Autodesk and U.S. Department of Energy Team on Open Sourcing Major Update to EnergyPlus Engine

At Greenbuild 2013, Autodesk Spotlights New Initiatives and Technologies for Sustainable Building Community 

In a public handoff to the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) at Greenbuild 2013 in Philadelphia today, Autodesk is donating completely re-written EnergyPlus engine source-code, to be made available under the DoE's open source license.

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Getting more out of your Revit Schedules

Have you ever wanted to get a bit more out of your Revit schedules?  If so, than here's a video for you! Schedules can be a very powerful tool in Revit--and if used correctly, can have multiple uses. For example, why not start using schedules as a design check to increase productivity? Who knows, maybe by simply unleashing some power inside Revit Schedules, you might eventually abandon that trusty calculator by your desk since you can now add parameters, create formulas based on said parameters and even add a conditional format to bring your schedules to life with colour.

 

In the attached video, we will figure out if we are meeting the minimum square foot requirement for our rooms in our model by:

• Creating a custom parameter (Area Required).
• Creating a room schedule (Number, Name, Area, Area Required).
• Editing the Area Required parameter for each room.
• Creating a calculated value called Area Check (Area Required - Area).
• Adding shading (new in Revit 2014) to the Area Check column in our schedule.
• Creating a conditional format called Area Check (Area Check > If Between -10sf to 10sf make the schedule field Green). This lets us know if we are within our specified requirement.
• Modifying walls and watch the fields change colour.

In earlier versions of Revit, you could only shade with 1 colour through a conditional format.  It is only in the latest Revit 2014 you can add shading right from the ribbon when viewing a schedule.

 

If you are a Revit MEP mechanical user, why not use the same workflow to design check your air flow requirements inside of the spaces against the air flow parameter in an air terminal. For electrical users, you can check your foot candles inside your spaces against the foot candles in a light fixture. 

 

Enjoy this video from my colleague, Bill Wright