LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM and NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwired - March 07, 2017) - Sefaira, a Trimble Company (
Hugh McEvoy, Head of Product at Sefaira, said, "With this major new release, we achieved four objectives: to deliver a common project and analysis platform for architects and engineers to collaborate better in early-stage design; to add substantial new functionality, particularly for natural ventilation and thermal comfort; to enable more detailed control over the analysis at a per-zone and per-room level; and to complete the transition of our energy and sizing engine to the U.S. Department of Energy's respected EnergyPlus™ simulation program."
Better Collaboration = Better Design
Sefaira Architecture now shares a technology platform with Sefaira Systems, a product widely used by mechanical engineers and energy modelers, to assess options including HVAC designs and equipment sizing based on performance and energy use. By allowing multiple stakeholders in building performance to collaborate on the same underlying model, Sefaira now facilitates real-time, cross-disciplinary collaboration on shared projects. Better collaboration between architects and engineers means that design possibilities are more readily discovered and explored, leading to better-performing designs.
"Until now, everyone has been working in different sandboxes. Sefaira has opened the door to better collaboration by providing a tool that enables architects to work with engineers on early-stage performance modeling without needing to learn a complicated platform," said Daniel Overbey, Director of Sustainability at Browning Day Mullins Dierdorf.
New Functionality Includes Improved Support of Passive Design
The new Sefaira Architecture adds substantial new functionality. It now better facilitates passive design, especially for residential buildings, schools and offices. The new Sefaira Architecture makes it easier to understand the impact of design changes such as shading, window openings, window sizing, space layout and materials on occupant comfort and energy use. Sefaira Architecture has new thermal comfort capabilities and reports, new natural ventilation capabilities including free area calculations, and many new downloadable charts. It also enables the user to download detailed results for further analysis. Design teams are now equipped to quickly and easily understand their passive design options at the early stages of a project.
"We were able to study multiple options within a short period of time, which allowed the team to arrive at a design direction that we all felt comfortable with much faster with meaningful data as opposed to 'rules of thumb' and broad assumptions," said Leonard Sciarra, Senior Associate at Gensler, AIA, ASHRAE, LEED AP+.
More Detailed Control over Sefaira's Analysis
Sefaira Architecture has enabled Performance-Based Design since 2010. The new version of Sefaira Architecture allows architectural designers to analyze their buildings not only holistically but also on a per-zone or per-room basis. The software also enables more control over HVAC system types, for those who so desire. With a wide variety of new analyses available, the designer retains better control over their design without losing Sefaira's trademark ease-of-use and analysis speed. More visibility and control provides greater confidence in design decisions.
"Because our projects are almost exclusively multi-family, being able to quickly analyze separate zones is important, and knowing that EnergyPlus is under the hood allows us to build our energy analysis capacity with some confidence," said Katie Ackerly, Sustainability Lead at David Baker Architects.
Availability
Sefaira Architecture is available now for new customers, and is also provided to existing customers as part of their current subscription. The previous version of Sefaira Architecture will remain accessible to existing customers for some time to enable the completion of current projects. To learn more about the next generation of Sefaira Architecture please visit http://sefaira.com/discover-the-new-sefaira-architecture/.
About Trimble Buildings
Sefaira's solutions within the Trimble Buildings portfolio is part of Trimble's Engineering and Construction segment focused on solutions that optimize the complete Design-Build-Operate (DBO) lifecycle of buildings. Trimble is dedicated to transforming the industry-increasing productivity, reducing waste and optimizing schedules, budgets and real estate portfolios-with powerful solutions that streamline communication and collaboration. These targeted solutions enable architects, engineers, contractors, owners, and occupiers to realize greater agility, efficiency and insight. Used in over 150 countries around the world, Trimble Buildings' solutions are transforming the way the world designs, builds and operates infrastructure and buildings. Details about Trimble Buildings' complete DBO portfolio are available at: http://buildings.trimble.com/.
About Sefaira
Founded in 2009 and now part of Trimble, Sefaira is a leader in software for high-performance building design. Using Sefaira, architects and other building designers now have the real-time analysis capabilities that enable them to practice Performance-Based Design with SketchUp and Autodesk Revit models. This enables designers to create buildings that have the very best performance characteristics in terms of energy use, daylighting quality, carbon emissions, thermal comfort and operating costs. Sefaira has won numerous industry awards including being named as a Global Cleantech 100 company in 2013, 2014 and 2015.
For more information visit: http://sefaira.com.
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