An end-to-end view of the entire life cycle of buildings is essential, especially in view of the increasing cost of energy and raw materials. At BAU 2009 in hall C3, stand 330, Nemetschek Allplan shows how architects and engineers can plan their projects according to energy-specific criteria, cost-efficiently and to a high level of quality. With Allplan, the company already has a solution today for the challenges of tomorrow.

According to a recent study conducted by market research firm BauInfoConsult, energy-efficient building is an issue among more than half of architects and designers. With this in mind, a pro-active view of the entire life cycle of buildings is becoming increasingly important. Even in the early phases of a project, Allplan enables its users to determine quantities and costs and to obtain data on energy efficiency from the building model. These include calculations concerning structural-physical properties, CO2 emissions as well as the primary and ultimate energy requirements of buildings.

Sustainable building design and construction is increasing in significance not only with new buildings; lowering energy consumption is also a key design issue when it comes to renovation, modernization and restoration. Asset entry is thus another issue at this year’s trade show. BAU visitors will have the opportunity to see how floor plans and buildings can be entered using an Ultra Mobile PC or digital camera and how this, in turn, makes renovation and restoration planning more efficient.

In addition, Nemetschek Allplan shows how users can improve the quality of their designs using professional visualization and presentation tools to give them a competitive edge. Information is also provided on Design2Cost, a cost planning method that gives users tight control of costs. Particularly in view of the increasing economic pressure in the building industry, Nemetschek Allplan’s solution offers planning security and the freedom to focus on architectural problems.

At the BAU trade show, engineers will see how components can be transferred from Allplan Engineering to Frilo’s structural analysis software or Scia Engineer without loss of data. As a result, a structural system can be obtained with little effort. The user simply checks whether the automatically generated proposal matches his expectations and whether changes need to be made. Compared to the approach used to date, there is no need for data to be entered manually and design changes can thus be entered more quickly.