greenspaceLive will be closed between the 23rd of December and the 3rd of January. We apologise for any inconvenience.
Seasons greetings from the greenspaceLive team!
26
Oct 11
SketchUp your way to low carbon building design
With all the hype being about low carbon building design these days and with an array of tools to choose from, Google SketchUp continues to grow in popularity. Gone are the outdated conceptions’ that architects manipulate primitive, simple shapes like virtual putty in 3D space, and now in, are new methods involving intelligent wall assemblies that “know” their own material make-up and that can be used to generate an information rich building model.
You could be forgiven if at first glance, you perceived this as a trend towards increasing complexity, and that future architects will need to be specialists in BIM methodology in order to contribute to architectural practice. Think again. Google SketchUp, is perhaps the easiest 3D CAD based software to learn on the market at the moment and is rapidly becoming the number one choice for architects in early phases of building design.
Building created with Google SketchUp
Although SketchUp does not provide the BIM functionality that is present in other far more expensive solutions, I believe the future is very promising. SketchUp has a short learning curve, competitive price (free), 3D-based focus (a prerequisite for BIM programs), pleasing visualization capabilities make SketchUp a strong contender to begin with. Now add the fact that it is part of the “Google Empire,” directly connected to Google Earth and its repository of 3D buildings, terrain, and street views—as well as the 3D Warehouse—and you have a contender with enviable if not inevitable odds for success.
Google SketchUp gModeller
Of course, SketchUp does not currently possess all of the functionality of more expensive programs—far from it. Nevertheless, now in its 8th Version, SketchUp has already become a far more sophisticated program than version 1.0. greenspaceLive plans to harness the capabilities of SketchUp, by offering gModeller an energy analysis plug-in, which allows Architects to make informed decisions on building design.
– Derek
13
Sep 11
SketchUp Models in the Cloud
This week, I thought I’d introduce some new functionality we’ve added to gModeller – the ability to synchronise gModeller for Google SketchUp with gWorkspace. By synchronising a gModeller model with gWorkspace, a copy of the SketchUp file, and associated gbXML file, is backed up to gWorkspace – from where it can be accessed and shared anywhere. Synchronisation with gWorkspace happens every time SketchUp autosaves the model, taking away all the hassle of uploading your file. Synchronisation is a ‘set and forget’ operation that ensures your model is always backed up to the cloud!!
Turn on Versioning in gWorkspace, and you have a historical record of each change that was carried out throughout the development of your model. This also means that if you make a mistake, or need to go back on some changes, then you simply choose the appropriate version, bring it back, and carry on working!
Enabling synchronisation in gModeller is a simple process as follows:
1. Within the gModeller user interface, press the “Associate with Workspace” Button.
2. Select the project that you want the model to be associated with, and provide a name for the model.
3. Press “Associate”, and you’re done. Your model will now be synchronised with, and available in, gWorkspace!
We’d love to hear how you get on with synchronisation between gModeller and gWorkspace, and how you’re using Google SketchUp on the Cloud. Also worth noting is that this will work with any SketchUp model, not just buildings – so if you want to backup, version, and share your SketchUp models then gModeller and gWorkspace are for you!!!
– Malcolm
08
Sep 11
gModeller for Google SketchUp Overview
My name is Alexander Nicolson and I have been working at Greenspace Live for just over 2 years now and in that time my main responsibilities have been to create gbXML models using the Greenspace Live gModeller plug in for Google SketchUp and to help develop the tool.
There are other energy analysis plug ins for SketchUp on the market such VE-Ware from IES and Open Studio from Energy Plus but what makes us unique is the fact that the gModeller plug in is still the only way to export gbXML from SketchUp. What this means is that unlike other plug ins, you are able to use gModeller as the first step in the energy analysis of your building to take into popular analysis tools such as GBS (Green Building Studio), Ecotect, IES, Design Builder and any other software that supports gbXML.
The tool has come a long way in the time that I have been at Greenspace Live. The speed, performance and reliability are constantly being improved and you can now use gModeller to generate gbXML’s of very large buildings.
The first task is to model your building in SketchUp using single surfaces for each building element i.e. walls, floors, roofs etc. An x-ray view of a building model which is suitable for gModeller is shown below.
