SmartBIM's ecoScorecard™ add-in for Autodesk™ Revit integrates Environmental Evaluation into Architectural Design
Words: John Llewellyn, Bronzella Cleveland, Eddie Lesok, Cory Sekine-pettite, Ronald Baer, Norm Cooper, James Qualk
First unveiled at the 2012 AIA National Convention and Design Exposition, SmartBIM LLC has released ecoScorecard™ for Revit, a new environmental evaluation add-in for Autodesk™ Revit.
The ecoScorecard add-in for Revit creates an intersection between technology and sustainability, reducing wasted time, easing frustrations, and assisting architects and designers to create more efficient green buildings, the software developer says. This new add-in allows Revit users to immediately search, evaluate and document the environmental attributes of the products and materials earlier and seamlessly during the design phase.
"Environmental evaluation is quickly becoming the heart of the design process, the need to be green is the number one issue in today's architect and design world," said Paul Shahriari, chief sustainability officer at SmartBIM. "This is creating a need for reliable, easy-to-use software, and it is necessary to analyze a product's environmental attributes as well as develop opportunities for a deeper understanding of material choices that support green rating systems."
The add-in will allow architects and designers to select a rating system, evaluate their project, and document the entire scope of green project data in accordance with the specific required format. ecoScorecard uses the SmartBIM QTO™ (quantity takeoff) engine to count all of the elements in the space. It also tracks the evaluation of materials and provides building product manufacturers with data on how the design marketplace is evaluating green products in a real-time environment.
"Architects have found it challenging to collect environmental documentation for green building certifications," says Mike Collins, executive vice president at SmartBIM, "This add-in will help determine which products have green attributes associated with them, what these attributes are, and how they contribute and support LEED or any other major rating systems in North America."