations

Revit MEP computes pressure losses in ductwork based on the geometry and roughness of the ductwork, air

density, and air viscosity. Values for Air Density and Air Viscosity are specified in the Mechanical Settings.

Roughness is specified in the type properties for duct/duct fitting component families.
 
 

The following example shows how Revit MEP calculates the pressure drop for a 100 foot segment of 36"x24" duct carrying air flow of 12,000 CFM.  Pressure drop is defined as:

This values checks with the Hydraulic Diameter parameter shown in the Properties of the Duct in Revit:

The velocity is based on the cross sectional area:

After determining the friction factor, the pressure drop can be calculated:

The value for the calculated pressure drop matches the value found in the duct’s properties in Revit MEP.

Automatic Transfer Switches in Revit MEP

http://inside-the-system.typepad.com/my_weblog/2010/03/automatic-transfer-switches.html

Automatic Transfer Switches in Revit MEP

by Martin Schmid, P.E. - MEP Customer Success Engineer


How do I incorporate an automatic transfer switch (ATS) into my electrical distribution model? Revit doesn’t have a family category for transfer switch, nor does it have a transfer switch part type for the Electrical Equipment category. Nonetheless, you can modify the provided “Automatic Transfer Switch.rfa” family that ships with Revit MEP 2010 to allow you to connect an emergency panel to both a normal power branch and an emergency power branch.

Say, for example, you have emergency loads, such as certain receptacles, connected to a panel EP1. You want to connect EP1 to an ATS, and then connect the ATS to an emergency distribution panel EDP, and a normal distribution panel MDP. Follow the steps below to make the necessary changes to the ATS family.

1. Open the “Automatic Transfer Switch.rfa” family in family editor.
2. Add an additional electrical connector. What surface you place it on does not matter.
3. In the Instance Properties for the new connector, set the following properties (basically, copying the settings from the existing connector):
4. Number of Poles > map to Number of Poles
5. Load Classification: set to Other
6. System Type: set to Power – Unbalanced
7. Voltage > map to Switch Voltage
8. Apparent Load Phase 1 > map to Apparent Load Phase A
9. Apparent Load Phase 2 > map to Apparent Load Phase B
10. Apparent Load Phase 3 > map to Apparent Load Phase C
11. Load the family into your project, overwriting the existing family if applicable.

Make sure to check the voltage settings are consistent between the ATS and the panels you are connecting.

Now, you can connect EP1 to the ATS, and connect the ATS to both EDP and MDP. When you inspect the load information on EDP and MDP, you should see that the load information from EP1 feeds into both. The ATS doesn't actually 'switch' from normal to emergency in Revit, however, it should provide you with the connected load information you are looking for.

Don't Go Half Way Using Revit MEP - Creating Systems is a Must

I just got done verifying an process that I've heard mixed issues that result if your workflow process is not correct when using Revit MEP. And it's great news in my opinion.

When you place plumbing fixtures in your Revit Model, it is placed in the Default System.

You can connect multiple plumbing fixtures to each other with pipe, and get all the wonderful flow information - all without adding those fixtures to a specific system that you create. If you select the pipe and look at it's Instant Properties, you can not only see the flow going through those pipes, but you can see that it has a "System TYPE" of Domestic Cold Water and a "System NAME" of Default Domestic Cold Water. Make sure not to confuse the two.




The default View Filter displays System Types of Domestic Cold Water in a blue color. So everything looks good, but there is a limitation of how many plumbing fixtures you can connect to each other that are put on the Default System Name. And that limitation is 50 fixtures.



Below is a thread from Jason Martin at Autodesk explaining the history of this Warning further:

One of the things that is most expensive in the “calculation process” is maintaining the “pressure losses” in sections of a duct or pipe system. To do yhis we divide any connected system into sections at any junction or size change in the system (there are additional reasons for a section to be created, like a resistance change, and I’m sure a few others). For each of the sections we track things like pressure loss, static pressure etc. Maintaining these types of calculations for relatively small sets of elements is relatively inexpensive compared to the time it takes to do things like actually move the things. In systems with thousands of elements, however, these calculations became exponentially more expensive as the element counts increase. We decided at that point that when there are more than a set number of “system assignable-1” elements assigned to a system that we would turn off these types of calculations. After quite a few rounds of testing (as well as some arguing) we decided that a “tolerable” number of elements to turn off these “complex” calculations at was 50. So, now, as soon as the number of elements in a system goes above 50 you’ll get an error message that says something like:

“The default system "Default Supply Air" is now over 50 elements. To improve performance, Revit is no longer calculating the critical path pressure drop and the more complex duct sizing has been disabled. If you want to use these features, you must define logical systems in the model instead of using the default system.”

