Previous
Releases: 3.4 | 3.3 | 3.2 | 3.1 | 3.0 | 2.0
Release
Notes for Autodesk® Green Building Studio® web-based service Release 3.5
Dated: March 9, 2009
Enable Simulation of Canadian Projects
Compatibility with Autodesk® Revit 2010 Products
Detailed
List of Features and Resolved Issues
Summary
of Changes
Release 3.5 is a maintenance release to address specific features and issues that had surfaced since the release of version 3.4.1 in October 2008. This document is intended to highlight the changes in this release.
Enable Simulation of Canadian Projects
This release features the much-anticipated ability to model projects in Canada with accurate Canadian weather files. Default Canadian utility costs have been included and are based upon the average rates for the largest city in each Canadian Territory.
Compatibility with Autodesk® Revit 2010 Products
With release 3.5, the Green Building Studio web service introduces compatibility with Autodesk Revit MEP 2010 and Revit Architecture 2010.
Release 3.5 greatly stabilizes the web service by resolving the issue of session logouts and allows multiple runs of large files without disruption.
A number of upgrades have been introduced in this release to improve the users' experience: Trial users who get added to a Corporate Account will now automatically have all of their projects and templates transferred to the Corporate Account. False failure message have been eliminated. A link to "Getting Started" in the support page as been updated; LEED® Daylighting Calculations have been refined; Project Template functionality has been expanded; and improved analysis of complex geometries has been instituted. Green Building Studio web service now allows apostrophes on user names when registering.
- Analysis of projects located in Canada has been enabled (Report 2253)
- Compatibility with Autodesk Revit Architecture 2010 and Autodesk Revit MEP 2010 has been introduced
- Timeout issue has been resolved (Report 2166)
- Multiple runs of design alternatives on large xml files has been enabled (Report 2083)
- Transfer of all trial users 'projects and templates to corporate accounts, once the user gets added to the corporate account, now occurs automatically (Report 2230)
- False failures reported on the run list have been eliminated (Report 2264)
- Links to the new "Getting Started" page on the website have been introduced on the support page (Report 2417)
- LEED® Daylighting calculations have been refined to accurately classify different window types and categorize space types as either regularly occupied or non-regularly occupied (Report 2182, Report 2216)
- Project template space conditioning type functionality has been expanded (Report 2199, Report 2202, Report 2207, Report 2209, Report 2210, Report 2211, Report 2212)
- Importing of complex and problematic geometries has been upgraded (Report 1454 & Report 1455, Report 2215, Report 2231, Report 2284, Report 2234, Report 2236, Report 2310, Report 2312)
- Analysis of plenum/attic spaces has been improved (Report 2291, Report 2300)
- Green Building Studio web service now allows apostrophes on user names (Report 2269)
Release
Notes for Green Building Studio Web Service Release 3.4
Dated: October 8, 2008
Detailed
List of Features and Resolved Issues
Summary
of Changes
Release 3.4 is a maintenance release to address specific features and issues
that had surfaced since the release of version 3.3.0 in July 2008. This
document is intended to highlight the changes in this release.
Building Science
Improvements
Our building science team oversees the accuracy of
energy simulation results on the GBS web service. After testing the web service
against energy and cost benchmarks for different building types, a number of
improvements were made to the building science of version 3.4. These improvements include updated
electricity and natural gas costs, as well as more accurate air flow, lighting
and equipment loads, occupancies and domestic hot water use for a variety of building
types.
A number of changes
have been made to help users maximize their experience both on and off the web
service. These include a new GBS-Revit User Guide available at
www.autodesk.com/greenbuildingstudio under white papers, clearer charts and
footnotes on the Energy & Carbon Results and LEED Daylight pages, and more
surface and construction details in the DOE-2 input file for eQUEST.
- Natural Gas and electric utility rates updated with
2007/2008 national averages (Report 2106).
- Better default cost info on Water Usage page (Report
2135).
- Domestic Hot Water (DHW) Heater was always 30,000 Btu,
regardless of building size. DHW
average demand now allowed to auto-size for more accurate fuel consumption
(Report 2077).
- Domestic Hot Water usage values in some space types were
updated (Report 2194).
- Assumptions for lighting and equipment power density, and
occupancy density were updated (Report 2114).
- Internal gains for residential buildings were updated for
greater accuracy (Report 2171).
