Popular Post Asemblance Posted March 5, 2020 Popular Post Share Posted March 5, 2020 Hi All, Our practice has recently signed up to 'Architects Declare', and we're trying to take this commitment seriously. Some of the declarations we (and many other architects) have signed up to as part of this: 'Include life cycle costing, whole life carbon modelling and post occupancy evaluation as part of our basic scope of work, to reduce both embodied and operational resource use.' 'Accelerate the shift to low embodied carbon materials in all our work.' 'Minimise wasteful use of resources in architecture and urban planning, both in quantum and in detail.' In light of this: 1- Is there any plug-in, module, or functionality, which would help us to calculate embodied carbon in our Vectorworks models? (Or by exporting our Vectorworks models/data from our models). For instance, Hawkins Brown have created a Revit plug-in to help with this. Is there a Vectorworks equivalent available, or in the pipe-line? 2- As above, but for life cycle costing/ whole life carbon modelling 3- As above, but for linking Specification of materials to Vectorworks models 4- Is the Energos module useful/accurate? And is it still being developed? There is not much information available on this online, apart from a few short videos (mostly from 2016). If anybody has used this a detailed review of its capabilities, and maybe a real life use example would be great. Quite a broad question, generally we are trying to get a handle on any tools we can use to help us evaluate and create more sustainable/ low energy use/ low embodied carbon buildings. Thanks! A 9 Quote Link to comment
Jim Smith Posted March 5, 2020 Share Posted March 5, 2020 @Asemblance This is a great idea! Can you put it in the Wish list to get voted up? 3 Quote Link to comment
rDesign Posted March 5, 2020 Share Posted March 5, 2020 (edited) I too would be very interested in learning how the current version of Vw and Energos can be used with tools such as the Embodied Carbon in Construction Calculator (EC3) Building Transparency :: EC3 Tool Edited March 5, 2020 by rDesign 1 Quote Link to comment
rDesign Posted March 5, 2020 Share Posted March 5, 2020 (edited) 7 hours ago, Asemblance said: 4- Is the Energos module useful/accurate? And is it still being developed? There is not much information available on this online, apart from a few short videos (mostly from 2016). If anybody has used this a detailed review of its capabilities, and maybe a real life use example would be great. I just did a search for ‘Energos’ on the Vw University portal and it returned ‘sorry - no courses found’. Surely there has to be some in-depth Energos training videos (beyond those very short 2016 videos), especially since Energos was released over 4 years ago. Edited March 5, 2020 by rDesign Quote Link to comment
Asemblance Posted March 5, 2020 Author Share Posted March 5, 2020 2 hours ago, Jim Smith said: @Asemblance This is a great idea! Can you put it in the Wish list to get voted up? Will do - I'll reformat it slightly for wish list and put up in the morning! 2 Quote Link to comment
Asemblance Posted March 5, 2020 Author Share Posted March 5, 2020 1 hour ago, rDesign said: I just did a search for ‘Energos’ on the Vw University portal and it returned ‘sorry - no courses found’. Surely there has to be some in-depth Energos training videos (beyond those very short 2016 videos), especially since Energos was released over 4 years ago. It is surprising how little information is out there! At a time when energy efficiency and sustainable design are becoming hot topics, I'm amazed Nemetschek aren't making more of a song and dance out of the Energos tool.. Quote Link to comment
Vectorworks, Inc Employee Luka Stefanovic Posted March 10, 2020 Vectorworks, Inc Employee Share Posted March 10, 2020 Hi all, This is a very interesting topic and one I've been involved with increasingly. As a starting point, I'd like to say we will be doing a Service Select Webinar on Energos this Friday the 13th at 2.30pm. See description below: Climate change and sustainable design is at the forefront of today's conversation. Integrated design tools can help you be more efficient and make quicker decision during the design phases. During the webinar attendees will learn how to assess the energy performance for a building design very early on in an integrated design process using regular evaluations during the design process. This will give the Architects, the power of being able to make informed design decisions and some metrics to back those decisions up regarding sustainable and energy efficient design. Learning Objectives: Discover the benefits of integrating energy performance evaluation into architectural design workflow Explore how building's form factor and shape affects it’s energy performance Learn how various opening