Industry foundation classes and interoperable commercial software in support of design of energy-efficient buildings

Interoperability among software tools that are used in building design can make the use of building energy simulation tools more frequent and more effective. Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) are an object- oriented data model of  buildings that provides an environment for such interoperability. This paper reports on a “live” demonstration of the use of five commercially available IFC-compatible software applications (including sophisticated CAD and energy simulation software) in support of schematic design of a small energy-efficient bank building. The demonstration showed that it is possible to dramatically reduce the time (and cost) through automatic exchange of building geometry. The savings apply both to simulation and the building design processes, which could make the use of energy simulation in building design more frequent and earlier than usual.