Surface Subdivision 2010

The 2010 release of Revit Architecture has made a huge improvements in form generation, gbxml exporting, and what makes me most happy, new tools for surface subdivision.

First let me apologize that these buildings are less than spectacular, I had to rush to get this post out before my nemesis, Tzigo (who's actually a really nice guy, to his disadvantage), could do it and take credit. But as you can see these very strange shapes have surfaces that can be divided up and rationalized into various patterns which are easy to manipulate.

This level of control is extremely useful when you develop curtain systems in detail, but much earlier in concept design it also simplifies solar radiation analysis. When calculating incendent solar radiation in Ecotect the values are not consistent across non-planar surfaces. In urban settings also the shadows from the surrounding buildings will cause inconsistent insolation values across the building surfaces. For these reasons it's important to be able to subdivide large surfaces before running analysis.

In previous versions of Revit the triangulation of complex shapes has made Ecotect analysis very time consuming and sometimes nearly impossible. When they weren't too small the triangles would often be long and narrow which can misrepresents results diplaying deceptive data. Now in Revit 2010 you can take any curving, warping, bent out of shape surface and subdivide it exactly as you want for easy and efficient analysis. You can analyse a single building or easily run it for an entire neighborhood. For Revit users who've never done this before (I can't tell you have much easier is) now is definitely the best time.

Thanks for that.

Shading Devices 2010

Warning!!
I first reviewed Ecotect Analysis 2010 before I had begun using Revit Architecture 2010. My updated post on gbxml 2010 goes into much more detail about the translation of Revit shading devices. Be sure to read both posts.

The development of BIM energy modeling has often been plagued with shading device difficulties, but the tools are getting better all of the time.

When you export to Ecotect you are able to import zones, as you can with other analysis programs such as IES and Green Building Studio, but with Ecotect you can also import building geometry. This ability allows you to separately import shading devices, testing out multiple options for optimal performance.

In the past I've used this method to import shading devices and complex shapes from Revit to Ecotect to IES-VE, now we can go from Ecotect into Green Building Studio.

In Ecotect Analysis 2010 the direct link to Green Building Studio enables users to create much more accurate models for energy analysis. This link also enables Green Building Studio users the opportunity to become involved in facade design, quickly relating geometry variations to energy consumption.

Thanks for that.

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