Quick post today. We had a question on the Autodesk Revit MEP forum this morning, that I thought I'd share with all of you. The user wanted to sum the individual Heating and Cooling Load values for the Volumes in his model, in order to get the Total Building Load. That's not the best way to calculate that value, so I went ahead and provided an explanation of how we do it in Revit MEP 2009.
Check it out.
I tried my best to disconnect from my working life while on my Honeymoon. Honest. No, seriously I'm telling the truth. In many ways I was quite successful, I completely disconnected from e-mail, no meetings, no conference calls, it really was great. I even found time to get comfy on a hammock on the beach and read a book.
I didn't however, completely disconnect with everything related to my job. That's because there's intersection between the things that consume my working life and the things that I fill my outside life with. The main intersection involves the Global Ecosystem, and mankind's undeniable impact on it. This is a topic that I personally care deeply about, and something that is of strong corporate importance for Autodesk.
In my role as Product Manager, I'm lucky to have the tremendous opportunity to help shape the software that you in the Building Design industry use to design buildings. More and more, the software that you are using is replacing decades-old "check figures" to drive the design decisions for the Built Environment. This integration of technology is allowing for dramatic improvements in in the availability of objective design information, when it is needed for design decisions. With better information and technology, we can make better decisions.
Those decisions, in turn, make a huge impact on the Built Environment's energy and material usages. I'm sure you all know all of this, so I'll step down from my soap box...for now. In short, I feel it is my obligation to my grandchildren, and their grandchildren, to try and reverse the damage that we inflict on Earth's Ecosystem every day, and Autodesk feels the same way. So with that in mind, I set out to do a little "light" reading while I was in Costa Rica.
When I was a Senior in college at Cornell, my brother told me that I needed to read a book called Natural Capitalism. I'm admittedly not a huge reader of books, although I have an insatiable appetite for Internet articles. Nonetheless I read the book; and it completely changed my view on the world.
I know that sounds dramatic, and I'm usually not a really dramatic person. Nonetheless, it really was a big change for me. Never before had I be so clearly presented with objective information regarding mankind's impact on Earth's Ecosystem, it's consequences, and the options to avoid those consequences. As a senior in College though, I didn't see a whole lot that I could do, other than trying to minimize my impact, which I try to do every day.
I've been so caught up with 60-70 hour weeks, endless e-mail, conference calls, and wedding planning lately, that I really felt disconnected from the larger world, so I decided to re-read Natural Capitalism, to help re-focus and re-energize me with a larger purpose at work and at home.
Wow. That's all I can say. Wow. I really didn't expect everything to be just as powerful the second time, but it was. I could go at length about the immensely important points made in the book, but it's much better for you out there to read the book. My ability to articulate these points with quantifiable evidence pales in comparison to Natural Capitalism's authors.
So that's my call to action, if you haven't read Natural Capitalism, read it. If you have and it was a long time ago, read it it again. The entire text of the book is available for FREE online, or you can buy the paperback version. If you need motivation to make changes in your personal life or your professional life as a design professional, this is it. If you already know the importance, but want to better understand everything, read the book.
Okay, now I will get off the Soap Box. There will be a test in 2 months. Just kidding.
As I mentioned in GreenBuild - Day 2, there was an enormous amount of interest in Project Chicago, a collaborative effort between the USGBC and our Product Teams to explore the future of software as it applies to Sustainable Design. It was a great effort by both teams, and set the bar high for us in the future.
We've recently posted that video on our website, find it here.
Enjoy. As always, throw comments my way.
I'm pumped. Of course it's difficult not to be pumped after the opening Plenary Session at the GreenBuild expo in Chicago. It also isn't difficult for me to be pumped in general, I'm an excitable guy.
We got to listen to some excellent speeches from Rich Feduzzi, the President and founder of the USGBC, Autodesk's own Phil Bernstein, and former President Bill Clinton. There was also some very moving spoken word poetry by an incredible youth named George. It was a very inspiring morning, and really motivated me even more to do what I can to impact the implementation of Sustainable Development practices.
For those of you that could not attend GreenBuild, I recommend that you check out the newly released website GreenBuild365, which will contain videos of the speeches as well as other content. Looks pretty slick to me.
Autodesk has already made a commitment to Sustainability, and we are actively working with a number of groups to better understand the requirements of the market, and deliver the best possible solutions to support it. This is something that really excites me, and makes me proud to be part of an organization actively influencing this important movement. It helps to make the crazy hours worthwhile as we build towards a meaningful end goal.
I'm finding it incredibly interesting to participate in discussions about Sustainability at the Autodesk Booth, as well as just get some Revit MEP feedback. I'm also really looking forward to attending some breakout sessions on specific Sustainability topics. I'll check in on those later.
Got 20 minutes?
Well if you do, I wanted to point everyone to a Long thread that has been active on our Revit Architecture AUGI forum initially regarding Revit & IES (Integrated Environmental Solutions). Like many threads on AUGI, this one has diverged into a larger discussion on Sustainability, and it's integration into the Revit BIM workflow through Building Performance Analysis (BPA). If you read long enough people even managed to throw in some complaints about Accurender, a true AUGI classic!
There is all kinds of useful information there about how things work today, what doesn't, and what people want to see in Revit to support sustainability.
I know it's a long thread, but like many things; a little time and effort goes a long way. Sustainability is something that's here to stay, and we all need to understand its convergence with the BIM process.
I encourage all to join the fray of the discussion too if you feel so inclined.
While I'm on the topic, I'd also point you all to the Interesting Articles section on the left frame of the page. There's some good stuff on Sustainability there as well.
