bldgsim

We have Moved to formfollowsperformance.com! Update your Bookmarks!

bldgsim — Thu, 19 May 2011 04:32:21 +0000

Hi all!
Thanks for visiting our blog! We have moved the entire content to it’s own domain. We are now at http://www.formfollowsperformance.com/. This new header gives us a bit more room for a wider spectrum of topics.
The blog at bldgsim.workdpress.com will stay alive as an archive for a while. As well some media will still link to this domain; unfortunately we have not been successful on importing everything into this self-hosted solution.
Please stay with us and let us know what you think and if you come across any bugs …
Thanks
Kerstin and Jens

Importing Revit Architecture into Unity3D Tutorial

bldgsim — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 04:04:03 +0000

This is a tutorial describing the basic steps involved with importing Revit Architecture model into Unity3D for realtime, online architectural visualization. Check out our Architectural Beginner’s Kit for additional tutorial documentation, prefabs and resources to help get your Unity3D architecture project started: archvirtual.com/?p=2950

Project Vasari – New Release adds Wind Rose and Physical Simulation

bldgsim — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 06:13:25 +0000

Project Vasari is a simple conceptual modeling tool with cloud-based sustainability analysis. To see what’s new in this update, check out the what’s new page.

The image above shows the new Wind Rose function. It is basically an Ecotect / Weather Tool -like wind rose that is imported as family into the model. You can show averaged values over the course of a year or drill down to monthly values (Only that the one shown above does not meet my own plausibility test; with a major portion coming from the NNE in Vancouver, BC, this can not be right, there must be some issue with the location or weather data). Please let me know if you find out what the issue could be…

One highlight is the integration of Project Nucleus.

Coming originally out of Maya Project Nucleus can simulate a wide range of physical phenomena in real time, like wind, gravity, constraints, and collisions. These forces can help architects generate free-form shapes, many of which would be impossible to model by hand. Please note that the Nucleus tab only appears in Project Vasari while you are editing a loadable family (RFA file) as opposed to being in a project (RVT file).

Project Vasari on Autodesk Labs

The download of Vasari is an EXE that you simply place on your computer and run – no install.

See the video below and the links in the text for more info (via It’s Alive in the Lab)

Performative Design – Dr. Andrew Marsh at the ECPPM

bldgsim — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 05:35:26 +0000

Hear Dr. Andrew Marsh give his keynote presentation from the 9th European Conference on Product and Process Modelling (ECPPM) at University College Cork (Ireland). Dr. Marsh discusses BIM and the Performative Design Process.

Vancouver Green Buildings Dialogue

bldgsim — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 08:43:27 +0000

These videos are a recording of a dialogue organized by Carbon Talks that took place on Nov.15, 2010. This dialogue was about Carbon Neutral Buildings and featured David Ramslie, Sustainability Development Program Manager for the City of Vancouver.
Carbon Talks is a new initiative of Simon Fraser University’s Centre for Dialogue, in collaboration with SFU’s Segal School of Business, the School for Public Policy and the School for International Studies. Our goal is to advance Canadian global competitiveness by shifting to a low-carbon economy. Carbon Talks does this by:

convening business, thought leaders and policy makers in open and confidential dialogues about leading edge ideas, processes and technologies that reduce Canada’s carbon footprint
working in partnership with municipalities and other levels of governments to create an enabling environment for a low carbon economy
publishing independent fact-based analysis about relevant issues and challenges
hosting public forums profiling leaders and innovations in the low-carbon economy

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Design Performance Viewer Beta Now Available for Non-Commercial Use

bldgsim — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 07:47:23 +0000

The Design Performance Viewer (DPV) aims at energy performance assessment at the early stags of an architectural design. It utilizes building information modeling to store the multi-disciplinary information necessary for performance calculations. Its integration into the modeling environment enables instantaneous energy and carbon emission calculations and the intuitive graphical visualisation of the resulting performance indices. It is an add-on to the BIM modeling software Autodesk Revit Architecture. The DPV is based on SIA 380.1 (Swiss Norm for Heating Energy Demand) for Swiss locations only for now.

The DPV is an ongoing reserach project since 2007, conducted at the Institute of Technology in Architecture (ITA) at the Department of Architecture at the ETH Zurich. The aim is to allow fast, easy and iterative energy and exergy performance assessment of a building design not only focused on form and geometry but in a integrated way, including building technologies to supply heat, cold and power. To deliver an immediate performance feedback, the DPV is integrated into the BIM-modeling environment Revit from Autodesk. All information necessary is taken from the building model.

Go to www.designperformance.net to find out more ..

Buildings are Essential to Solving the Climate Crisis

bldgsim — Sun, 26 Dec 2010 08:25:43 +0000

Buildings are also the least cost carbon abatement solution available. Watch this informative trailer on the global Common Carbon Metric joint innitiative by the World Green Building Council and the UNEP SBCI (United Nations Environment Programme – Sustainable Building & Construction Initiative).

WeaTran Weather Data Translation

bldgsim — Sat, 20 Nov 2010 17:24:47 +0000

The WeaTran software, which is available free-of-charge through the University of Dayton via the link below reads TMY and EPW files and translates the data to other useful formats.
In addition, to help summarize a climate graphically, it displays a psychrometric chart of monthly temp and humidity data as well as a time-series chart of monthly solar radiation. It can also calculate solar radiation on any surface (or on any four walls) using TMY or TMY2 data.

http://academic.udayton.edu/kissock/http/RESEARCH/WeaTran.htm

DView Weather Data Visualisation Program

bldgsim — Sat, 20 Nov 2010 16:51:09 +0000

DView displays hourly time series data in a variety of formats. Mistaya engineering developed DView for NREL to help with the visual analysis of all kinds of hourly time series data, with a particular emphasis on “typical meteorological year” data. DView opens text files and Excel files containing any type of hourly data, and it recognizes several particular file formats, including TMY2, TMY3, and EPW files.
One of DView”s most useful features is its ability to graphically compare two or three data sets. You can compare the data in a time series graph…
The screenshots below show various visualisation capabilities comparing Vancouver EPW and Calgary EPW datasets.
Dview can be downloaded for free at the mistaya engineering site ..

The 8-House

bldgsim — Sat, 20 Nov 2010 06:08:42 +0000

BIG project in Ørestad with interesting animation : The 8-House is located in Ørestad on the southern edge of Copenhagen. 8-House offers homes for people in all of life’s stages: the young and the old, singles, families that grow and families that become smaller. Instead of dividing the different functions of the building – for both habitation and retail – into separate blocks, the various functions have been spread out horizontally. The apartments are placed at the top while the commercial program unfolds at the base of the building. As a result, the different horizontal layers have achieved a quality of their own: the apartments benefit from the view, sunlight and fresh air, while the commercial merges with life on the street. You can see some in progress pictures from the construction site here at archdaily ..