ECODESIGNER STAR

[chrrev]

Could GS advise on the current status of ECODESIGNER STAR.
One gets the distinct impression that it is a dead end project since there are no serious answers from GS to real problems.
I am involved with clients who request zero energy buildings and I have been under the illusion perhaps that EDS could deliver...
Please advise , then we could summarize the outstanding problems if the project isn’t dead...
Either way , we need to know please.
This isn’t a field where we can rely on vague approximations and contradictory results.

[Andy Thomson]

Aaron, shoot me an email at art@andythomson.ca and I can send you what I plan to submit for permit soon from ED/AC24.

[Minh Nguyen]

andyro wrote:
Minh, there are no videos that I can see, as you suggest. I have had good results, after 22 successive model runs, and can attest that this is not a 'pushbutton' solution for BIM/BEM - it does requires some pretty deep BEM knowledge to understand what needs to be tweaked to give accurate results. That said, it would be EASY for GS to pre-program a few templates with standardized results for small and larger buildings to facilitate the workflow. I am working on this right now with our reseller for Canada - with a few simple tweaks I think we can use this for OBC/SB12 code compliance 'performance path' modelling and I have already received clarification from our provincial ministry that this will be accepted as the VIP modelling core provides hourly analysis. I will be posting a blog on this soon.

Hi Andy,

Thank you very much for your enthusiasm and generosity! I agree that we need a bit more guidance on this topic in order to fully master the tool, as it is quite tricky to adjust BEM properly. The videos I mentioned in the link are in the section, but these are just some basic/starter videos. I will forward your question to the responsible people.

Thank you once again for your suggestion!

Have a great day!

Best regards,
Minh

[Anonymous]

@andyro
Thank you very much for your insights on your recent post: ArchiCad, EcoDesigner and Passive House.
It seems a very complete, straight forward and valuable piece of information.
A very good help to those that are giving its first steps on Archicad 24 EcoDesigner.
Also good to know that GS has considerably improved its EcoDesigner performance on AC24.
Cheers,

[DGSketcher]

Braza wrote:
@andyro
Thank you very much for your insights on your recent post: ArchiCad, EcoDesigner and Passive House.
It seems a very complete, straight forward and valuable piece of information.
A very good help to those that are giving its first steps on Archicad 24 EcoDesigner.
Also good to know that GS has considerably improved its EcoDesigner performance on AC24.
Cheers,

+1 Watching with interest! Thank you for your contribution andyro.

[Andy Thomson]

Right @Braza, @DGSketcher - you're welcome! I failed to circle back and post the link to the blog, thanks for noting it. Again: https://www.thomsonarchitecture.ca/2020/08/15/archicad-ecodesigner-and-passive-house/

It works well, you just need to know what you are looking at, and defaults will be different in every country, so it is up to the user to check them and set them up correctly in a template file.

[chrrev]

Hello Minh,

We are nearing one year down the track from these observations on Ecodesigner, prompting me to get back to you to have a clearer picture of the current situation. Is Ecodesigner still part of Graphisoft long term plan, and if it is when are we likely to see an improved version? Note for instance that the most recent User manual AFAIK is for Archicad 17... Seriously, where are we at?

Chris

mnguyen wrote:
Dear All,

Thank you very much for sharing your opinions, and I can totally understand your frustration toward EcoDesigner!

For the next major release, EcoDesigner is not being updated, but we constantly fix bugs when reported to us. As of now, we are still collecting clients' requests in order to have a clear vision of how we can improve its function and how we can adapt better to the market.

Thank you for your understanding! I truly hope that, EcoDesigner can and will become a tool that will enhance architects' workflow around the world for a better future!

Have a great day!

Best regards,
Minh

[Martin Jules]

While doing that, please take a look at the California Green Building Standards Code (CALGreen) to make sure that EcoDesigner Star meets its requirements: https://shop.iccsafe.org/2019-california-green-building-standards-code-title-24-part-11-calgreen.htm...

mnguyen wrote:
Dear All,

Thank you very much for sharing your opinions, and I can totally understand your frustration toward EcoDesigner!

For the next major release, EcoDesigner is not being updated, but we constantly fix bugs when reported to us. As of now, we are still collecting clients' requests in order to have a clear vision of how we can improve its function and how we can adapt better to the market.

Thank you for your understanding! I truly hope that, EcoDesigner can and will become a tool that will enhance architects' workflow around the world for a better future!

Have a great day!

Best regards,
Minh

[Richard Morrison]

Mjules wrote:
While doing that, please take a look at the California Green Building Standards Code (CALGreen) to make sure that EcoDesigner Star meets its requirements:

What requirements are you talking about meeting? CALGreen addresses things like water usage, electrical energy usage, and air quality. Not much there regarding thermal performance. (Which is handled by the California Energy Code.)

[archigreen]

Hi Minh,

It is gonna be two years from the original post, do you have any updates?

I bought AC25 but it looks like it doesn't come with EDS anymore, or is it just me?

Thanks for your comments.

ArchiGreen