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Monday, February 10, 2020

NREL Partnership Strengthens Integration of Analytics and Building Design

The National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) posted an article highlighting their partnership with Autodesk around the new Systems Analysis feature in Revit 2020.1. Today's post covers that and related resources on this new feature.

This new feature...
"...allows architects and engineers to make these decisions as well as those related to heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning (HVAC) system selection and sizing with greater confidence and from a more realistic and quantitative footing."
Keep reading to learn more...

The timing of this feature is interesting as mechanical engineers are considering the future of their analysis tools given the mainstay Trane Trace 700, here in the US, has its own replacement Trace 3D Plus which now uses EnergyPlus, but does not support gbXML imports (click here for Trane's own comparison chart). Might the Autodesk option scoop up some market share during this transition?
"“Autodesk has a long history supporting EnergyPlus® and using it to develop different analysis solutions. This is by far the most significant step we’ve made to date — HVAC system selection, sizing, annual energy, and comfort analysis is now an integral part of Revit,” says Ian Molloy, a senior product line manager at Autodesk."
"To develop Systems Analysis, Autodesk used DOE’s open-source OpenStudio® Software Development Kit (SDK). OpenStudio imports Revit data in gbXML format to create the basic architectural model, then applies OpenStudio Measures (short scripts) to configure the HVAC system."

NREL post: NREL Partnership Strengthens Integration of Analytics and Building Design


The basic steps to setup a BEM in Revit is pretty simple as I show in the next two images...




For more information about this new feature be sure to check out the following items:

AKN Topic: Add Analytical Systems

Webinar by Ian Molloy: Revit Systems Analysis for MEP

Autodesk Blog: Integrated MEP systems analysis with Revit 2020.1
"Systems analysis features and framework provide a platform to optimize your HVAC systems design and modeling, letting you make data-driven design decisions from the start."



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