Many people have questioned why the analysis grid produced by the 'Auto-Fit Grid' function in Ecotect leaves a gap around the edges of a room rather than covering the full extents of its floor area. There is a very good reason for this and, as it touches on some more general analysis concepts, is deserving of some detailed explanation.

A number of people have recently requested information on how to complete an overshadowing exercise I set some Masters students at a couple of different Universities. As a result, I have added some more descriptive text and reformatted the original answer sheet to describe both the exercise problem and an example method that can be used to generate the answer.

With an increasing regulatory emphasis on energy efficiency and building performance analysis within the design process, the need for a smooth and hassle-free conversion from CAD tool to analysis engine is becoming critical. This article considers the issues associated with such a transition, looking in detail at the kind of information required by different performance analysis / simulation tools and what is actually available in a typical CAD drawing. It looks at the various options available, including the growing influence of Industry Foundation Classes (IFCs) and gbXML, and what their impacts might be.

For ECOTECT to properly understand a thermal analysis model, it requires that you adhere to some specific conventions when constructing it. A lot of work has been done to ensure that you can effectively model most building situations and that the same model can be both analysed in ECOTECT and properly exported to other tools such as EnergyPlus and ESP-r. This article outlines the important elements you must remember when creating thermal models and explains a few shortcuts you can take when modelling multi-storey, multi-zone and earth-bermed buildings.

The most efficient approach when undertaking any form of work is to minimise your own effort whilst maximising the potential benefits and/or impacts that may flow from it. This should also be true of simulation and analysis work. This article discusses ways you can approach a project to achieve this, presenting a simple example to illustrate this idea in practice.