Google SketchUp 'plug-in' offers energy analysis
An updated software tool combines energy-use evaluation with Google's 3D-modeling program to help improve building design in its early stages.
OpenStudio, a free, open-source tool introduced last year, now integrates EnergyPlus building analysis with Google SketchUp, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory announced this week.
"OpenStudio is lauded around our office as one of the most complicated plug-ins ever written for SketchUp," Christopher Cronin, Google's strategist for SketchUp, said in a statement.
While Google may see OpenStudio as a plug-in for SketchUp, OpenStudio's creators may instead see SketchUp as an add-on to its simulation program.
The NREL, which is part of the U.S. Department of Energy, launched the original version of OpenStudio in April 2008. NREL reports an average of 700 OpenStudio downloads per month.
OpenStudio's first version combined a graphical tool with EnergyPlus, a software program for analyzing building energy-use that the DOE began offering in 2001. "EnergyPlus is a standalone simulation program that models whole-building energy consumption from heating, cooling, ventilation, lighting, water systems and other energy flows," according to NREL.
For example, the program can simulate the sun's movement around a building at various times of day for an entire year to determine if windows have been effectively shaded.
"Our hope is that by using OpenStudio in design charrettes, users can start throwing away designs at the very beginning of a project, saying: 'This is not a good design because we're going to use too much energy," Nick Long, an NREL engineer who helped develop OpenStudio, said in a statement.
In a software-driven world, it's easy to forget about the nuts and bolts. Whether it's cars, robots, personal gadgetry or industrial machines, Candace Lombardi examines the moving parts that keep our world rotating. A journalist who divides her time between the United States and the United Kingdom, Lombardi has written about technology for the sites of The New York Times, CNET, USA Today, MSN, ZDNet, Silicon.com, and GameSpot. E-mail her at candacelombardi@gmail.com. She is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not a current employee of CNET. 
BTW-Google : Love SketchUP and what it does now, but just as LLIB_SETAG stated, please make a version for offices and also one for the CEDIA market would be great. I know that there are a lot of different platforms being used from Visio to AutoCAD, but for the small guys having basic system tools as part of the software would be great... Perhaps maybe even a UI design module... :)
Keep up the good work...
Like the gentleman said I hope you can also create an ubiquitous 3d Autocad app killer: with maybe architectural documentation plug ins that add: external referenced models , fully parametric drafting and intelligent drafting symbols and text that scale automatically according to printed or web friendly bid/construction drawings.
- by mahurshi October 20, 2009 1:19 PM PDT
- The video looks very cool. I wonder what the learning curve is....
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