If you receive this error message it doesn’t have anything to do with things not updating in elevations / sections, and it doesn’t make the application automatically disconnect things. In versions prior to 2009 WU3 (or whichever one it was) it was very true that creating systems improved performance “massively”. Since the introduction of the “50 element” rule, it isn’t as significant as it once was.

For other “performance” things, it really, really, really depends. In 2010 a significant portion of effort was spent on improving the performance of what we referred to as “model manipulation”. This includes things like dragging, connecting, moving, sizing (either with sizing tools or just changing the size), and deleting items like pipe, duct and fittings. As a few others have mentioned here, “model manipulation” in 2010 is significantly faster than it was in previous releases.

If you are moving a connected duct / pipe / fitting - our internal testing has shown that it is actually “slightly” faster to not have systems defined than it is to have systems defined. If you are making new connections between things - our internal testing has shown that it is actually “slightly” faster to have systems defined than it is to not have them defined. If you are changing the flow of elements in the system (like air terminals) - it is “slightly” faster to have systems defined than it is to not have them defined. If you are creating systems - it is significantly faster to create them before things are connected with ducts and pipes.

System assignable elements are things like air terminals, mechanical equipment etc. Things that when you select them you see a create system button (or edit system button) but don’t include things like ducts, fittings, pipes, etc.

Once you create your user defined system, you can move your plumbing fixtures to that system and they are moved out of the default system.

Your piping properties will now take on that System Name as well.

With this, you can create piping annotation tags that can be smart and extract the pipe size and the pipe system. Once I connect a tag to that pipe, it will read, 1" CW. And the tag will automatically update and change if I ever make a change to my design. I don't need to worry about the annotation being incorrect. I like to use these piping annotation tags in my "plot" views for my construction documents.

I also use another piping annotation tag that displays fixture units and flow at certain points of my system in my "modeling" views. That way I can make sure my system is connected, and I'm engineering it properly.

I asked Martin Schmid from Autodesk if you could theoretically put every cold water plumbing fixture in a job in one user defined cold water system, and not have a large performance hit. He says there is a trade-off - and that, even though you can put all of your mechanical fixtures in a user defined system name, the more connections and fittings you have, the longer the calculation time for edits done to the system or its layout. But it's not as bad as when you are using the default system name. Martin tells me that 2010 is faster than 2009 in this process. And you won't notice hardly in smaller jobs.

Another workflow process is that you could break up your systems into CW1 and CW2 and CW3, etc... one for each riser in a particular area. But who wants to have a system name CW4? So you will need to decide if you want to break up your systems, or depending on your project size, computer speed, OS and patience, put all of your fixtures in one user defined system.

Which brings me to the name of the article, Don't Go Half Way. I hear a lot of firms that just want to model certain parts of the building in Revit, and do 2D for the other in AutoCAD. Or they want to just create a 3D model, and not use the flow calculation tools that Revit has. But there are a lot of things going on in the program that if you're not aware of, you run into these limitations such at connecting 50 elements to a default system and you end up creating more headaches than you thought you were going to avoid by taking shortcuts. So go the extra step and create the systems and use them to your advantage. You can save so much more time accepting the full Revit process the way it is supposed to be used, than trying to come up with workarounds and unproven processes of how Revit is not supposed to be used.

Revit MEP Calculations. How'd They Do That?

Ever wonder what's inside the black box of Revit? What standards and methods are being used in their calculations? Can I trust them. Well, in the past I would just compare my calculations to Revit's calculations to see if they were close.

Pipe Sizing
You use the Pipe Sizing dialog to automatically specify the sizing for sections of pipe using friction and/or velocity sizing methods.

Fixture Units to Flow (GPM) Conversion
Revit MEP provides a general conversion from fixture units to flow, using the values found in the 2006 International Plumbing Code (IPC), Table E103.3 (3). The flow conversion method selected in the Instance Properties dialog for the selected system determines the section of the IPC table used for the conversion. The resulting flow is used to calculate pipe sizing.

