The Autodesk ecosystem for the Architecture, Engineering, Construction and Operations environment is continuously evolving its offerings and services with a view to improving design for sustainability. Consider that an estimated 40% of the annual greenhouse gas emissions are attributed to the built environment. Clearly the design, construction and operations of built assets are of vital importance for the future of humanity.

Neither can it be seen as an isolated discipline since so much of the human psyche is dependent upon the built environment and the operation thereof to the betterment of the communities that live therein. Larger than the building itself there is the city to consider. Public housing, transport, office space, public spaces, safety and security, education, health and a plethora of other services that we depend upon are interrelated as is the infrastructure upon which they are reliant.

The management of a smart city, where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, It’s still dependent upon its parts. Evaluating cities is works in progress and might take much longer than it would take to design a built asset. What we can therefore do is design each part to have as minimal an impact within its own context, even when this context includes a portion of the hole which is greater than itself. Have a look at the free Autodesk university lecture notes: Designing the Future: Insights into Carbon Analysis Using Integrated BIM Sustainability Workflows | Autodesk University

Evaluating a building as part of the whole can best be done in the conceptual phase within the Autodesk Forma environment. Forma democratizes machine learning and artificial intelligence to allow one to design buildings where due diligence is paid to energy efficiency and embedded carbon among other simulations. Embedded carbon is evaluated via a third-party app, C Scale, and within the parameters set by the data gathered in the United States of America. It is carbon data that may or may not be applicable within your geographic and climatic region.

You should not just discard the guidance within the United States context because it might give you some interesting information regarding your own region be that aligned or non-aligned. The capability demonstrated by the United States of America should also serve as guidance for your own region or country. If you gather the required data for your own country/region you could also become participants in forecasting the embedded carbon costs of your regional designs.

Autodesk Insight leverages Autodesk Green Building Studio and it is common to both Forma and Revit. All your design is transitioning between the conceptual and the detailed design the energy models are interchangeable and can be updated from Revit to Forma and vice versa. Here is the Revit help file if you want to learn how to create the energy analytical model in Revit. Again, there are third party apps that can be leveraged to gauge embedded carbon. Here, you might consider Tally, bimCAT and One Click LCA.

Few Engineers in South Africa still use the Heating and Cooling Loads Analysis in Revit, but it is still available if you enable it in the .INI file.  In the detail design phase, we like to hook up the terminals (be they Plumbing, Air Side or Electrical) to the systems that feed them and then do the design of upstream components like Transformers panel boards bumps thanks mechanical equipment etc. Before then, Revit also have system design tools (Mechanical and Electrical) where the classification of spaces can inform designers of the typical loads placed on MEP systems that would have to be accommodated within the cores of buildings. This is important for initial design lockdown (which aid interdisciplinary coordination) and clash detection.

Autodesk Construction Cloud Takeoff has a 3^rd party app integration called EC3 that can be used to calculate embedded carbon values. Takeoff has some interesting capabilities and could be used in addition to or instead of Navisworks for quantification and project scheduling.

When the model reached the digital twin stage on Tandem, the important activity is operations management. Autodesk has partnered with two 3^rd parties. On the architectural side, that is Eptura. Industrially, Datum 360 is being used. Beyond the design of the built asset the efficient operation of the systems within that built asset over its lifetime which might span anything from 60 to 100 years represent a huge amount of energy.

Maintenance is one of the main activities undertaken during the operation and consists of planned maintenance preventative maintenance and reactive maintenance. All the types of maintenance are managed on a digital platform and, in the case of preventative maintenance, consists of data that is gathered from transducers measuring important equipment parameters. For instance, if one notices an increase in current supply to a mechanical piece of equipment, one schedules a maintenance inspection, which could discover a failed bearing that needs to be replaced before catastrophic failure ensues.

Apart from the design evolution within the software there is also the manufacturing evolution. From a Revit perspective you can create fabrication parts which may be spooled onto manufacturing equipment through Autodesk Fabrication CADmep, however you should not expect that modelling in  Revit will allow you to create Isometrics in Autodesk Plant 3D. From the beginning, it is important to decide whether you’re going to design the system in Revit or in Plant 3D. Plant 3D also extends itself to manufacturing.

Here are a few scenarios for you to consider regarding fabrication.

Typical Architectural Building, Typical Fabrication Parts

• Revit for plumbing, ducting and piping.
• Recap scan-to-mesh for as-built
• Revit for creating fabrication parts (install Autodesk Fabrication MEP Metric Content 8.02 from Account).
• Export MAJ job file
• Manufacture using Fabrication CADmep

Typical Architectural Building, Non-Typical Fabrication Parts

• Revit for plumbing, ducting and piping.
• Recap scan-to-mesh for as-built
• Revit for creating fabrication parts (install Autodesk Fabrication MEP Metric Content 8.02 from Account).
• Map Inline Model Elements to Fabrication Parts
• Convert Generic Parts to Fabrication Parts
• Manufacture using Fabrication CADmep
• Do NOT go from Revit to Plant 3D for Isometrics or P&ID Schematics.

Typical Architectural Building, Fabricator from Scratch

• Recap scan-to-mesh for as-built
• Model in AutoCAD MEP
• Manufacture using Fabrication CADmep

Typical Industrial Asset Requiring Isometrics

• Recap scan-to-mesh for as-built
• Plant 3D for Modelling
• PCF -> ISO for manufacturing

Coordination

• Recap scan-to-mesh for as-built
• Use tracked Navisworks (coordination model link) or IFC for clash detection on Autodesk Construction Cloud if multiple platforms are used on the same project.
• Otherwise, use Navisworks.

Industrial if Inventor is Used

• ISOGEN from Inventor translates into Plant 3D via PCF to pipe function
• For Equipment with Connections
• Inventor to Revit

In conclusion, what you should take away from this blog is that it is important to get an opinion from a knowledgeable source on which platform to start modelling your MEP systems. That is because not every platform will lend itself to the purpose for which you are designing. At Micrographics we have various specialists across a variety of disciplines (be that architecture engineering and construction or manufacturing) and meeting with us to allow us to advise you might be of real benefit to your project. The alternative is to rework your projects afterwards and perhaps duplicate the work that you’ve already done and that is not a productive spend of your time.

If you need help adopting the AEC Collection or the Autodesk Construction Cloud in your practice or if you are looking to invest in hardware, please contact Micrographics so that we may be of assistance.