Still the most common problem new users of the plug in seem to have is the generating your building model in SketchUp in a way that allows you to use gModeller to generate a gbXML file of the building. I can’t emphasise enough how important it is to read the gModeller user guide prior to downloading and installing gModeller.
Once you have modelled you building you then populate your model using the SketchUp paint tool by simply selecting the element from the gbXML palette and clicking on the desired surface, basically select exterior wall from the paint gbXML folder and click on all the exterior walls of your building and follow the same process for your floors ceilings roofs, windows and doors. Once you have done this you then have to identify all the spaces in your building and this is done using gModellers select space and create space tools. Using SketchUp’s section plane tool allows you to view the inside of the building, using select space you click on part of the floor of a zone and gModeller will automatically identify all the surfaces which make up that space and you simply name appropriately and continue this process until you have identified all the zones in your building. Once that is done you are then ready to export your gbXML and use it for energy analysis purposes.
We are constantly looking for ways to develop and improve gModeller. The next release of gModeller, coming this month, will see the biggest developments in the tool in my time at Greenspace Live. The main new features we are currently developing are an auto-apply surfaces button option and an auto-apply spaces option. These new features will dramatically reduce the time taken to generate a gbXML by eliminating the task of manually assigning the gbXML surfaces and spaces in your building model. Other improvements include a gbXML data sheet; giving you detailed information about your gbXML which will highlight any errors that may be present in your building model.
– Alex
01
Sep 11
Describing buildings
“In need of some modernisation.”
“Many period features.”
“Compact and bijou.”
There are many ways to describe a building (particularly if you are an estate agent) but when it comes to pinning down exactly how much energy it’s using — and how energy use can be minimised — then you need to be much more precise.
Many modern energy analysis tools approach this problem by having you construct a 3-D model.
One problem with this approach is that each of these tools have their own interfaces, and you often need to spend a substantial amount of time learning how they work (and how to avoid their quirks).
Another problem is that they are often closed systems. Even if you already have a 3-D model created somewhere else, it may not be possible to import it. And once your masterwork of a model is created in one tool, you generally cannot reuse it in another one.
At GreenspaceLive we believe in collaboration. We also believe in second (and third, and fourth) opinions when searching for energy-efficient and low-carbon solutions.
That’s why our approach to modelling (gModeller) uses Google Sketchup: no new tools or difficult paradigms to master, no awkward interfaces to learn your way around. Just Google’s ridiculously easy-to-use — and free — modelling tool.
To that, we’ve added the ability to export (and import) the model in gbXML format. gbXML is an open standard, and is a vendor-neutral way of describing a building (it’s a bit like the PDF of the building-model world).
Model, export, analyse
Once you’ve made your building in Sketchup, export it in gbXML format and then import it into a wide variety of other tools for further analysis.
Of course, we provide our own cross-platform energy analysis tool, gEnergy, and we hope you’ll try it first. But you’re not limited to it. As gbXML is totally non-proprietary you can use it in any tool that supports it — see the comprehensive list on the gbxml.org website.
Why not start analysing today?
– Donald I
29
Aug 11
gWorkspace Versioning – Never Lose A File Again!
One of the difficulties of working with files, especially when collaborating with others if to keep track of the different versions of a file. This is needed if you want to undo a recent change, or compare previous versions of a file. With the latest gWorkspace, you can now enable versioning on any file which will help you manage the version history, and means you never lose data as files are updated and changed.
Enable Versioning
Versioning can be enabled for any file by clicking on its drop-down menu and selecting ‘Enable Versioning’. With versioning enabled, any files with the same name uploaded to the folder will be saved as a new version of that file.
Managing Versions
To see a list of all versions of a file, select its drop-down menu and select ‘View Versions’. This will display a pop-up showing the versions, and allows you to delete any version, or change the current version (the version that you get when you download the file). If you no longer want versioning on the file, simply choose ‘Disable Versioning’ instead. This deletes all versions except for the current one, removing the versioning features for that file.
We hope to expand on the version functionality in future versions of gWorkspace.
We’d love to hear what you think of versioning in gWorkspace, and what you’re using it for.