- Single Family Residence infiltration changed from 0 to 0.5
ACH for all hours of the year (Report 2188).
- Minimum air flow increased from 0.5 to 0.7 cfm/sf (Report
2126).
- Default HVAC zone logic resulted in odd space type
associations which have been corrected for better outside air assumptions
(Report 2041).
- Pitched roof construction in CA climate zone 9 was
corrected (Report 2205).
- A
building orientation design alternative geometry problem was fixed (Report
2127).
- A
daylighting design alternative problem was fixed (Report 2151).
- A PV
analysis geometry issue was resolved (Report 2148).
- The GBS to EPA Target Finder building type link was
strengthened (Report 2155).
- R13 interior floor project template was corrected (Report
2206).
- GBS Tutorials replaced with more detailed GBS-Revit User
Guide (Report 2024).
- Definition of regularly occupied spaces in the LEED
Daylight results footnotes was updated (Report 2120).
- Definition of glazing factor in the LEED Daylight results
footnotes was updated (Report 2160).
- Electricity cost per kWh used in PV tab limited to 2
significant figures (Report 2076).
- To improve identification of which template was used in
simulation, Project Template name was added to Energy and Carbon Results page
(Report 2105).
- Incorrect gbXML-file-error messages were corrected (Report
2158).
- Electricity and fuel use pie chart display improved
(Report 2122).
- DOE2 Material names were updated to include construction
types for ease of comprehension in eQUEST (Report 1886).
Release
Notes for Green Building Studio Web Service Release 3.3.0
Dated: July 21, 2008
US EPA ENERGY STAR Page Redesigned
Carbon Neutral Potential Calculation Improved
Detailed List of Features and Resolved Issues
Summary
of Changes
Release 3.3.0 is a maintenance release to address specific features and issues
that had surfaced since the release of version 3.2.0 in May 2008. This document
is intended to highlight the changes in this release.
Enhanced Stability
Prior to this release, users may have experienced frequent logouts from the web
service that were unrelated to inactivity. These session timeouts may also have
affected the ability of new users to register on the web service. The Autodesk
Green Building Studio team regrets any inconvenience these issues may have
caused and has worked hard on resolving them for version 3.3. If you believe
you are still experiencing unwarranted logouts, please communicate this to us
on our support page.
Enhanced Usability
A number of changes have been made to improve the user
experience on the web service. These include improvements to the US EPA ENERGY
STAR page, better email communication with users, and more helpful purchase and
pricing information alongside feature descriptions on the Purchase License page
(to access, click the link at the top of Your Project List).
Improved Default Glass
New default window assemblies have been added to the database
that offer a more accurate reflection of present-day glazing options.
The higher visible light transmittance of the new glass types will allow
baseline simulations to achieve higher LEED glazing factors for daylighting
analysis.
Solar Panel Costs
Updated
The photovoltaic (PV) table has been revised to more
accurately report the cost differences for different PV technologies. In the
previous release, the price per square foot for the three PV panel types
available in GBS was the same. In reality, the price per square foot differs,
since less efficient panels tend to be less expensive than panels that perform
well. The PV Analysis page now uses this price difference in the analysis.
US EPA ENERGY STAR Page
Redesigned
To help you better understand your building performance compared to energy
targets from the US EPA's Target Finder tool, this page was redesigned to
include reader-friendly graphs and tables that showcase energy, carbon and cost
information for your building next to the top performing 10% of US commercial
buildings.
Carbon Neutral Potential
Calculation Improved
Reduced electrical consumption due to a design alternative was previously being
double-counted. This has been corrected in version 3.3. The application now
weighs electrical grid reduction through Design Alternatives, Renewables, and
Natural Ventilation based on the percentage of grid electricity from fossil
fuel for a building location. With this change, each unit of energy generated
from a carbon reducing measure can displace the carbon from multiple units of
grid energy, making it easier to achieve carbon neutrality in locations where
less fossil fuel is used to generate grid electricity.
- Enhanced Security Measures (Report 1004, 1007).
- Improved website stability to remedy session timeout
issues (Report 1040, 1029, 1030, 1032).
- Clarification of contact preferences in GBS project member
invitation emails (Report 893).
- Added email sending service for single user purchases to
notify user that account is active (Report 1027).
- Annual licenses descriptions for Autodesk Green Building
Studio were updated on the Purchase License page for clarity. Links were
provided from the Purchase License page to assist user in the purchasing
process (Report 1057, 1064).
