Understanding Virtual Enviornment

IES Virtual Environment is a comprehensive energy modelling and environmental analysis tool which can simulate just about everything happening to your building. Past use of Virtual Environment existed mostly outside of the architects' realm, however IES has done much recently to integrate their tools into the architectural process with push-button toolkits.

The strength of the toolkit is that it can be embedded into architectural design programs (Revit & Sketchup so far) and with a modified workflow one is capable of achieving truly integrated and iterative analysis.

The toolkit performs a series of independent analysis which makes it less comprehensive than the full Virtual Environment. The full suite contains an array of modules, each performing different tasks that are capable of feeding back into the main energy model. For example, if your project will utilize daylight harvesting you would first run daylight simulations and then link these results back into the thermal simulation module where you can see the energy impact from reduced cooling loads and electricity use. The process is similar for natural ventilation and solar shading analysis where separate modules link their results to the main thermal simulation engine. Even HVAC systems design can feed into the central energy model for collaborative A/E BIM analysis in a central model.

It is not immediately apparent where Virtual Environment falls in the traditional A/E firm structure and project workflow. What is apparent is that the ultimate success of its use requires a process shift in either the way the architect designs and delivers, or in the roles assigned to the mechanical and energy engineers (US in particular). Either way there must be time, budget, and client expectations to ensure that this level of collaboration succeeds.

SketchUp Virtual Environment

The green software industry moves forward yet again with the recent announcement of an IES plug-in for Google SketchUp. Similar to the Revit Architecture plug-in IES now offers their VE-Ware, their sustainability toolkit and a direct link into Virtual Environment.

At the basic level this means that with a free version of SketchUp and a free VE-Ware plug-in, anyone across the globe can design a building or a home and evaluate the energy performance while tracking carbon emissions against the 2030 challenge. For those like myself who are passionate about change, we warmly welcome the opening up of the competition to any clever person owning a computer.

At the professional level this opens up these free tools to those modeling accurately in any non-BIM tools which can be exported into SketchUp (Rhino, 3DS Max, etc.). In essence, any firm using Revit in conjunction with other design tools now has the ability to track carbon at every stage of every project…with a free plug-in.

Design Analysis Workflow

This post has moved to the following blog:

http://greenbimnetwork.blogspot.com/

Revit Architecture to IES Workflow

The IES Revit VE (Virtual Environment) Toolkits are ideal for use at the very early stages of the design process to provide quick assessment options for architects and engineers alike.

At early stages in projects up to 70% of the design decisions which affect performance have been made. The Sustainability Toolkit, performs the sustainable design analysis that is so important at these early concept stages – energy use, carbon use, daylighting and solar performance. Helping the design team establish the most appropriate sustainable and energy efficient approach. The following steps provide a quick guide to installing, setting up your Revit model and utilising the IES VE Toolkits.

Installation:

1. Download the plug-in from IES, currently in Beta

2. Ensure applications are closed

3. Remove via Control Panel IES if it exists.

4. Install V:\Other\IES\2007-12-12 IES Toolkit for Revit\ve5850.exe

5. The following tool bar appears in Revit

Preparing Revit model:

1. Add Room objects to your project.
2. It is important that the Rooms in Revit are built correctly and bounding on all sides, otherwise the results will not be accurate. For full details see this IES guide.
3. In Revit select Settings > Room and Areas Settings > and turn on “Compute Room Volumes”
4. Save project

Using the plug-in

1. Select > Set Model Properties, this may take a few seconds to load
2. Switch to Building Type tab
3. Select default room construction
4. Select building services system
5. Select place and location
6. Switch to Rooms tab
7. You are then able to override the room construction and room services system (this can be left as default for initial run)
8. Use left mouse button to orbit model (unlike shift and mouse wheel in Revit!)
9. Select > Check Model…and Review the IES Report (if issues exist return to Revit to fix)
10. After Check of Model is OK, check “I have checked the model is suitable for analysis”
11. Select OK, this returns to Revit
12. Select Toolkit
13. Run the LEED Toolkit to get results. IES LEED Toolkit features (Other Toolkits can be run too)

Suggestions:

Start of with a really small project, maybe only a couple of rooms and really understand what is being analysed and how changes in your model are being reported by the IES analysis tools.

