April 30, 2009 - Autodesk announced Ecotect Analysis 2010 software, a whole-building performance analysis tool, and the Autodesk Guide to Sustainable Design, a new free online resource for designers that illustrates sustainable design principles, decisions and technologies for every phase of the building project lifecycle.
This new product and online resource provide architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) firms with tools that help simplify and enable sustainable design decisions.Autodesk Ecotect Analysis 2010 provides architects and engineers with a wide range of simulation and analysis functionality, which helps users to better understand earlier in the design process how environmental factors--such as solar, thermal, shading, lighting and airflow--will affect building performance. Design firms can use the newest version of the product within extended building design teams using Autodesk applications for building information modeling (BIM), applying all the tools necessary for building performance analyses that help enable energy-efficient and sustainable designs.
With the rich information inherent in the BIM process, design data can be imported using the gbXML file format from software such as Autodesk Revit Architecture 2010 and Autodesk Revit MEP 2010 into Autodesk Ecotect Analysis 2010, helping to provide more accurate 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, allowing for whole-building energy analysis to help determine estimated 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, customers can run several simulation and analysis st udies, such as calculating solar availability, determining heating/cooling loads, calculating daylight factors and determining potential ENERGY STAR scoring.The Autodesk Guide to Sustainable Design is another tool that helps project teams, including 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.The guide assists 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.
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.Autodesk Guide to Sustainable Design can be found at Autodesk's sustainable design site.