— David
17
Aug 11
Share and Share Alike
(image from flickr)
Sharing is am important part of day to day life – people rarely work in isolation, particularly when it comes to building projects where we usually see people from many disciplines working together to design, construct, and manage buildings – often with amazing levels of complexity. However, in the paper based world this can be difficult. Versions of documents can get mixed up, Engineers may not have the latest versions of an architect’s plans, etc. etc.
We believe that gWorkspace can help with this. Using gWorkspace, a team of people (not just building professionals!) can organise documents, files, and information relevant to them and then share with the rest of the team! Today, I thought that I would show how simple it is to begin sharing with gWorkspace in 3 easy steps.
Invite
The first step in collaborating with gWorkspace is to build your network of contacts. To do this, simply invite others to join you at GreenspaceLive by using our web based invitation form to establish a connection!
Share
To actually share a project with someone in your network, simply go to the project in gWorkspace, select the drop down menu and click on ‘Invite Collaborator’
Then select the users that you want to share the project with from the resulting popup menu, and press ‘Share’
Accept
After you’ve shared a file with a contact, they will have to accept the share before it is finalised. When a project is shared with a user, they will see a popup window asking them to confirm the connection.
Done!
That’s it! the project is now shared, and collaboration can begin!
Remember that you always have full control of your project, if at any time you want to unshare a project you can easily do this by going to the project’s drop down menu. Unsharing is as easy as sharing – but not as much fun!
For more information on how to use gWorkspace, and to find out what else you can do with it, please visit our comprehensive gWorkspace User Guide.
Let us know how you get on with gWorkspace, we’d love to hear what you are doing with it – and what you would like to see in gWorkspace. Also, keep an eye on this blog for more updates on gWorkspace, gModeller and the GreenspaceLive software suite!
– Malcolm
10
Aug 11
gWorkspace – Building Management in the Cloud
Hi all,
Today, I thought I’d talk a little more about gWorkspace, which now acts as a foundation for your project management. gWorkspace has changed drastically from its Box.net origins, onto our own faster, stronger platform, with a really cool interface for your project management.
Now, when you’re working on a project, you can create the building in gWorkspace and all our updated tools now link straight into them. gEnergy runs now “attach” onto the project, so you can view them within gWorkspace remotely and when you share the project, you also share the runs, which is something we weren’t able to do before. gModeller has access into gWorkspace too, allowing you to upload and download from the Sketch-Up plug-in.
Sharing is now a massive part of gWorkspace, you can add and remove users from your portfolio projects. Sharing empowers you to work remotely with your colleagues or even other users of greenspaceLive. Work on plans, models, or energy runs and use the built in messenger to update each other while you do it.
gWorkspace is free up to 1GB or 9 projects, and I would strongly recommend giving it a try.
A tutorial is available here to teach you how to use it.
Don’t forget to update your gModeller and gEnergy installs to make sure that they interface with the workspace now!
– Calum
04
Aug 11
New Look. New Blog.
Hi everyone,
Welcome to Greenspace Live’s new blog, being launched alongside our new look website, and product suite.
We aim to use this blog to report on developments in construction and energy software, discuss our toolsets, provide tutorials, and pretty much anything else that we find interesting.
We’re hoping that you will find this blog useful and informative – and also a place to have some lively discussions!
We’ve been really busy over the last couple of months – redesigning our product website and products. One of the major pieces of work here, has been on a rebuild of gWorkspace. We’re really excited about this, and hope that you will find it useful too.
gWorkspace is now completely integrated into our website and other tools – and becomes the central hub of GreenspaceLive. Collaboration is a key part of gWorkspace now. You can create projects and share them with your colleagues, team, friends, or anyone you see fit. As well as share files and folders – you can also share analyse results and models – and keep in touch with your team using gWorkspace’s messaging system. All our other tools integrate with gWorkspace, so that you can access your projects, files, and contacts from our website, Google SketchUp (using gModeller), and through gEnergy EPC. Suffice to say, that we are working on some other really cool ways of accessing gModeller as well. Keep an eye on this blog for more information about that.
Thanks for having a look at our new blog, and stay connected to find out more about Greenspace Live, what we get up to, and things of interest to our areas of expertise. Feel free to use the comments section, or our forum to ask us questions, and to keep in touch.
– Malcolm