- Corporate Project Template names can now be changed
(Report 911).
- New Project Templates now save properly (Report 1000).
- The web service is now capable of running very large gbXML
files. Previously, gbXML files > 8 MB may have stalled when running (Report
654, 785).
- Web service checks and provides correction information for
unconditioned and conditioned spaces mixed in the same zone (Report 734).
- LEED Daylighting analysis is now successfully performed on
AutoCAD Architecture 2009 models with Building Storey elements (Report 921).
- Custom Window Types from the BIM tool are now accepted
(Report 937).
- Web service has improved shade handling capabilities
(Report 957).
- Web service now handles "ParkingAreaPedestrianParkingGarage"
space from Revit MEP 2009 (Report 975).
- Web service provides a message if a model has reached the
DOE2 limit of 2969 openings and surfaces in a single building space (Report
1039).
- In Revit MEP 2009, HVAC zone names with a space, '+', '=',
'&' in the name will trigger error messages when the gbXML file is
submitted for a run. For example, an HVAC zone name of "Zone A" will
trigger an error message and not allow the run to complete. The workaround if
you encounter this issue is to name all HVAC zones with alpha numeric
characters and without spaces. For example, instead of naming
HVAC zone as "Zone A" or "Zone+A" rename it to
"ZoneA" (Report 1060).
- Added new default glass types with higher visible
transmittance (Report 995, 1072).
- EPA Energy Star Page has been revamped. The page now
includes graphs with percent Energy Reduction, Total Annual Site Energy Use,
and Annual CO2 Emissions (Report 1012).
- Carbon Neutral Potential calculation has been improved Reduced electrical consumption on a design alternative was
previously counted twice. This has been corrected. The application now weighs
electrical grid reduction through Design Alternatives, Renewables, and Natural
Ventilation based on the percentage of Fossil fuel from the grid for a building
location (Report 1045, 1071).
- LEED Daylighting analysis is now successfully performed on
Revit Architecture 2009 files with non-typical ShellGeometry (Report 1047).
- Cost per square foot for solar panels now changes based on
the panel technology that is chosen (Report 1056).
Release
Notes for Green Building Studio Web Service Release 3.2.0
Dated: May 12, 2008
Detailed List of Features and Resolved Issues
Summary
of Changes
Release 3.2.0 is a transitional release to transfer stewardship of the GBS web
service to Autodesk, Inc. This document is intended to highlight the changes in
this release.
Enhanced
Security
Security improvements in version 3.2 increase protection of your data and
information on the GBS web service.
These updates do not require any action on your part, and are designed to
provide undetectably seamless protection for your whole building energy
analysis.
Autodesk Branding
As of the closing of the acquisition by Autodesk, Inc. of the assets of Green
Building Studio, Inc., the GBS web service resides on Autodesk hardware and
becomes part of the Autodesk product family. Branding on the site reflects this
new ownership. This change requires that you access our downloads page to get a
new client or add-on that points to the Autodesk-hosted site before submitting
new models for whole building energy analysis.
30 Day Trial Accounts
Former Pay-per-run users on the GBS web service are automatically converted to
30 day free trial Corporate Accounts. These trial accounts begin on the date
this version of the web service was released and will last a minimum of 30
days. New users will have 30 day free trials from their date of registration.
Once the trial period expires, you will have 60 days to log in, view and delete
any project data that resides on your account, or purchase an annual license to
activate an annual subscription. Trial accounts exhibit full Corporate Account
features, except that the number of trial projects are limited to 2, and
sharing project data between multiple users within an account is disabled.
Existing corporate accounts are unaffected by this update.
Electronic Payment
Version 3.2 features a convenient electronic shopping cart method of payment
for annual licenses on the GBS web service. This service is provided by Digital
River. PayPal is no longer an accepted method of payment.
User Type Changes
The Pay-per-run user mode on the web service is no
longer available. All existing and new users receive versions of the GBS web
service Corporate Account. New versions of the Corporate Account include 30 Day
Trials, Single User Annual Subscriptions, and 10 User Annual subscriptions
indicating the number of users that can share project designs and templates on
the same account. The new account types are priced to better fit the carbon
neutral design budgets for companies of varying sizes.
- Lighting Power Density assumptions were updated to be more
accurate for a variety of building types and locations as per ASHRAE90.1 and
T-24 requirements. (Report 870)
- Enhanced data security measures.
