feature focus
Cross-Discipline
by: Sean Burke
Ecotect - Start at the Start What Is Ecotect?
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For those of you not yet familiar with this application, it is one of the latest offerings from Autodesk focused on sustainable design analysis. Part of an acquisition slightly more than a year ago, Ecotect brings a very powerful suite of tools to the already rich landscape of design analysis typically reserved for engineers. Where this product differs from those is in its decidedly architectural focus. It has a very graphical interface and the analysis feedback looks good enough to eat. More than eye candy, though, its results and output can be a fantastic way to get your ideas across to clients and to the extended design team, see Figure 1. In addition to Ecotect, Autodesk offers Green Building Studio (GBS) (http://greenbuildingstudio.com), a web service for wholebuilding analysis also acquired in 2008. It may feel like Autodesk is competing with itself again, but these tools can work together to satisfy different simulation needs. In fact, an annual subscription to Ecotect Analysis 2010 is bundled with access to GBS.
Figure 1- The cover illustration for Ecotect shows a visibility analysis for a proposed building
Where Ecotect improves on many other building performance analysis (BPA) tools is its inherently familiar 3D graphical design environment. Coupled with the fact that all input and output data can be displayed within the context of the model, in some cases simultaneously, this enables rich feedback that helps make quick decisions concurrent with the design. Since Ecotect both supports models created in other tools and has its own purposebuilt modeling environment, designers can work in ways that feel most natural to their processes.
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www.autodeskcatalog.com/AECEdge
As a supplement to instructor-led training there are downloadable training packages available from Autodesk, by visiting http:// www.autodesk.com/ecotect and selecting the link for Training in the sidebar. While not comprehensive to all the capabilities in the Ecotect toolset, more are being developed. The training packages will install as help files, and will add themselves to the application’s Help menu. A 30-day trial of the application is also available from the same site, to aid in getting used to the concepts of the tool and how it may be used to perform BPA.
Timing Is Everything The first step to using Ecotect effectively is to discover where the tools may be used in the design process and integrated into a BIM workflow. The most benefit will come from incorporating BPA, using Ecotect, at the right time in your design process. So, when is the right time? When should Ecotect be employed? Start at the start. That’s what I tell new users. My reasoning is straightforward: early decisions are cheap and you can discover opportunities you didn’t realize were there. Using Ecotect solely as an evaluation tool—after the design process is well into development—can have only a minimal effect on design decisions. Picking the Low-hanging Fruit It is a misconception that all aspects of building performance analysis require intense modeling and enormous amounts of data input. Early in the design process information is usually scant, and designers simply want to test different schemes within Ecotect. Some early simulations may not even require a complete building, simply a single room, and you can derive much feedback without having a building at all. Some methods involve surrounding buildings and general site conditions such as: grade, elevation, and sun exposure. Below are some examples of simple studies that can be done to help inform multiple iterations of building form, orientation, and thermal zoning strategies: • Solar Access and Right-to-Light • Overshadowing • Prevailing Winds • Access to Views • Daylight Factor • Testing Passive Design Strategies Understanding Place The importance of place cannot be over-emphasized when designing sustainable buildings. It may seem like common sense that where you are in the world can be as important as building type when forming a design strategy, but in the last century we seem to have forgotten. Rather than go into the reasons why, let’s look at how we can get back to our roots and begin again with place. As Brown and DeKay, authors of Sun Wind & Light - Architectural
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