The Sustainable Design Toolbox

Rapid Energy Modelling Videos

Simon Gillis — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 16:00:17 +0000

I have put together a series of videos outlining the process of Rapid Energy Modelling, from developing an outline in 123D Catch to modelling and analysis in Autodesk Revit or Vasari. These give a taster to what is possible for analysing existing building portfolios, additional analysis can be carried out in Autodesk Green Building Studio or third party applications.

Part 1 - Creating reference points in 123D Catch

Part 2 - Tracing an outline plan in 123D Catch

Part 3 - Exporting from 123D Catch to DWG

Part 4 - Accuracy of 123D Catch

Part 5 - Importing to Revit

Part 6 - Setting site location in Revit

Part 7 - Creating the building envelope in Revit

Part 8 - Configuring energy settings in Revit

Part 9 - Configuring custom zones in Revit

Part 10 - Creating custom glazing in Revit

Part 11 - Creating custom shading in Revit

Part 12 - Analysing the model in Revit

New Autodesk Green Building Studio Release

Simon Gillis — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 21:28:21 +0000

A new release of Autodesk Green Building Studio has gone live with some great new features, some in particular aimed at existing portfolio analysis:

Utility Building History Upload. Now you can upload the utility history of existing buildings to compare to your simulation results. In the Run List you can now view and edit utility data that is currently assigned to a project.

Historical Weather Data. Over 10 years of historical data is automatically selected for your project location. Now when you upload the billing history of your existing building, the weather data is automatically synchronised to that billing period.

Run Results Charts. New Monthly and Annual results charts allow you to quickly sort and review a large number of runs in your project.

gbXML file Upload. Now you can upload gbXML files without a desktop client.

There has also been some tidying up of the interface and one nice enhancement I noticed is your currency is automatically selected for your project location, no more need for me to trawl through a long list looking for GB Pounds :-)

BIM Show Live 2011

Simon Gillis — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 14:14:53 +0000

Tomorrow is BIM Show Live Day in London, an event covering all aspects of the BIM lifecycle. I'll be there presenting Rapid Energy Modelling, using BIM for portfolio analysis. See the agenda here:

BIM Show Live Agenda

If you are there, be sure to say hello.

Conceptual Energy Analysis & CFD Overview

Simon Gillis — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 15:10:50 +0100

I recently had a requirement to create an overview whitepaper for Autodesk tools that can be used for early stage energy analysis. With help from my Simulation colleague Jonah Normand, we have outlined Revit Conceptual Energy Analysis, Project Vasari, Green Building Studio and Simulation CFD tools. I thought I would share as you may find it useful:

Download Autodesk & Sustainability - Conceptual Building Performance Analysis Overview

(Best to right click and open in a new window)

AEC Webinar Series

Simon Gillis — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 12:00:19 +0100

The Northern Europe Technical Team are running a series of webcasts on various AEC products and workflows, some have already been run and recorded, others are scheduled for live presentation over the next few months.

You can register for upcoming webinars and watch the recordings at:

AEC Webinars

Please note the times are set from the UK, so either British Summer Time or GMT.

Sustainability Tools on the Autodesk Cloud

Simon Gillis — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 17:06:17 +0100

Last week Autodesk announced Autodesk Cloud, an offering for customers featuring a range of web based capabilities. Some of the functionality is new, some has been around for some time. From the sustainable design perspective, two of the previously available energy analysis tools are included, namely Autodesk Revit Conceptual Energy Analysis and Autodesk Green Building Studio, videos of which can be found below:

Further details on the benefits of Autodesk Cloud and how to access them can be found at:

Autodesk Cloud

World Green Building Week 2011

Simon Gillis — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 16:59:53 +0100

This week is World Green Building Week with numerous events taking place around the Globe. Be sure to check out the World Green Building Council list for events taking place in your region:

WGBC Events

Project Vasari 2.1 available

Simon Gillis — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 16:51:53 +0100

Bit late to the party posting about this, but last week Project Vasari 2.1 was released to Autodesk Labs. You can download it from here:

Project Vasari 2.1

This version brings more cool stuff from Ecotect with the inclusion of the Wind Tunnel:

Zach Kron has a great blog post on this functionality here:

Buildz Ecotect Wind Tunnel Post

Also improved with this release is the automatic zoning of the energy model. Previously zones were divided based on points of the compass, now they are divided based on the building geometry - which overcomes the sometimes rather odd divisions you got before:

Finally check out the parameters slider add-in that works with 2.1, more details here:

Parameters Sliders

Autodesk Sustainability Workshop - Net Zero Energy Building Design

Simon Gillis — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 18:02:08 +0100

The Autodesk Sustainability Team have just launched another great set of educational videos, this time focusing on the built environment.

The series contains four videos covering the following subjects:

Energy Loads and Net Zero Energy Buildings Strategy
Passive Heating, Cooling and Ventilation Strategy
Lighting and Daylighting Design
Efficient HVAC Design Strategy

You can check them out here:

Net Zero Energy Buildings Sustainability Workshop

ECOBIM Clean Tech Partner

Simon Gillis — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 11:34:44 +0100

The Autodesk Clean Tech Partner Program supports pioneers in the sustainable design field and my colleague Jerker Hagglund alerted me to one such company in Norway who are benefiting from this program.

Read more about ECOBIM and the services they offer here:

ECOBIM Website

You can find out more about the Autodesk Clean Tech Partner Program here:

Autodesk Cleantech