- Improved efficiency of results page display for faster
page loading. (Report 954)
- Improved XML to DOE2 translation efficiency to better
handle large models. (Report 952)
- Technical support link disabled. Users can no longer
upload files to our technical support site, and instead can communicate and
share files by email.
- Frequently Asked Questions page updated.
- 30 day free trial version of the GBS web service enabled.
Pay-per-run users automatically converted trial corporate accounts. These
accounts and all project and user data will be deleted 60 days from the end of
the trial period.
- Corporate Account (CA) administrators given improved
capabilities to view project data and invite new members to the projects of
other members in their CA. When the CA administrator deletes a fellow CA member
from the account, that member is disabled and cannot log into the web service.
60 days after being disabled the user's data will be permanently deleted, but
their project data will still be accessible to the CA administrator as long as
the account remains active. When the entire CA expires there will also be a 60 day
window for the account members to log in, view and delete any project data that
resides on the account, or purchase an annual license to re-activate the
account, after which all user and project data will be deleted from the web
service.
- Cosmetic changes to display Autodesk banners.
- Digital River electronic payment system enabled on the web
service to purchase corporate accounts. Paypal payment options formerly allowed
for Pay-per-run users disabled.
Release
Notes for Green Building Studio Web Service Release 3.1.0
Dated: March 21, 2008
Improved Handling of Shade Surfaces
Heating/Cooling Capacity Display
Detailed List of Features and Resolved Issues
Summary
of Changes
Release 3.1.0 is a maintenance release to address specific features and issues
that had surfaced since the release of version 3.0.0 in November 2007. This
document is intended to highlight changes that a user may experience with the
release.
New Design Alternatives
In response to feature requests from users GBS has added several new
constructions and HVAC systems to the Design Alternatives options. The new
constructions include: Straw Bale Walls; Structural Insulated Panel (SIP)
systems for roofs and walls; Insulated Concrete Form (ICF) wall constructions;
and Cool Roof options. Insulated translucent panels are now available under
window and skylight alternatives. Several premium efficiency HVAC systems have
been added to the Design Alternatives, including premium efficiency residential
split systems; and central plant systems with VAV air handlers and high
efficiency water-cooled chillers. GBS is dedicated to continually enhancing the
web service in response to user requests for the most state-of-the-art design
alternatives.
Enhanced Security
Security improvements in version 3.1 will increase protection of your data and
information on the GBS web service. These updates require that you download a
new client or add-on from our downloads page before
submitting new models for whole building energy analysis.
Location Information
Version 3.1 now overwrites location coordinates provided by your BIM tool with
the appropriate location information from your GBS projects. This will result
in more accurate site data information in DOE-2 for incident solar calculations
and more accurate HVAC sizing.
Photovoltaic Analysis
The photovoltaic algorithms have been simplified to
filter results based on a minimum surface size and a maximum payback period
which can be modified by the user. The results are more accurate and intuitive
by consistently including high-power yield surfaces in the PV analysis.
Previously, the photovoltaic analysis occasionally resulted in high-power yield
surfaces being left out of the cost-benefit calculation.
Improved Handling of
Shade Surfaces
Some irregular shade surfaces were causing
unrecoverable internal errors during runs on the web service. Version 3.1 has
improved shade handling capability that will result in far more successful runs
of models with irregular shading surfaces.
Although the GBS web service has improved the handling of shade surfaces, there
are still limitations that the user should be aware of. If users are creating
gbXML from Revit, the exported models still need to be checked to ensure that
roofs are being exported properly. If roofs are not being exported properly,
which is likely caused by room objects not being extended above the top of roof
surfaces, these surfaces will instead be exported as a shades. In addition, the
DOE2.2 simulation engine has a limit of 1024 shade surfaces per model.
Heating/Cooling
Capacity Display
For certain types of HVAC systems, the Heating/Cooling
Capacity display on the Energy & Carbon Results page was inconsistent. This
had no effect on energy results, but would have been confusing to some users.
This has been resolved in version 3.1, not only to correct the capacity
display, but provide more detail on certain system and zone capacities that had
previously been omitted.
- Design Alternative additions (Report 935).