The value calculated for flow can be helpful in sizing the branch piping for subsystems. However, when specifying sizes for the main piping, you should consider a variety of other factors, including the type of system, the type of building, peak demand, available supply pressure, the pressure required at the highest fixture, and limitations imposed by local authorities, selected fixtures, and supply source. The 2006 International Plumbing Code, Appendix E provides detailed information that must be considered when planning a plumbing system

Autodesk is working on releasing more documentation on how the data is calculated.

The PDF documenation is in beta. You can download the file at:

Revit MEP electrical wire sizing calculations
Revit MEP Duct Sizing calculations

Revit MEP_Hydronic_Piping calculations

Residential HVAC Load Calculation Extension

The Residential HVAC Load Calculation Extension software system is a residential and light commercial HVAC load calculation software package based upon the ASHRAE 2001 Fundamentals algorithms (Chapter 28). This program is geared specifically toward the design/build mechanical contractor, design mechanical engineer, and architects.

The purpose of this software is to provide the user with total cooling and heating loads for a building so that they may properly specify the correct size HVAC equipment (whether it is a packaged rooftop unit or a boiler).

Engineers will be able to size HVAC systems for residential and light commercial projects from any model that can import and export a gbXML file.

This Extension is available on Subscription, only.

Autodesk Ecotect Analysis Program

Autodesk Ecotect can measure how fundamental criteria, such as solar, thermal, shading, lighting, and airflow, will affect building performance in the conceptual and detailed phases of design. This capability to forecast building performance over time better equips architects and engineers to deliver more energy efficient and sustainable building designs.

Autodesk Ecotect is a separate program and is not integrated into AutoCAD or Revit. It does the calculations using the gbxml analysis data that is exported from the BIM model. So you need to setup your model with rooms if you're using Revit Architecture, and with spaces if you're using Revit MEP.


Below is a white paper on how to prepare your BIM model for the export to the gbxml file.

Building Performance Analysis Using Revit Whitepaper

Vico Software to Integrate with Revit

Vico Software announced that its 5D Virtual ConstructionTM solutions and services will be integrated with Autodesk's leading technology and solutions for the AEC industry. With the adoption of BIM accelerating, it is advantageous for General Contractors and Owners to have the combination of Vico's integrated 5D capabilities within the Autodesk solutions environment.

According to Clay Freeman, chief product officer at Vico, the initial focus of the partnership has been integrating Vico's Virtual Construction Suite with Autodesk Revit for Building Information Modeling. "We have a growing number of customers requesting that our virtual construction solutions work in conjunction with an Autodesk Revit model," says Freeman. "Today we are happy to announce that the integrated solution with Revit is demonstrable, and our intent is to support a wider range of capability offered by multiple Autodesk products in the future."

Together the solutions from Vico and Autodesk will enable building owners, general contractors, and construction managers to produce:

• Constructability and Coordination
• Model-derived quantities and location-based quantities
• Optimized project schedules
• Model-derived cost estimates

Vico has not announced a date for general availability. Freeman adds, "Integrating our virtual construction solutions with Revit is a very high priority, and we will be going to customer beta test soon. Importantly, our internal Virtual Construction Services team is already contracting work on projects using Revit models in conjunction with our software, so we are quite confident in the quality of the integrated solution."

Vico will publicly debut the integration of its Virtual Construction solutions and Autodesk Revit at the Autodesk University Conference next month. To see the Revit-based Virtual Construction in action, visit Vico at Booth 397 at Autodesk University, December 2-4, in Las Vegas.

Vico Software's award-winning Virtual Construction™ software and services help building owners and general contractors reduce risk, manage cost and shorten project schedules.
Vico Software’s 5D technology provides unprecedented integration of design, construction and management processes, thus improving project predictability - providing early identification of constructability problems; and synchronizing design, cost and schedule. With over three hundred customers and more than two hundred projects completed, Vico Software has a proven track record of delivering results.

