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Whatever your personal views on climate change, you can hardly fail to agree that it is in everybody's interest - and especially that of future generations - to seek to improve the performance of a building throughout its lifecycle. And not just for the sake of the planet’s future - there are also massive savings to be made in a building’s running costs.

Architects are not short of tools for simulating the lifecycle of a building and analysing its environmental credentials, the one most familiar to Autodesk users being Green Building Studio, Autodesk's Building Performance Analysis tool. Green Building Studio is a cloud-based whole building energy simulation platform that can be used with Revit or Vasari, Autodesk's concept modelling tool, and is used to analyse energy use for both conceptual and detailed buildings.

Architects are not traditionally environmental engineers and, faced with a variety of solutions, energy performance targets they must meet, and a cannier public, they could certainly use a solution that gives them access to the tools they need along with the background information they to fully understand what they are using.

Such an application is Autodesk's Insight 360, described as a "central interface that provides a faster, more effective understanding of collective actions and design decisions that can lead to better energy and environmental performance throughout a building's lifecycle."

It allows users to run analyses that span the building lifecycle from initial targeting and feasibility, to design, construction and operation in a consistent interaction model, and having done so, to share that information with others to help guide collective action toward better building performance. It comes with a library of sample data sets, so that architects can explore the impact that performance analysis can have on their designs.

Autodesk's BPA (Business Performance Analysis) team has been trailing beta versions of BPA tools over the last year through Revit or FormIt 360, finally releasing it in its own right as Insight 360.

The application provides both architects and environmental engineers with a centralised source of performance data from all advanced analytic engines. As its name suggests, not only does it have direct integration with both Revit and FormIt 360, but it provides direct access to the underlying analytical and simulation technology, which provides guidance and recommendations leading to a greater understanding of the different elements that improve building performance.

Insight 360 integrates many of the workflows available today such as energy cost range, lighting analysis, solar analysis, and EnergyPlus Cloud as well as expanding upon the current capabilities of these tools to provide a holistic approach to building performance. Having greater insight into the underlying factors could, for instance, help users to compare the differences between the energy analysis performance of Revit and Vasari models.

Revit supports energy analysis for both conceptual forms and detailed architectural models, whilst Vasari supports energy analysis only for conceptual forms, although it does have an 'autozoning' features that makes it a better tool for conceptual energy analysis than Revit as it more closely follows industry conventions like ASHRAE.

INSIGHT 360 FEATURES
Energy Cost Range and Performance Factors
The surest way to produce buildings with reduced energy consumption and improved performance is in the design stage. Insight 360, integrated with either Revit or FormIt 360 Pro, enables architects to work on a number of potential design outcomes through the Energy Cost Range factors, which helps to quickly identify key energy performance drivers such as lighting power density, HVAC systems or glazing properties. For those who have previously used the Energy Cost Range, they will notice that Insight 360 features two exciting new factors that expand understanding of overall performance; window-wall ratios and photovoltaic energy generation.

Quickly Compare Design Scenarios
With so many factors that need to be considered when attempting to set up an ideal design scenario the sheer scale of the task can appear quite daunting. There are potentially millions of options available when you begin to consider the impact of orientation, envelope, WWR, lighting equipment, schedules, HVAC and energy technologies such as photovoltaics.

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