shading percentages and different types of shading can guide your design decision based on the expected building performance Evaluate energy performance changes based on building elements boundary conditions and U-values If you are interested in Energos I would definitely recommend joining in, for anyone outside UK we will be doing a repeat for US in spring, probably around May. On 3/5/2020 at 10:54 AM, Asemblance said: Is the Energos module useful/accurate? Yes, very useful and accurate, but of course the accuracy will depend on the input you provide to the plug in. I find it very useful in architectural design workflow as a tool that helps you track the performance of your building throughout the design process, from early stages to technical design. I will talk about this process in the webinar. On 3/5/2020 at 7:23 PM, Asemblance said: It is surprising how little information is out there! At a time when energy efficiency and sustainable design are becoming hot topics, I'm amazed Nemetschek aren't making more of a song and dance out of the Energos tool.. It's one of the things we are trying to address as well, particularly in the current climate (pun intended) and particularly as we have the tools that Architects need to design sustainable and energy efficient architecture. On 3/5/2020 at 10:54 AM, Asemblance said: 3- As above, but for linking Specification of materials to Vectorworks models Are you referring to an NBS spec here? With Vectorworks 2020 SP3 it will be possible to integrate models directly with NBS Chorus and objects with spec clauses. On 3/5/2020 at 10:54 AM, Asemblance said: Is there any plug-in, module, or functionality, which would help us to calculate embodied carbon in our Vectorworks models? On the Embodied Carbon front, we have looked into this and we have developed a workflow to calculate embodied carbon, based on the ICE database from University of Bath so something similar to what H/B:ERT does, only not in the form of a plug in as of yet. We have things in the pipeline that will enable users to calculate Embodied Carbon in a much easier way. 2 Quote Link to comment
_James Posted March 10, 2020 Share Posted March 10, 2020 Hi @Luka Stefanovic, This is really interesting - looking forward to the webinar on Friday. 58 minutes ago, Luka Stefanovic said: With Vectorworks 2020 SP3 it will be possible to integrate models directly with NBS Chorus Will this work on Mac too? I know chorus is cloud based but previous NBS plugins were windows only if I remember correctly. Quote Link to comment
Vectorworks, Inc Employee Luka Stefanovic Posted March 10, 2020 Vectorworks, Inc Employee Share Posted March 10, 2020 @_James It will work on a Mac as Chorus is as you say cloud based and in a browser. Previously we were not able to integrate with them because they had only Windows based plug ins, but now they had gone browser based you will basically be able to open the browser from within Vectorworks and log into your Chorus account to link the Spec to the model 1 Quote Link to comment
_James Posted March 10, 2020 Share Posted March 10, 2020 @Luka Stefanovic this is great news! Quote Link to comment
Asemblance Posted March 11, 2020 Author Share Posted March 11, 2020 Thanks for your responses @Luka Stefanovic all good to hear! Particularly looking forwards to finding out more about the workflow for linking the NBS spec information - hopefully there will be some documentation/ seminars on this subject once released..? 1 Quote Link to comment
Aidydrum Posted April 21, 2021 Share Posted April 21, 2021 I've just skimmed https://www.hawkinsbrown.com/services/hbert and their GitHub repository, where there is a readme (https://github.com/HawkinsbrownArch/HBERT/blob/BR_WPF_Refactor/Wiki/190702_HBERT_UserGuide.pdf) pointing to this DATABASE, found in the circular economy website. The ICE Database can be downloaded from the following webpage: https://circularecology.com/embodied-carbon-footprint-database.html. VWX really should look into this as a priority; Hbert is a free, open source bolt-on to Revit would be a reason to get and use Revit, which undermines VWX. 2 Quote Link to comment
Aidydrum Posted April 21, 2021 Share Posted April 21, 2021 On 3/10/2020 at 3:38 PM, Luka Stefanovic said: "On the Embodied Carbon front, we have looked into this and we have developed a workflow to calculate embodied carbon, based on the ICE database from University of Bath so something similar to what H/B:ERT does, only not in the form of a plug in as of yet. We have things in the pipeline that will enable users to calculate Embodied Carbon in a much easier way." This was a year ago; are you at the end of the pipeline/ can you clarify how we do this? On 3/10/2020 at 3:38 PM, Luka Stefanovic said: 1 Quote Link to comment
