October 29th 2024

IES and Chaos partner to deliver combined energy analysis and visualisation capability for Architects via new Enscape Impact tool

IES and Chaos partner to deliver combined energy analysis and visualisation capability for Architects via new Enscape Impact tool

We are delighted to announce our partnership with Chaos to help deliver their new Enscape Impact add-on which seamlessly combines user-friendly design tools with sophisticated performance analytics, allowing architects to quickly visualise and enhance building performance right within their design workflow.

Launched today, the new update combines elevated visualisations with integrated building performance analysis through the expertise of IES. Designed to transform how architects evaluate their creations' sustainability early in the design process, the tool integrates IES energy modelling capabilities with Enscape’s existing tools, enhancing visualisations with energy efficiency information, simulated energy use and carbon emissions indicators to guide early design decisions. 

With the new Enscape Impact add-on, architects and designers can now quickly view the energy performance of their building and optimise it within their usual design workflow. The new solution significantly reduces the time of the analysis: What used to take several hours or even days can now be done in minutes.

“Buildings are responsible for 39 percent of global energy-related carbon emissions: 28 percent from operational emissions, from the energy needed to heat, cool, and power them, and the remaining 11 percent from materials and construction. This has profound implications for climate change and the future of our planet”, comments Petr Mitev, VP Product, Solutions for Designers at Chaos

“The future of sustainable design is changing, and better insights mean better buildings. Our users can now visualise the performance of a building while designing, with a focus on criteria such as energy consumption and carbon dioxide emission – this has a potential to transform the role of sustainability in architectural design.”

Enscape Impact key features include:

Real-time Energy Modeling:
Effortlessly calculate and benchmark key performance metrics, such as Peak Loads & Total Carbon Emission. See the data manifested within the render, making it easier to comprehend and communicate the impact of design decisions.

Integrated Workflow: Perform analysis directly within the architectural workflow to inform sustainable designs early in the process. Just like the Enscape core product, the add-on is integrated with Archicad, Revit, Vectorworks, SketchUp and Rhino.

Dials panel: Easy-to-read charts and diagrams intuitively display how geometry adjustments impact building performance. These comprehensive tooltips provide easy-to-understand guidance for beginners in building performance concepts.

Minimal data entry: Establish a baseline analysis with only a few data points, including location and building type, to access fast and actionable insights.

Optimised and combined workflow reduces costs and time

The combined energy analysis and visualisation workflow is not only important for the architects, but also for the engineers working on a project, significantly cutting down the cost and time required to bring a poor performing project back into meeting sustainability goals.

“Previously, the design process was separated into architects using BIM for design, while engineers conducted performance analysis separately in software like IES offers”, explains Ruth Kerrigan, Chief Operating Officer, IES.

“This led to duplicated visualisation efforts and frequent misalignment between design intent and analytical models. Thus, the loop of recreating and aligning took long and engineers' reports were often too technical for clients and architects.”

Enscape Impact combines all these steps in one tool and shortens the feedback loop. The real-time, data-based feedback on the building performance leads to informed design decisions early in the process. This minimises the risk of suboptimal designs that engineers later need to modify, which then causes delays and increased costs.

To find out more about Enscape Impact, visit https://enscape3d.com/impact