gModeller 2.2.7 has been released. This now allows reassigning of adjacent spaces in the surface and opening popups. The IDF export has been updated to target EnergyPlus 9.1.
Also, the creation of duplicate spaces has been prevented, and the sort order in tables with numerical values has been fixed.
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Who will use ECCOlab?
Architects, Engineers, Cost Consultants, Environmental & Sustainability Consultants, Contractors, Developers, Estate Managers and other Construction Industry Professionals.
A de-facto standard for their projects or for use by in-house teams during the project appraisal stage. Open data formats will encourage suppliers and manufacturers to enrich the databases.
Why will they use ECCOlab?
Graphically rich (input and results), clear workflow (inputs to results), audit trail, facilitates optioneering and optimisation, performance-based analysis, strong support for collaboration and interoperability, innovative e-business models.
What will they use ECCOlab for?
To estimate and optioneer on capital and lifecycle cost, carbon and energy performance
When will they use ECCOlab
RIBA stages 0 – 5 with good interoperability with downstream tools.
To achieve significant and deep interventions required to meet the challenging targets necessitates a decision-making process that evaluates fabric and technology solutions at an early stage in the design process. The interaction between all the different elements can only be evaluated by dynamic simulation which utilises the laws of physics to simulate how an asset should perform.
Projects using energy modelling generally exceed the energy reduction targets and tend to encourage good sustainable design where passive design strategies make bigger impact to curb energy use are evaluated and incorporated to achieve demanding targets. Energy modelling from easily obtained data also helps design teams consider all the elements and their likely impact on carbon use where targets can be set and regularly checked against progress.
To encourage widespread use of dynamic simulation an on-line web and cloud-based approach is offered by GSL which is affordable and much more accessible to the construction industry. With the need for significant investment to achieve energy efficiency targets new initiatives such as Energy Performance Contracting will require the detailed evaluation of the most cost-effective solutions so that these contacts are well prepared, and risks minimised.
All investment decisions require good planning and risk informed decision making which in turn requires evaluation of fabric/technology solutions long before and capital expenditure takes place. Optimising the impact of solutions can be evaluated to maximise the rate of return on investment.
A web-based approach allows for on-line collaboration where all professionals involved in the projects can communicate and share data virtually which has a resulting productivity gain.
Pour satisfaire au mieux nos clients francophone nous avons mis en ligne le tutoriel de l’extension gModeller en langue Française.
Notre plugin gModeller pour Trimble SketchUp, compatible avec Windows and Mac OSX, permet de générer des fichiers gbXML et EnergyPlus qui contiennent les informations nécessaires à une modélisation énergétique. gModeller est facile à utiliser et compatible avec la plupart des systèmes d’énergie et de modélisation.
Il simplifie le processus de modélisation afin de réaliser une analyse énergétique précise et de simuler différents scénarios d’utilisation du bâtiment modélisé.
Désormais le tutoriel, jusque-là disponible uniquement en Anglais, est aujourd’hui téléchargeable en Français.
Ce tutoriel vous permettra de comprendre les principes de bases de gModeller, de vous familiarisez avec le logiciel et de créer vos premières maquettes 3D convertible en gbXML.
Our Joint Venture project is now here with significant industry engagement!
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ECCOlab – The only software on the market to quickly and simultaneously evaluate the cost, carbon and energy of a project`s lifecycle – all in one web-based tool.
ECCOlab provides design led optioneering and decision support on Cost (Capital and Lifecycle), Embodied Carbon, and Energy Performance
To reduce emissions in the built environment to demanding levels requires both conversation measures and low carbon heating/cooling sources.
This requires deep renovation of buildings and higher rates of renovation.
For high performance buildings an early exercise with Building Performance Simulation by Energy Modelling enables the evaluation of numerous solutions to explore some example parameters:
These are just some of the factors and this process starts with simple modelling.
Building professionals including Architects will generally require a visual 3D model at an early stage.
The GreenspaceLive gModeller based on Trimble Sketchup enables an early exercise in Energy Modelling. The energy analysis engine gEnergy enables full dynamic simulation.
Circular London is running a six-month accelerator programme to drive circular economy innovation in the built environment.
The accelerator, which is powered by LWARB and Carbon Trust is located in LWARB’s circular office in Shoreditch. The programme is currently offering bespoke support to seven start-ups working to create innovative solutions for challenges in the built environment.
Rapiere Software Ltd (with GreenspaceLive as a partner) created ECCOlab, a web application, to aid building design for the circular economy including lifecycle carbon and cost. ECCOlab is both an integrated BIM (Building Information Modelling) and carbon modelling tool for lifecycle carbon.
As a cloud-based tool, accessed through a web application, and using the IFC file format (the standard BIM interoperable file format) it is OS and BIM-tool agnostic, allowing access to all parts of the construction value chain. By allowing multiple users to access the model (like Google Docs) it is also a collaboration tool, as well as a modelling/simulation tool.
gModeller 2.2.6 is now released, with new features.
We’ve added some construction and window type placeholders to the custom rename dialog. This is accessible from the extensions menu and allows renaming of spaces, surfaces, and openings to match a custom pattern.
Enter the names for each space, surface, and opening. Then any placeholders will be replaced with each value for that item. This allows the identifiers to match different conventions and gives some organization to them, helping to improve your workflow.
Download now at: gModeller-2.2.6.rbz
We have released a new version of gModeller. This includes some performance improvements for when models have a large number of surfaces or spaces.
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Our software provides a user interface for the EnergyPlus simulation engine. gModeller facilitates easy entry of building geometry and fabric constructions using Sketchup and gEnergy allows the full scope of EnergyPlus objects to be edited.
For detailed information on the actual energy simulation you are best to refer to the Energy plus Input/Output and Engineering Reference manuals:
Input Output Reference (PDF)
Engineering Reference (PDF)
Also, Big Ladder Software provide training on EnergyPlus and have some very good reference material on their website that is easier to navigate.
EnergyPlus Web-Based Documentation
Weather data is available for over 2000 global locations. Data is in a standard, well documented, EPW format so it is also possible to construct your own weather files if you have localised data available of if you wish to push your model through some extreme weather events. The following link provides a map of locations:
The link below is to a guide on using EnergyPlus for producing compliance reports: