Sefaira to showcase products for designing HVAC systems

Sefaira will preview its new product for heating, ventilating and air-conditioning (HVAC) for design engineers and showcase the company’s two new tools for architects at Autodesk University.

The new product fosters collaboration between architects and HVAC design engineers from the earliest stages of design, enabling each member of a design team to make informed decisions and improve building performance.

Sefaira plans to roll-out the new tools in 2015, which will use the EnergyPlus engine and provide real-time design analysis of mechanical systems and envelope options.

By reading architectural models, the application eliminates the need for engineers to rebuild models from scratch and supports working proactively with architects, helping them understand the impact of design changes and key mechanical system parameters.

Sefaira product director Andrew Corney said: “Historically, early collaboration between architects and engineers has been hampered by technical barriers.

“Engineers typically rebuild an architect’s model from scratch before they are able to perform any analysis, making it time-consuming and costly for engineers to provide insight.

“With Sefaira’s newest application, architects and engineers will be able to use the same architectural models to get accurate, real-time feedback. This will speed-up the flow of information between architects and engineers and enable the design team to explore more alternatives earlier in design, when it matters most.”

Sefaira has launched various tools for architects since Autodesk University 2013, including day lighting analysis and visualisation, real-time analysis within Autodesk Revit, customisable performance baselines and the ability to simulate automated day lighting controls.