At the core of the IES <Virtual Environment> is an Integrated Data Model (IDM) which captures every aspect of a building's geometry, constructions, usage, climate and equipment. A gateway to the IDM, ModelIT is the principle VE-Pro tool for model creation and manipulation, and is accessed by all of the Pro applications. The level of detail included can be varied depending on design stage and available information.
Easy Model Creation
ModelIT is incredibly simple to learn – you don’t need any CAD experience – it has a number of shape options that can be used to create rooms or other areas, and information from ‘Building templates’ can be automatically assigned as you create the geometry. These templates contain general data, used by the VE-Pro modules, such as the thermo-physical properties of construction materials, surface colours, building usage data such as occupancy profiles, and localised information used for Building Regulations or sustainable metrics such as LEED, BREEAM or Green Star.
We have a full range of geometry editing features including cut, move, copy and paste, and you can divide or merge rooms as required. In addition, you can create partitions, drag and move walls, and drag and move floors/ceilings. A component modeller enables you to create and edit features such as beams, columns, desks and chairs. While, you can easily assign windows, doors and holes to the surfaces of your model as required.
Great Interoperability
Direct connectivity and import capabilities to other CAD/BIM systems means less duplication of effort, and the easy integration of analysis into your workflow. Direct Connectivity is offered with SketchUp, Revit and ArchiCAD, while gbXML and DXF files can be imported.
Model Merging
Model merge identifies similarities between the IDM of two independent building models. Where similarites exist Model Merge can be used to adopt or merge the models. This functionallity is key when performing iterative studies. Imagine the workflow - a building model is created by a colleague and you are asked to perform some sustainable analysis, the analysis requires the editing of building usage data. Before you can confirm these changes to your colleagues the design has moved on, the new building form is sent to you - but the building usage is out of date... Model Merge can help here by mergin the updated building geometry.
'Show Me' Reports
Building performance models can be extremely data dense- often it is desirabe to condense the data into a simple report that highlights the key data attributes of the building model. The IES 'Show Me' report generator provides this functionality allowing the user to define the level of detail the reportage gives; either an overview of the entire buiding data, or a detailed room-by-room report.
Room Grouping
Grouping rooms with similar data allows users to speed up the analysis/ interrogation of large, complex buildings. Room groups can be created manually or automatically. The automatic function can group rooms by their input data, or by analysis results. For example, a room group can be created of all rooms that have similar usage i.e. all offices or all classrooms. Alternatively, room groups can be created to show all rooms that have high levels of solar gain, are overheating, or are too stuffy.
Fast Track Functions
ModelIT has several fast-track functions that enable you to make swift changes to the model: an automatic pitched roof generator; changes to floor and ceiling heights; changes to window cills and head height; and global changes to percentage glazing or window arrays.
Model Viewer
The Model Viewer provides a 3D solid perspective view of your building. It allows you to dynamically ‘orbit’ around the model, and to zoom and pan. This is useful for visual checks, and facilitates fast, easily understood and impressive demonstrations to clients.
