Computing on the Cloud and a Review of Graphisoft's EcoDesigner

We have heard a lot about Cloud Computing and SaaS (Software as a Service), but what about moving our high performance graphics workstations to the cloud?  AECbytes starts out this month with an article entitled "BIM and the Cloud" by Chris France, CIO of Little Diversified Architectural Consulting, a 225 person firm located in Charlotte NC. He describes how they built a private cloud that included their high performance graphics workstations. A private cloud differs from the public cloud providers such as Amazon Web Services or Google by the fact that the cloud computing infrastructure and resources are controlled by the individual business that deploys it. Little’s cloud is the first AEC workstation cloud in production and is on track to reduce the firm's workstation and laptop hardware expense by 67% ($2M) over the next 10 years. The article also describes many of the additional business benefits the firm has achieved through its workstation cloud approach and shares some of its implementation details.

Next up is an indepth review of Graphisoft's energy analysis tool, EcoDesigner, that is built into ArchiCAD. Introduced last summer at the AIA 2009 Convention, we saw a overview of EcoDesigner in the article, Sustainable Design Tools Exhibited at AIA 2009. What is most significant about EcoDesigner is its integration within ArchiCAD, bringing the “one-click evaluation” vision for BIM to reality at last. Architects can now perform a quick energy estimate even on complex projects, without being a building energy expert, and without leaving their BIM application. This review, authored by Australian architect and sustainability expert, Sid Thoo, explores how the application works for quick, conceptual analysis and concludes that EcoDesigner is a valuable plugin that should be considered as mandatory for all ArchiCAD users who are serious about designing more energy efficient and sustainable buildings.

Rounding up the offerings for the month is a Viewpoint article that argues for a taxonomy of only 21 Building Systems to cover the complete set of architectural, engineering and construction tasks. Authored by Lewis M (Bill) Dickens, an Architect in Detroit MI, the concept is based on his work developing logic diagrams of the AEC process as a Systems Analyst at Smith Hinchman and Grylls, where he scheduled the 300,000sf SUNY, Stony Brook Medical School.

As always, please continue to check out the AECbytes Blog for reader comments and the VendorHub to get a consolidated view of all the technology providers in AEC.

Thank you!

Lachmi Khemlani

Editorials > February 2010