Greenheck Website Features Interactive LEED Worksheet

Greenheck features a new LEED interactive worksheet on its website, http://www.greenheck.com/  to help specifiers determine which Greenheck products will help with the attainment of points in the USGBC LEED Rating Program.

There are hundreds of Greenheck products that are organized and detailed pertaining to various credit qualifications in the Energy & Atmosphere, Materials & Resources, and Indoor Environmental Quality LEED categories. Convenient links are included to product specs, images, and 3D Revit models and manufacturing locations are listed.
For more information, visit http://www.greenheck.com/ and click on Green/LEED.

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.

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

Autodesk Green Building Studio analysis tools now available

The Autodesk Green Building Studio analysis tools, now available at http://www.autodesk.com/greenbuildingstudio, provide improved design insight through whole building energy, water and carbon-emission analysis, helping architects and designers to maximize building economic and environmental performance. The tools are compatible with Autodesk design software as well as software from other industry providers through the Green Building XML (gbXML) schema and can now be directly accessed from within the Revit platform for BIM with a new plug-in now available for download. Green Building Studio Inc. launched the Green Building Studio web service in 2004.

The Autodesk® Green Building Studio® web-based energy analysis service 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 sustainably in mind earlier in the process, plan proactively, and build better.

With the Autodesk® Green Building Studio® web-based energy analysis service, architects and designers can evaluate building components for impact on energy consumption as well as improve economic and environmental performance early in the design process.

Compatible with Revit MEP

The Autodesk Green Building Studio service is an analysis tool that interoperates with Revit® MEP and other compatible energy-analysis software and facilitates team collaboration and information sharing at all stages of design.

Evaluate Energy Profiles of Building Designs

Green Building Studio tools enable architects and designers to evaluate the energy profiles and carbon footprints of various building designs. Files are shared between engineering software programs and among engineers and architects early in the design cycle, making sustainable design more efficient and cost effective.

With Autodesk Green Building Studio tools, you can

• Capture early sustainable design analysis to support the process of reducing or eliminating negative environmental impacts.
• Communicate among the extended building design team using Autodesk design applications and other compatible energy and green analysis software.
• Gain a competitive advantage with increased client satisfaction and improved environmental performance.

Autodesk Green Build Studios Q&A (pdf - 52Kb)

Autodesk’s acquisition of Green Building Studio’s assets was completed on May 1, 2008.

They've completed the migration of the web service to Autodesk’s hardware. New users and existing Green Building Studio customers can now access the web service in the following manner.

• Current ‘pay-as-you-go’ customers can take advantage of a limited free trial period scheduled to conclude on or about June 30, 2008. Log into your existing account, accept the new Terms of Use agreement, and start realizing carbon neutral design with free analysis on up to two building projects per account.
• New customers can take advantage of a free 30-day trial period. Create a new user account, accept the Terms of Use agreement, and start realizing carbon neutral design with free analysis on up to two building projects per account.
• Returning annual subscription corporate customers can continue to use the Autodesk Green Building Studio web service as usual for the remaining term of your original subscription purchase. Just login to your existing account and accept the new Terms of Use agreement.
• To purchase single user annual subscriptions ($745) and 10-user corporate annual subscriptions ($4,995), login to the Autodesk Green Building Studio web service, accept the new Terms of Use agreement, and select the Upgrade link on the Project List page. Please note, PayPal TM payment services are no longer available. A note to Graphisoft users, the ArchiCAD add-on is temporarily unavailable while we are making updates to our new servers. We do expect availability soon and apologize for the inconvenience.

Users of Autodesk’s Revit®-based software applications who register for the Autodesk Green Building Studio service can now access the service directly with a plug-in available from our Downloads page after login.

If you have questions about a new or existing account, please contact their technical support staff directly via email. Technical support can be reached at support@greenbuildingstudio.com.

Free VE-Ware Sustainable Design Software Available in June for Revit

Integrated Environmental Solutions (IES) launched VE-Ware sustainable design software that provides limited access to the company's Virtual Environment Apache thermal analysis software for free.

VE-Ware reportedly gives instant feedback on a building's energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions based on real geometry and using international data on climatic conditions and the typical characteristics of different building, room, and system types. Because it facilitates iterative design, allowing the comparison of different design, layout, and system options, VE-Ware is appropriate for use at early stages of design.

In the United States, as a direct response to the Architecture 2030 Challenge, VE-Ware will assess how the building is performing against this benchmark, for example, whether it meets the current Architecture 2030 50% energy reduction targets.

The data entry and outputs are managed for the user so that anyone can use VE-Ware to help reduce the energy consumption and carbon emissions of a building, the company states. For example, an architect, facilities manager, or building owner can undertake detailed energy and carbon assessments that can make a real difference to the green credentials of the building.

Currently only models exported directly from Autodesk Revit can be accepted by VE-Ware. However, over the coming months the company plans to expand the software's capabilities to include other options for inputting the geometry data. The goal is to make VE-Ware available globally to anyone who wishes to use it, regardless of vendor or system.

