Environmental Design

There is a very embrionic GC--> ecotect live interface. this still has some potential to be useful, but even if it never really goes anywhere, i'd still go with ecotect as my analysis package of choice.

 unless you get a rash if you go near the big A, in which case, topical cream should solve it.

First  http://www.bentley.com/en-US/Corporate/News/Quarter+1/Hevacomp.htm?skid=CEE_NA_COR_BN_76_080130&MIG=http:

Then http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS149469+30-Jun-2008+BW20080630

EDSL Tas is the second best of all the dynamic (FEA) thermal modellers - the others have also been bought up by CAD majors, except the acknowledged best, esp-R, which is still not married off. Hevacomp is useful too. Bentley have taken the crown jewels, this time. I await integration of these non-geometric parametrics into GC, with great interest

Edit: see my post 17 Dec 08 - it's not FEA

Hello ...

I must admit these are things I've heard of and am vaguely aware of (but only vaguely)

I had a browse around the  Hevacomp web site and it would seem to be a very good move by Bentley. Though probably a fair bit too advance for myself, and I'd guess many people mainly working as architects (more for the M & E people I'd guess)

Tas looks very promising and I’ve heard good reports about it. Though again, probably a bit too advanced for myself at this stage.

Andreas: I'm glad you've had some good results/are pleased with the TAS products

"it shouldn't be any problem to use programs from different software companies" I wish I shared you're optimism on that one!

I might give it a go at some point. For the time being I guess I'll attempt some tweaking in Triforma/BA. Though that would seem like a long haul.

Most of the products/solutions available seem to mainly focus on HVAC related issues. Perhaps understandable as they were probably initially developed with that in mind. And no doubt the big issue of the moment

What about recycled content?  Toxicity? Water re-use/recycling? Flexibility? Potential for disassembling/re-using parts of the building, or building component.

It would seem there is a reasonably clear path for assessing if your building (or proposal) complies with the various structural codes (give it to a structural engineer huh!), if it complies with various energy related issues/requirements (guess who you call then? those nice people who work in M&E). This can be done suffciently/adequately/impressively (take you're pick) with Bentley's current suite of products. 

It would seem at the moment then the main thing to do with respect to environmental impact assessment would be to export your model to another package. But this will still entail some further re-modeling it would seem. I can accept that to some degree, as regardless of the package, I assume at some point you will have to "tell" it what you want to assess and where

From what bits I've seen (only playing around with the trial version briefly and then seeing a demo), for my more immediate purposes (and I would have though for architectural practices generally), Ecotect seem to be a few steps ahead of the other options. I was quite hopeful that there would be some more dynamic linking with dgn stuff in the pipeline. Though as this is now an Autodesk product, maybe they aren't in too much of a rush to develop things too much in that direction. Maybe the recent dgn/dwg agreement will prove to be fruitful. It may still be someway off before we see any significant benefits from that (next year?). As mentioned, I think I'll prod around with BA for the foreseeable future (some months probably) and see how that pans out before I attempt anything with any other products.

Anyway, …..

Thanks again

Regards

Danny Cooley

Freelance CAD technician