MEP Analysis Extension for AutoCAD MEP/Revit MEP

Autodesk announced that the company is making two extensions for AutoCAD MEP and Revit MEP available to mechanical, electrical, and plumbing (MEP) engineers to design more efficient building mechanical systems. The MEP Analysis Extension, available as a free 30 day technology preview from Autodesk Labs, is a set of 25 utilities that MEP engineers can use to better understand how a building system will perform before it's built, ultimately helping MEP engineers reduce energy costs and environmental impact while improving the performance of building systems. The HVAC Load Calculation Extension, available for Autodesk Subscription customers of AutoCAD MEP and Revit MEP, performs peak cooling and heating load analysis for commercial buildings so that engineers can properly size HVAC equipment. Both extensions can function as stand-alone applications, but also work in conjunction with both AutoCAD MEP and Revit MEP.

http://labs.autodesk.com/utilities/mep_analysis_extension/

The MEP Analysis Extension calculates rule-of-thumb cooling and heating loads for commercial and residential buildings, calculates total R-Values for walls and roofs, determines psychrometric properties of air, and more. Running these types of calculations through the MEP Analysis Extension can help MEP engineers reduce error and waste, potentially saving energy costs, the company states. The MEP Analysis Extension also contains utilities for sizing duct work, piping, and HVAC systems, helping engineers and architects identify the most appropriate building equipment early in the design cycle.

The following utilities are included in the MEP Analysis Extension:

• Metric to English units converter
• single-state psychrometric calculations
• mixed-air psychrometric calculations
• duct sizing calculations
• ASHRAE duct fitting pressure loss calculations
• general pipe sizing
• hot/chilled water pipe sizing
• steam pipe sizing
• low-pressure gas pipe sizing
• high-pressure gas pipe sizing
• refrigerant pipe sizing
• fan cost analysis
• fan curve analysis
• pump curve analysis
• rule-of-thumb commercial HVAC load calculations
• simple residential/light commercial HVAC load calculations
• swimming pool heating calculations
• u-value calculations
• gbXML parser
• wire sizing utility
• glass moisture condensation
• life cycle cost analysis
• a super calculator for complex equations
• manage HVAC equipment lists
• manage climatic weather data

The HVAC Load Calculation Extension is a comprehensive HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning) load calculation software tool that determines building peak cooling and heating loads based upon current calculation techniques from ASHRAE. Using the results from the software, engineers can properly size cooling and heating equipment without oversizing such equipment, which often results in wasted energy. The Load Calculation Extension works as a stand-alone application, but also integrates easily with BIM modelers such as Revit MEP.

The first utility is a “Duct Sizing Calculations” utility that performs duct sizing based upon air-flow, velocity, duct material type, and additional inputs. The results contain duct size dimensions (for rectangular, round, or oval shaped ducts), pressure loss values, and other pertinent information. One convenient feature is the “slider-calc” functionality that allows instantaneous results as the user ever-so-slightly increases or decreases different values using a slider control:

The second utility is the “Duct Fitting Pressure Loss Analysis” utility that allows engineers to determine the pressure loss in an individual duct fitting (such as an elbow or wye). Using these results, the engineer can determine the total pressure loss for a duct system. Some of the inputs that are required by this utility include the air flow, duct inlet and outlet dimensions, and air temperature. The final calculated result includes the total pressure loss through the duct fitting.

An engineer can use a combination of the above utilities to design simple duct systems in a building, ensuring that duct runs and air handlers are properly sized so that energy is not wasted on powering oversized fans.

The MEP Analysis Extension is available as a free technology preview from Autodesk Labs. Visitors to Autodesk Labs are encouraged to experiment with inventive new tools and provide feedback to the Autodesk team. The HVAC Load Calculation Extension is available to customers of AutoCAD MEP 2009 and Revit MEP 2009 on Autodesk Subscription and is subject to Autodesk Subscription terms and conditions. The extension is currently available in English only, but will operate with all language versions of AutoCAD MEP 2009 and Revit MEP 2009 software.

The extension will run through October 31, 2008.

Available as a Technology Preview feature, the Extension is programmed to expire within 30 days of installation. They are offering this extension to get feedback to help them make better products and technology, and it plays an important role in determining the future of the Extension. Tell them what you think!

Autodesk Enhances Sustainable Design Capabilities With Acquisition of Ecotect

http://www.squ1.com/

SAN RAFAEL, Calif., June 26 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- As part of its on-going commitment to support the practice of sustainable design and green building in the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industries, Autodesk announced another acquisition to improve building performance analysis in the building information modeling (BIM) process. Autodesk announced that it has completed the acquisition of substantially all the assets related to the Ecotect software tools for conceptual building performance analysis from both Square One Research Ltd. and Dr. Andrew Marsh.

