Building Performance Analysis

Internet of Things for Buildings: Project Aquila

Autodesk’s Sustainability Solutions team recently launched Project Aquila for buildings and manufacturing facilities. It’s a cloud-based app that overlays building sensor data with 2D drawings and 3D models while providing useful analytics and real-time alerts for facility managers. Project Aquila is a free technology preview that will have ongoing development over the next few months, so be sure to provide feedback! Watch the video below and check out the full announcement here . Read more →

Release News: FormIt 360 Pro – Conceptual Modeling with Integrated Energy and Solar Analysis

The Autodesk BPA Team is extremely pleased to announce the launch of FormIt 360 Pro at the annual AIA Convention in Atlanta this week! FormIt 360 currently provides powerful conceptual modeling for free, and now FormIt 360 Pro subscription offers integrated whole building energy and solar analysis and live collaboration. For more information on FormIt 360 and FormIt 360 Pro read the FormIt blog. Read on for more information about the exciting new BPA related features in FormIt 360 Pro… FormIt 360 Pro – Energy Analysis FormIt 360 Pro Energy Analysis applies the Energy Cost Range to your FormIt conceptual... Read more →

Don’t Forget to Register: NEW Energy Analysis Features in Revit 2016 Webinar

This week on Thursday we will be hosting a FREE webinar on the new Revit 2016 Energy Analysis features. During the webinar Autodesk Senior Product Manager Ian Molloy will provide live demonstrations of the tools and how they work with the existing Revit Energy Analysis workflow. Thursday, April 30th 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM PDT Register here. Webinar attendees will receive 1 AIA LU. Get your hands on Revit 2016 today. Related articles Free Webinar! Learn about the NEW Energy Analysis Features in Revit 2016 Read more →

Free Webinar! Learn about the NEW Energy Analysis Features in Revit 2016

Join us for a FREE webinar at the end of the month and learn about the exciting new Energy Analysis features in Revit 2016. We gave you a teaser video last week, now learn about the features in depth and how they fit into the existing energy analysis workflows. Thursday, April 30th 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM PDT Register here. Autodesk Senior Product Manager Ian Molloy will lead the webinar and provide a live demonstration of the tools. Webinar attendees will receive 1 AIA LU. Get your hands on Revit 2016 today. Related articles Revit 2016 Release Announcement-New Energy Analysis... Read more →

Revit 2016 Release Announcement-New Energy Analysis Features!

It’s here! It’s here! We can now officially start telling you all about Revit 2016, and we here on the BPA team are excited about some new enhancements to the Energy Analysis for Revit workflow. Watch this video to learn more. Over the course of the next month, we’ll dive into how these enhancements can streamline your analysis workflow, validate and verify your analytical model, and help inform you design decisions. Stay tuned! Read more →

Solar Analysis plugin now includes Revit Building Elements

At the end of last year we announced the release of the Solar Analysis plugin for Revit. Earlier this month we released a new updated version with several new features we think you’ll enjoy. You can now visualize solar impacts on Revit building elements in addition to on the faces of mass models. This means as you develop your Revit model, you can continue to do analysis and make informed design decisions. We’ve also tried to take the guesswork out of analysis by using smart defaults. This means that you don’t have to configure 20+ settings before you can get... Read more →

Revit Credit Manager for LEED Updated: Try it now!

Have you checked out the Revit Credit Manager for LEED (RCML) yet? We know how onerous creating LEED submittals can be. RCML can automate not only the creation of submittals, but also the complex underlying calculation. This allows Revit users an unprecedented opportunity to get early feedback on their LEED points, create accurate submittals, and save time and money! RCML works on both Revit 2014 and 2015 and supports the following LEED v2009 credits: Daylighting (IEQ 8.1), both Option 1 (Simulation) and Option 2 (Prescriptive) For Option 1, you will also need to download the Lighting Analysis for Revit plug-in... Read more →

Updates to Energy Cost Range Web include Building Form Widget and More

In October we announced the release of Energy Cost Range (ECR) for Revit, Vasari, and the web. This week we are releasing some new widgets for ECR web that will expand the factors you can study. The Energy Cost Range provides an easy way for anyone to navigate the most critical factors that influence building energy use, right from the earliest design. It also allows you to start discussions about energy targets early and carry them forward through the design process. The information is presented in a way that encourages interaction to see the cause and effect of each factor... Read more →

BPA Announcements at Autodesk University 2014

Today kicks off Autodesk University, our annual post-turkey trip to Las Vegas. While there are a lot of exciting announcements this week, we want to provide you with the top three highlights from the building performance analysis side of things. Also be sure to check out our Greenbuild 2014 announcements, as a lot of what we are releasing at AU builds on those. 1. Energy Cost Range (ECR), available here on Autodesk Labs, is a single, simple indicator of a project’s overall potential energy use range, including comparison to the Architecture 2030 benchmark, and the key factors that influence it.... Read more →

Financial Analyses on Energy Conservation Measures with Project ECMFin

Have you ever wondered why the Financiers and Engineers don’t get along? They speak different languages! Project ECMFin allows you to derive important financial metrics for your energy conservation measures (ECMs), thereby helping you create a business case for your retrofit measures. It enables you to compare scenarios across financial metrics such as net present value, payback period, internal rate of return, and many others. You can also get an expected range of values for these metrics, as the app automatically conducts a sensitivity analysis by varying key inputs. You can input values by hand, via a spreadsheet, or import... Read more →