Meets Market Need to Achieve High-Performance Buildings

AMSTERDAM — (BUSINESS WIRE) — November 9, 2011 — Bentley Systems, Incorporated, the leading company dedicated to providing comprehensive software solutions for sustaining infrastructure, today announced the immediate commercial availability of its new AECOsim Energy Simulator software and commercial availability in early Q1 2012 of its new AECOsim Building Designer software (currently in Bentley’s early adopter program). AECOsim Compliance Manager for LEED certification was released in May. The AECOsim family of products provides interdisciplinary building design, analysis, and simulation software focused on helping architectural, engineering, construction, and operations practice leaders deliver high-performance buildings. It enables best practices in integrated building systems design and performance simulation, and results in simulations that rigorously incorporate design specifications and accurately predict the performance of the delivered building.

AECOsim Energy Simulator

AECOsim Energy Simulator is a unique application for the immersive design, simulation, and analysis of building mechanical systems, environmental conditions, and energy performance. The application provides comprehensive simulation for both quick and comparative evaluations, as well as for detailed engineering, allowing designers to timely assess design trade-offs in both new construction and retrofits.

AECOsim Energy Simulator contributes to the creation of better-performing, more sustainable buildings that consume less energy; provide greater occupant productivity, comfort, and safety; and control lifecycle operational energy costs for owners. Its EnergyPlus simulation engine is the industry standard-setter developed and maintained by the U.S. Department of Energy, and it can greatly improve project quality with accurate simulations that closely correspond to actual building performance.

AECOsim Energy Simulator users can interoperate with Bentley applications and BIM or CAD formats including MicroStation, AutoCAD, Revit, and others. Workflows can incorporate i-models and gbXML, IFC, DXF, and DWG formats.

Dru Crawley, Bentley director, Building Energy Performance Products, said, “AECOsim Energy Simulator doesn’t stop at just high-level results but delivers building performance with engineering rigor and depth – allowing users to understand what is driving the energy in their buildings. Uniquely, AECOsim Energy Simulator engages building systems engineers’ expertise in specifying detailed building mechanical systems – along with all the other relevant building information and its context – and then again takes full advantage of its EnergyPlus engine to rigorously and reliably simulate performance. This will enable building designers, engineers, energy consultants, and owners to finally have confidence that the building will deliver on predicted energy performance.”

Gerald Kettler, managing principal, CEO, Facility Performance Associates, said, “AECOsim Energy Simulator gives us a precise and quick way to consider energy usage and efficiency to produce better-performing buildings. Compared to other software available, it is more powerful and flexible while still being very easy to use. We have been doing energy modeling for ten years, and we’ve always wanted to be able to evaluate all of the key variables at once within the context of the architectural model, including lighting, materials, and heating and cooling systems. AECOsim Energy Simulator gives us the ability to do all of this with unmatched power and flexibility leveraging the EnergyPlus engine. As a result, we now have a holistic view of building performance and the impact of proposed design choices.”

Added Kettler, “Thanks to AECOsim Energy Simulator, we are able to work even better with architects in the schematic design phase, and have had more impact on projects, ultimately resulting in better-performing buildings. It delivers more precise calculations and a broader range of capabilities to help us evaluate the most effective combination of changes to help meet building codes, achieve required certifications, and meet owners’ needs. And because we offer commissioning and testing services as well, AECOsim Compliance Manager has also been very helpful in tracking and achieving the certification for our projects.”

AECOsim Building Designer

AECOsim Building Designer provides information-rich multidisciplinary models for design, simulation, analysis, and documentation of buildings. This single, integrated application includes capabilities for architectural, structural, mechanical and electrical systems design, and for construction documentation. Its innovative capabilities help users lower project costs, save time, reduce project risk, and enhance overall project quality – while providing owner-operators with higher returns on their investments.

As is the hallmark of Bentley software, AECOsim Building Designer fully supports large, complex, distributed projects, empowering teams to deliver bigger and more finely detailed projects taking full advantage of information modeling’s potential. In addition, by virtue of Bentley’s comprehensive platform and applications portfolio, AECOsim Building Designer can incorporate the context of related disciplines to support better design decisions resulting in better-performing buildings and projects.

AECOsim Building Designer’s interdisciplinary information modeling facilitates:

• simulating designs with direct links to analysis applications for interdisciplinary optimization,
• producing compelling images and animations,
• improving coordination and work sharing across disciplines by way of common toolsets,
• interference resolution directly within the design environment, and
• fully leveraging information mobility with integrity through i-models and ProjectWise, Bentley Navigator, and many other Bentley Passport-enabled apps.

With AECOsim Building Designer , users also can produce high-quality, fully coordinated building and project documentation for use throughout the project lifecycle of design, construction, and operations. Bentley’s new hypermodels allow immersively interacting with drawings in their appropriate 3D context, navigating callout links to enhance and clarify the 3D model, which serves as a spatial index. Delivering hypermodels to constructors and owners conveys the design team’s full and best work, and contributes to integrated-project benefits regardless of the project contractual format.