- Enhanced Security Measures (Report 918)
- The photovoltaic potential has been enhanced to allow user
to input the maximum payback period. Photovoltaic potential results are
displayed consistently across the web application and are filtered using the
maximum payback period. (Report 792, 796, 816)
- All design conditions for input into DOE2 are based on the
ASHRAE standard data. Previously in version 3.0, for a GBS selected weather
station only, the design conditions were being based on this weather instead of
the ASHRAE standard data (Report 798).
- A shade handling issue was resolved (Report 905, 883).
- An issue with the display of cooling capacities for PVAV
HVAC systems was resolved (Report 876).
- Lighting and equipment power densities for certain types
of spaces were updated with the more recent ASHRAE and T24 data (Report 919).
- An issue involving missing default values for the
religious building type was resolved (Report 906).
- A correction for files submitted in SI units for their CO2
Hummer Equivalent was implemented (Report 859).
- In addition to the zip code, latitude and longitude is now
also being overwritten in the gbXML file submitted to the web service using the
GBS Project location data. This improves the accuracy of the DOE-2 site
parameters for incident solar calculations (Report 858).
- Elevator operation schedules have been modified to reflect
industry expected values (Report 826).
- Cosmetic changes were made to the New Project screens so
that the table displays properly in Firefox browsers (Report 789).
- Revit and ArchiCAD tutorials were updated and improved
(Report 773).
- Cosmetic adjustments were made to the Weather Summary page
to align the Annual Design and Degree Day tables (Report 772).
- Product by CSI Division from the Design Alternative page
displays correctly (Report 764).
- FAQ has been enhanced and updated to answer the most
up-to-date and relevant questions (Report 753).
- In order to avoid confusion about which quarter to choose
for estimated construction date when creating a new actual project, the project
wizard will ask you for either 'Estimated Construction or Renovation Start
Date' (Report 735).
- If a user clicks on a subtab in Weather in the web
application and then navigates to other pages of the run, the application will
remember which subtab of Weather was last clicked (Report 711).
- Pushpin icons in the Select Weather Page are now the same
size for all browsers (Report 687).
- A label for longitude was added to the Weather Summary
page (Report 674).
- Labels for Surname and Family Name were changed to avoid
confusion. These labels now read as First Name and Last Name, respectively
(Report 649).
Release
Notes for Green Building Studio Web Service Release 3.0
Dated: November 5, 2007
The Green Building Studio
Team is excited to announce the release of GBS Version 3.0. This new version is
designed for architects to use on all their design schemes on each project to
ensure every building they are designing is carbon neutral ready. Exciting new
features include:
Release
Notes for Green Building Studio Web Service Release 2.0
Dated: June 7, 2004
The Green Building Studio
today announced the general availability and release of Version 2.0 of the
Green Building Studio web service. This release includes significant new functionality
designed to support sustainability design decisions and make detailed
comparisons between different building design and equipment measures. Version
2.0 improvements have been based on feedback on requirements from hundreds of
architects involved in sustainable design. The development of these new
features has been funded by the United States Environmental Protection Agency,
the California Energy Commission, and the Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance,
in order to provide the tools necessary to evaluate even greater sustainable
design options for today's architects.
The Green Building Studio
web service continues to be the first and only web service specifically
designed for architects to use at the earliest phase of design to fully
understand the cost-effective opportunities to maximize their building's
sustainability. The new features called Design Alternatives, enable architects
and engineering teams to quickly analyze various changes to their building
design including orientation, glazing options, envelope constructions, lighting
technologies, and HVAC technologies. Further, manufacturer products can now be
applied with a simple click to understand how specific building products
perform when included in an actual building design. EnergyPlus capabilities and
single family homes are now enabled in the service as well. These features are
the enabling technologies necessary to meet the aggressive energy and resource
goals being asked for by today's building owners and the AIA.
Philip Bernstein, Vice President
of Autodesk, Inc.'s (Nasdaq: ADSK) Building Solutions Division indicates that
"Autodesk is excited to see growth in building information modeling (BIM)
tools and Green Building Studio is certainly assisting the expansion of this
market. These new features are a complement to our Revit-based suite of
products for BIM that supports the gbXML schema, and they will further support
the increase in sustainable building design." "We have designed these
new features to greatly reduce the time for our users to determine the best
building options that will meet their client's sustainable building
goals," said John Kennedy, President & CTO of Green Building Studio,
Inc. "Further these new features allow the architect and engineering team
to make informed sustainability and energy decisions at the earliest design
stages, as well as considering more options in a fraction of the time it would
have taken in the past."