Autodesk, AIA and You: Partners for the Planet

The cat is out of the proverbial bag.  At the AIA 2016 convention, The American Institute of Architects and Autodesk are announcing the release of a new, collaboratively developed tool that will automate the AIA 2030 Commitment data reporting to the Design Data Exchange (DDx).  The development of an open API to the DDx aims to help make it easier for our industry to be true partners for the preservation of our planet while reducing the headache of manual entry using the existing process.

The new automated connection will allow the more than 350 AIA 2030 committed firms to report their project and portfolio performance to the DDx directly from Autodesk Insight 360, a technology addition included in Autodesk Revit and Autodesk FormIt 360 Pro subscriptions. This automated process between Insight 360 and DDx will eliminate the need for manual data entry and eliminates duplication of effort, encouraging performance analysis and more frequent reporting throughout the design process instead of annually.

Autodesk Insight 360 empowers architects to help drive impactful energy and environmental design decisions with centralized access to their building energy and environmental performance data.  And Insight 360 incorporates the world’s most advanced analysis engines, all within a beautiful and intuitive interface. Through robust bi-directional Building Information Modeling (BIM) integration, direct access to leading analysis tools, and guidance and recommendations from industry benchmarks, architects can approach the design process with more effective understanding of the elements that lead to better building performance outcomes throughout the building lifecycle. By automating a connection to the DDx, Autodesk will help build a more valuable resource of building performance data for the industry without the overhead of manual data entry.

More than just a method of reporting to the DDx, we believe this tool will play a critical role in helping the industry hit the Architecture 2030 targets issued by Architecture 2030 in 2005.  There’s really two main ways that it helps – streamlining the reporting process and actually helping to hit the targets.

Essentially eliminating the overhead of manual reporting not only saves time but it also enables more regular updates so firms can get up-to-the-minute progress on their projects. As for hitting the targets themselves one of the key findings of the2014 progress report was the critical role that energy modeling plays, and how projects that applied energy modeling were generally higher performing.

For example out of all of the projects that were submitted in the 2014 reporting period nearly 50 percent of the projects where an energy model was created met or come close to achieving the goals, whereas 80 percent of non-model projects fell below the 40 percent target. So now with Autodesk Insight 360 greatly lowering the barriers to energy modeling, it’s not only feasible to conduct energy modeling on virtually every project, especially from the early stages, but in doing so automatic reporting to DDx essentially comes for free.

Snapshot of how it all works together

Step 1 – Design with Autodesk FormIt 360 and/or Autodesk Revit

Step 2: Use Autodesk Insight 360 to evaluate better building and environmental performance

Step 3: Use Autodesk Insight 360 for AIA 2030 DDx reporting

Step 4: Report AIA 2030 commitment progress with AIA 2030 DDx

Over the past few days, Autodesk published a two-part blog series [part 1, part 2] highlighting our partnership with you in this evolution of our industry.  Never before have we had at the tip of our fingertips – or stylus for that matter – so many ways to advance or enhance our profession.  Today, Autodesk provides one more tool that will enhance the quality of life on our planet.

Autodesk Class/Theater Schedules, Demos and Experts
For more about all the activities Autodesk has in store for you at AIA 2016, including class and theater schedules, visit our event page