Vectorworks, Inc Employee Popular Post Luka Stefanovic Posted May 25, 2021 Vectorworks, Inc Employee Popular Post Share Posted May 25, 2021 Hi everyone - apologies for the long silence but in short I wasn't too happy with what we had at the moment and wanted to have something more substantial before I emerge above the parapet. We’re happy to share that Vectorworks now has an integrated Embodied Carbon Calculator. Complementary with the Materials workflow introduced in 2021, it allows accurate reporting of quantities and assessment of Carbon Critical elements. The calculator uses the most comprehensive and industry standard guidance available in the UK AEC sector, as the foundation for the assessment methodology (RICS: Whole Life Carbon Assessment for the Built Environment,2017 and RIBA: Embodied and Whole Life Carbon Assessment for Architects, 2018). It also derives material Properties for Density and Embodied Carbon Coefficients from University of Bath Inventory of Carbon and Energy (ICE) Database V3, 2019. Further improvements are expected in the oncoming months as we add further automation. For more information and a demonstration of the calculator, please get in touch with me at lstefanovic@vectorworks.net 12 Quote Link to comment
Asemblance Posted May 25, 2021 Author Share Posted May 25, 2021 Great to hear! Any chance of a seminar / video on this now that its all operational? Quote Link to comment
Vectorworks, Inc Employee Luka Stefanovic Posted May 26, 2021 Vectorworks, Inc Employee Share Posted May 26, 2021 14 hours ago, Asemblance said: Any chance of a seminar / video on this now that its all operational? There will be resources released in due course, for now I just wanted to share that it's out there and working! For now you can get in touch with me directly for more information and a demo before this is fully released. 1 Quote Link to comment
Vectorworks, Inc Employee Popular Post Luka Stefanovic Posted August 3, 2021 Vectorworks, Inc Employee Popular Post Share Posted August 3, 2021 Hi All, Delighted to say that VECC is now available for download - you can find the link here: https://university.vectorworks.net/mod/page/view.php?id=2508 Please let me know your thoughts and feedback, it would be very useful in the further development of the tool. A webinar on the topic is in plan, but I'm happy to schedule some time to go through how VECC works. Happy Embodied Carbon calculations! 5 Quote Link to comment
_James Posted August 3, 2021 Share Posted August 3, 2021 Well done, @Luka Stefanovic - looking forward to giving it a try! Quote Link to comment
designosaur Posted January 31, 2022 Share Posted January 31, 2022 I would like to access the VECC, but cannot open this file, can this be made available for VW2021? thanks Quote Link to comment
gester Posted February 18, 2022 Share Posted February 18, 2022 hi, does this vecc tool work only with the us window and door styles? i use benelux windows and doors, a different type… thanks. Quote Link to comment
Vectorworks, Inc Employee KIvanov Posted February 21, 2022 Vectorworks, Inc Employee Share Posted February 21, 2022 Hi @gester, If benelux windows and doors are implementing the "Energos" interface, they will be included in calculation. This depends on the developers of benelux windows and doors. Best Regards, Kostadin Ivanov Quote Link to comment
Peter W Flint Posted March 25, 2022 Share Posted March 25, 2022 On 1/31/2022 at 5:14 AM, designosaur said: I would like to access the VECC, but cannot open this file, can this be made available for VW2021? thanks Also having trouble with this tool in v2021. I get an older version of VW dialog and then an unrecognized file dialog. Screenshots attached. Is this a v2022 file? Cheers PWF Quote Link to comment
Dan Ryder Posted December 1, 2022 Share Posted December 1, 2022 Dear @Luka Stefanovic, I was also wondering if this feature will be offered for users with earlier versions of Vectorworks. Our office is on 2020/2021 licences and would really like to try this out on a new house we have built to achieve the new future homes 2025 standards in the UK. From the download it looks as if the VECC file is a simply a vectorworks file, could this be saved as an earlier version (e.g 2020 Architect) and still work? Would there be any possibility of you sharing this is it is possible? All the best, Dan Ryder Quote Link to comment
Vectorworks, Inc Employee Luka Stefanovic Posted December 2, 2022 Vectorworks, Inc Employee Share Posted December 2, 2022 Hi @Dan Ryder VECC won’t work in 2020 because it’s based on Materials and quantity take-offs that haven’t really been possible before we introduced Materials. Vectorworks 2021 version is available as a standalone file to download but it has limited functionality as a first iteration of the calculator. Full version has been included since 2022 and can be found in preformatted worksheets. Quote Link to comment
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