The acquisitions of Ecotect and the Green Building Studio assets will support Autodesk's vision to deliver software that enables architects and engineers to design more sustainable projects. With improved building performance analysis capabilities, Autodesk will be uniquely positioned to offer a comprehensive suite of software solutions for sustainable design and analysis, enabling a BIM process that can facilitate cost-effective design and delivery of high-performing, resource-efficient buildings and infrastructure.

The Ecotect tools can measure how fundamental criteria, such as solar, thermal, shading, lighting, and airflow, will affect building performance in the conceptual and detailed phases of design. Their capability to forecast building performance over time better equips architects and engineers to deliver more energy efficient and sustainable building designs.

ECOTECT is a complete building design and environmental analysis tool that covers the full range of simulation and analysis functions required to truly understand how a building design will operate and perform. It finally allows designers to work easily in 3D and apply all the tools necessary for an energy efficient and sustainable future.

ECOTECT: Features in detail

ECOTECT offers a vast range of modelling, visualisation and analysis features. The following links provide detailed information about the different capabilities of the program and how they are implemented and applied.

Autodesk Ecotect can measure how fundamental criteria, such as solar, thermal, shading, lighting, and airflow, will affect building performance in the conceptual and detailed phases of design. This capability to forecast building performance over time better equips architects and engineers to deliver more energy efficient and sustainable building designs.

ECOTECT: Lighting Design

ECOTECT uses the BRE Daylight Factor method for daylighting calculation and the Point-to-Point method for electric lighting. For more detailed analysis you can export your model directly to tools such as DAYSIM and RADIANCE.

Lighting Analysis

ECOTECT now includes a Lighting Wizard to guide you through the process of calculating light and daylight levels in your building.

You can calculate daylight factors and illuminance levels at any points in your model or, as shown above, over the analysis grid.

Geometric and material information in ECOTECT can be exported directly to RADIANCE for a physically accurate lighting simulation.

Using the Radiance Image Viewer that is part of ECOTECT, you can easily generate contoured or false-colour lux and DF images.

Once you have calculated daylight factors in your model, you can use ECOTECT's advanced daylighting features to determine potential savings due to daylight-linked lighting controls or export directly to DAYSIM for a detailed analysis of daylight autonomy.

ECOTECT allows you to edit or import the IES profiles of different lights and luminaires, displaying them directly within the context of your model as you design your lighting system.

These profiles are based on user-definable design illuminance levels set for the zone to which the lights belong, showing illuminance contours as a volumetric boundary at which the required zone illuminance is exactly met by each light.

ECOTECT: Ventilation & Air Flow

ECOTECT allows you to generate both the geometry and analysis grids for export directly to computational fluid dynamics (CFD) tools such as NIST-FDS, Fluent and WinAir4. After the calculations in these tools are complete, it is then possible to import results back into ECOTECT for display within the context of the original model.

If you set up a 3D analysis grid within your model, ECOTECT can export this information directly to a range of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) tools, the results of which can then be imported.

Once you have the results imported back into ECOTECT, you can choose many different visualisation and persentation options.

This can even be viewed as volumetrically as you move about in 3D.

The same processes can be used to look at air flow both through and around buildings or complex urban environments.

Prevailing Winds

Using data in the hourly weather file, ECOTECT can overlay wind speed and direction directly on top of the current model, making it especially relevant to natural ventilation and wind shelter strategies. This plot can also show temperature, humidity and rainfall, over any date and time range.

Plots of prevailing winds from weather data, showing annual wind frequency and speed (left) and summer wind temperatures (right).

Ventilation

The thermal analysis routines in ECOTECT are based on the CIBSE Admittance Method which does not require detailed air-flow and ventilation information. However, as you can see from the Thermal Gallery page, ECOTECT can be used as a pre and post processor for external computational fluid dynamics tools that fully consider air flows.

You may also be interested in the gallery pages, for more examples of ECOTECT in action.

• Shadows & Reflections
• Shading Design
• Solar Analysis
• Lighting Design
• Right-to-Light
• Acoustic Analysis
• Thermal Analysis
• Ventilation & Air Flow
• Building Regulations
• Resource Management
• Visualisation & Import / Export
• Gallery
• Screenshots

Upgrades For Existing License Holders

Version 5.60 uses a very different license system, however you should be able to upgrade quite easily. If you go to http://ecotect.com/support , near the top should be a link with a title relating to finding your lost activation details. The resulting page will show you how to obtain your new activation code and download the very latest version that you can activate.