The OGC announced completion of the Aecoo-1 Phase 1 Testbed, a 9-month effort to increase interoperability among software used by architects, construction companies, cost estimators and building energy analysts. On may 28, 2009, the buildingSmart allianceTM, the Open Geospatial Consortium and sponsors and participants of the Aecoo-1 Testbed will conduct a free webinar demonstrating results from the Testbed.
Effective management of buildings and other capital facilities increasingly requires information exchange among all disciplines and professions that have a stake in the design, construction and operation of those facilities. The Aecoo-1 Testbed exchanged building information using Industry Foundation Class standards to analyze tradeoffs between construction cost and energy efficiency. This work was preliminary to possible future development of open standards for Web service interfaces.
Aecoo-1 was a broad international effort in which participants cooperated in solving a discrete set of Aecoo community problems defined by the sponsors.
The Aecoo-1 Testbed looked at streamlining communications between building stakeholders during the conceptual design phase to get an early understanding of the tradeoffs between construction cost and energy efficiency. To that end, the project documented in Information Delivery Manuals requirements for quantity takeoffs and energy analysis needs, and used these to define Model View Definitions which are needed to integrate requirements into software used during business workflows. Aecoo-1 also worked on a mapping of the IDM and MVD requirements to the Nbims capability maturity model in order to identify building project information that can improve process management and decision making.
The demonstration webcast will show:
1. How the use of standards-based, interoperable technology can make Integrated Project Delivery faster, cheaper, and more flexible in the future
2. Achievements involving data exchange between various building information model software applications and EnergyPlus energy analysis software
3. Creation of alternative quantity take off and cost estimates for a moderately complex building where the scenario involves evaluating a number of different energy conservation approaches that may improve energy performance and life cycle cost.
For more information please visit www.opengeospatial.org/projects/initiatives/aecoo-1