The free VE-Ware will be released in June 2008. However, interested parties can register now at the IES Web site.

Autodesk acquires Carmel Software Corporation

Autodesk also announced that it has acquired certain assets of Carmel Software, which include their Design-Build, Duct Size, Estimate, Loadsoft, Refrigeration, Residential, and Green Toolbox products. These tools will support Autodesk’s vision for building information modeling (BIM) and strengthen Autodesk’s expanding portfolio of sustainable design solutions.

Carmel Software has been developing and selling HVAC mechanical engineering software since 1995. Carmel's flagship product delivers thermal load calculations that give engineers information to appropriately size a building's HVAC systems. In addition, Carmel's software portfolio includes programs for duct sizing, refrigeration, pipe sizing, estimating, and life-cycle cost analysis. These applications are connected with the Revit platform for BIM via gbXML.

Autodesk is investigating various strategies for integrating Carmel Software expertise and technology into its AEC design solution portfolio. For a brief transition period, while integration plans are finalized, these products will not be available for purchase. It is anticipated that Carmel Software technology will be available from Autodesk in some format in the coming months.

The plans for integrating Carmel Software’s technology into Autodesk’s product portfolio are being investigated at this time. They will be making further announcements in the near future as these plans are finalized. Autodesk anticipates making Carmel Software’s technology available to Autodesk customers through a variety of methods, including but not limited to integrating the technology into its existing solutions.

Both of Carmel Software's HVAC load calculation software programs (Loadsoft 6.0 and Residential 5.0) work with the latest versions of AutoCad MEP 2008 and Revit MEP 2008. AutoCad MEP and Revit are software tools that provide integrated AutoCAD-based building systems design and analysis.

A user can import into Loadsoft and Residential the building information from the AutoCad MEP or Revit drawing, including room dimensions, number of people and much more. Each zone and room in the AutoCad MEP/Revit MEP drawing becomes a system and room in Loadsoft or Residential. After the calculations are performed in the software, the total cooling and heating load results can be exported back to AutoCad MEP or Revit MEP.

The benefits of this integration is that it eliminates the tedious process of manually inputting information for each room and system. . . a process that often takes many hours for large buildings. Another benefit is that all of the cooling and heating load results can be exported back to AutoCad MEP or Revit MEP to aid in duct and piping design.

The Loadsoft and Residential software programs are able to communicate with AutoCad MEP and Revit MEP using the Green Building XML schema (gbXML). gbXML was developed to facilitate the transfer of building information stored in CAD building information models, enabling integrated interoperability between building design models and a wide variety of engineering analysis tools and models available today. See http://www.gbxml.org/ for more information.

Autodesk® to Acquire Green Building Studio®

Green Building Studio announced they have signed an agreement for Autodesk, Inc. to acquire their assets. Green Building Studio (GBS) web service will soon join the Autodesk product family. The GBS team will continue selling, training, and supporting architects as they use the GBS web service to design carbon neutral buildings today and in the future.

“Autodesk is committed to providing technology that makes sustainable design easier and more efficient,” said Jay Bhatt, senior vice president, Autodesk AEC Solutions. “We look forward to adding the Green Building Studio technologies to the Autodesk portfolio and helping our customers more easily leverage the coordinated, reliable data created in the Revit® platform for building information modeling (BIM) to help predict performance and design buildings with reduced environmental impact.”

After closing this deal, Autodesk also plans to continue support for the Green Building Studio web service, carbon neutral building design training, and to strengthen the web service’s integration with its BIM software. The gbXML schema will remain an open industry standard, and the GBS web service will continue to be available to any other BIM software.

“We have partnered with Autodesk for many years, and commend their ongoing support for sustainability,” said John Kennedy, President & CTO, Green Building Studio. “We are eager to contribute our industry expertise in green buildings to drive mainstream adoption of sustainability and accelerate the AEC industry’s transition to carbon neutral buildings.”

Calculating Heating and Cooling Loads using gbXML

Software supporting a gbXML import has been;

• Elite DuctSize software
• Green Building Studio
• Carrier HAP 4.3
• VariTrane Duct Designer Software
• Trane Trace 700
  

The gbxml format is not written by Autodesk, and any information that is imported into gbXML program is based on what that program reads from the file, and not necessarily what Autodesk exports to gbxml. I would contact these 3rd party program manufactures to see what type of documentation they have available on how they import gbxml data.

There is a room name and room number issue that Autodesk’s development team is aware of and is investigating.

These programs will not know the information about the wall construction type from the model. Currently, there is no way to bring this type of information in from the model. You will need to input all of that information into the gbXML program.

I have submitted a request for Autodesk to provide more documentation about gbxml export and the type of settings that are exported by the software.

Revit MEP Building Performance Analysis White Paper

A new white paper concerning some critical concepts and procedures for generating a valid building performance analysis (BPE) in Revit MEP 2008 has been posted to the Autodesk web site. You can download it here:

BPE Analysis White Paper

I strongly recommend that if you are an MEP engineer considering or using Revit MEP or if you are an architect who works with one who is, that you download and read it - it's a quick read, but full of good information!