Autodesk, Inc. (Autodesk), a US-based design software and services company, has introduced a new whole-building performance analysis tool, Ecotect Analysis 2010 software, and a new free online resource, Autodesk Guide to Sustainable Design. This new product and online resource offer the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) firms with tools that help simplify and allow sustainable design decisions.
The new free online resource is for the designers that demonstrates the sustainable design principles, decisions and technologies for every phase of the building project lifecycle.
Accelerating climate change and decreasing energy security are driving a growing number of voluntary and regulatory initiatives to improve new and existing building performance and reduce carbon emissions, stated Phil Bernstein, FAIA, Autodesk vice president of AEC industry strategy and relations. Our Green Index Survey consistently reflects these new initiatives and finds that owners are demanding green buildings at a steadily increasing rate. Autodesk’s goal is to make sustainable design easier so architects can meet this growing demand, and we’re doing so today by offering new sustainable design analysis software and a free online guide to building sustainably.
The new Ecotect Analysis 2010 offers the architects and engineers with a broad range of simulation and analysis functionality that helps the users to better understand earlier in the design process how the environmental factors, like solar, thermal, shading, lighting and airflow will affect the building performance. Design firms can use the new version of the product within extended building design teams utilizing Autodesk applications for building information modeling (BIM), applying all the tools required for building performance analyses that help allow energy-efficient and sustainable designs.
With the rich information inherent in BIM process, the design data can be imported utilizing the gbXML file format from software like Autodesk Revit Architecture 2010 and Autodesk Revit MEP 2010 into Autodesk Ecotect Analysis 2010, helping to offer more precise simulation and analysis at any phase in the design process. Autodesk Ecotect Analysis subscription members now have access to the Autodesk Green Building Studio web-based service, enabling for whole-building energy analysis to help determine anticipated total energy costs, carbon emissions based on local electric grid data and net-zero energy potential with the application of renewable energy sources. In addition, the customers can run many simulation and analysis studies, like calculating solar availability, determining heating/cooling loads, calculating daylight factors and determining potential ENERGY STAR scoring.
The new Autodesk Guide to Sustainable Design is another tool that helps the project teams, incorporating owner, architect, engineer and contractor, address sustainable design decisions earlier in the project lifecycle. This online resource can help users first decide what the sustainability goals of the project should be, which decisions are crucial, and what tools to use and steps to take to create and deliver more sustainable designs from start to finish.
Autodesk created the Guide to Sustainable Design because green building begins when projects are first imagined, and this requires thinking green at every stage in the lifecycle, added Bernstein. By giving people a detailed view of the green building and renovation process, we hope to make a wider range of firms and individuals aware of achievable designs with more sustainable results.
The new guide helps users in selecting their building paths and in viewing the consequences of their design choices on the efficient use of water, energy, materials and land. The users can see the potential they have to influence the sustainable use of these resources at every phase of the process, with scales that increase or decrease depending on where you are in the design-build phase; the higher the scale, the greater the effect of design decisions made at that phase on the sustainability potential of the finished project.
Availability:
The new Ecotect Analysis 2010 is presently available in English in North America, and the free Autodesk Guide to Sustainable Design can be found at company’s sustainable design site.