Try File >Export > gbXML first to check your rooms are complete. (IES uses gbXML from Revit Architecture)

Questions:

How does IES know the north rotation - as at no time did I specify this, I assume it uses project north and ignores Revit true north if set in the project?

New IES Boston Leader

Kevin Settlemyre, a leader in the sustainable movement in the US's Northeast, has been appointed by Integrated Environmental Solutions (IES) Limited to head up its North American operations, which are headquartered in Boston. More on TenLinks Daily.

IES Support for Revit Architecture 2008

IES have recently announced the latest version of the Virtual Environment software, version 5.8 has just been released, one highlight of the new release includes the ability to Import gbXML files from Revit Architecture 2008 June build. Read news...

Tools for early Building Simulation

To understand some of the building simulation programmes available, I am going to list of few of them here and start to figure out which ones can be useful for architects early in design during feasibility and concept stages and there connectivity with Revit:

ECOTECT
Features - 3D Interface - Free Download - Building Regs
"ECOTECT Is an industry leading building analysis program that finally allows designers to work easily in 3D and apply all the tools neccesary for an energy efficient and sustainable future...ECOTECT is a complete building design and environmental analysis tool that covers the broad range of simulation and analysis functions required to truly understand how a building design will operate and perform."

Shadows & Reflections - Shading Design - Solar Analysis - Lighting Design -Right-to-Light -
Acoustic Analysis - Thermal Analysis - Ventilation & Air Flow

I like the 3D interface with this software, Architects like this as the results are very visual with dynamic 3D views and false colour diagrams - in early design these tools stimulate a healthy conversation and design debate….may need supporting with engineering consultancy at later stages of project.

IES
Features - Revit MEP - Building Regs
"IES There is now a direct link between the 3D modelling platform Revit and the IES . Jointly developed between IES and Autodesk, it represents a revolutionary change for design teams working from a common model. Not only does IES software calculate heating & cooling loads within Revit MEP, but the suite can be launched in order to carry out the full range of sustainable design analyses. Dedicated toolkits have been developed to make these analyses more accessible to users who are new to the field. The now allows for the import of gbXML files. New interface for gbXML files sourced from Revit Architecture’s June 2007 update."

IES tools have now a connection with Revit MEP since early 2007, this is a great step forward for the industry and has generated much discussions as to the fit of IES in the Architectural workflow. The IES tools are very sophisticated and relied on by many engineers. It is questionable about how useful IES will be for Architects early in design…happy to see examples of how this could work.

Green Building Studio
Features - Tutorial - Downloads - Login
"Green Building Studio If you are involved in the building design and construction industry and are concerned about meeting today’s significant energy and resource reduction goals, you know how difficult it is to determine which actions to take to meet these goals. Green Building Studio, Inc. provides the only web-based energy engineering analysis solution that integrates with today’s 3D-CAD/BIM applications. Green Building Studio enables your design team to have immediate whole building energy analysis results on all building schemes while sharing files with today’s engineering tools. This solution reduces two weeks of work to a day."

This is a web-based solution where you upload your GBxml file for testing...I'm not too sure how this solution is favored by Architects but worthy of trying out. GBxml can be output from Revit files.

EnergyPlus
Features - Free Download
"EnergyPlus is a building energy simulation program for modeling building heating, cooling, lighting, ventilating, and other energy flows. While it is based on the most popular features and capabilities of BLAST and DOE-2, it includes many innovative simulation capabilities such as time steps of less than an hour, modular systems and plant integrated with heat balance-based zone simulation, multizone air flow, thermal comfort, and photovoltaic systems. EnergyPlus is a stand-alone simulation program without a 'user friendly' graphical interface. EnergyPlus reads input and writes output as text files."

No graphics, this is all text based. Useful for early design, not sure how it will be taken up by Architects who love to visualize.

I would welcome your comments on how you are using building simulation tools in your process and to the usefulness that they bring. Please let me know if you prefer other solutions.