Sefaira today announced that it will preview a new product for heating, ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC) design engineers and showcase two new tools for architects at this week's Autodesk University. With these innovations, Sefaira now enables unprecedented collaboration between architects and HVAC design engineers from the earliest stages of design -- for the first time bringing together performance analysis and BIM workflows across multiple members of the project team. This empowers each member of the design team to make informed decisions and improve building performance using robust real-time performance analysis.
Sefaira, which is known in the market for continuous, rapid innovation in the area of performance-based design, has launched numerous exciting tools for architects since Autodesk University 2013, including daylighting analysis and visualization, real-time analysis within Autodesk Revit, customizable performance baselines, and the ability to simulate automated daylighting controls -- in addition to numerous improvements to existing features.
Sefaira's newest product for HVAC engineers will be previewed at Autodesk University and launched early in 2015. It will provide real-time design analysis of mechanical systems and envelope options using the EnergyPlus engine -- providing robust results in record time. The application reads architectural models, eliminating the need for engineers to rebuild models from scratch, and enabling engineers to work proactively with architects to understand the impact of design changes and key mechanical system parameters.
"Historically, early collaboration between architects and engineers has been hampered by technical barriers. Engineers typically rebuild an architect's model from scratch before they are able to perform any analysis, making it time-consuming and costly for engineers to provide insight," said Andrew Corney, Product Director at Sefaira. "With Sefaira's newest application, architects and engineers will be able to use the same architectural models to get accurate, real-time feedback. This will speed up the flow of information between architects and engineers and enable the design team to explore more alternatives earlier in design, when it matters most."
"The industry has been aiming for better collaboration and a more integrated design process for a long time," said Sefaira CEO Mads Jensen. "We are continuing to provide the tools that make it possible to collaborate on a design in real-time from the earliest stages of the design process -- when design decisions can have the biggest impact on building performance."
In addition to the new product for engineers, Sefaira will also showcase two new tools for architects at Autodesk University.
- Extended daylight visualization: Sefaira will launch, at Autodesk University, enhancements to our existing daylight analysis, which displays daylight performance across building floorplates. The new extensions increase the resolution of the analysis and enhance the visual presentation, enabling architects to create presentation-quality reports from architectural models.
- Sefaira's Real-Time Analysis Plugin for Revit, which was launched in September, allows architects to make design decisions using real-time feedback on energy use and daylight generated directly from their architectural models. This adds value to the BIM workflow and empowers every design team to have substantive conversations around performance from the earliest stages of design.
