Raising the IQ for green and CAD, too

Engineered Systems, August, 2005 by Robert Beverly

A pioneering idea doesn't always involve reinventing the wheel. Sometimes it can just entail being the first to see something working well in one area of endeavor, and noticing that maybe it could be applied to another area. This phenomenon is different from the "happy accident" (e.g., penicillin, or the old, "You got your chocolate in my peanut butter!" commercials). It's more like the invention that you see and think, "Well, sure, that makes perfect sense. Why didn't I think of that?"

CAD-DO ATTITUDE

Thus, we arrive at Howard McKew's feature article this month. CAD software is commonplace, as it has been for the last quarter century or so. Making the most of the technology to implement a variety of CAD construction layering standards, however, has not been common practice. Kind of like bar-coding equipment so that facility engineers can scan it quickly and retrieve all pertinent info, this represents a chance to make the most of existing tools, giving the owner a set of records with a thoroughness and ease of use to match the growing complexity of the various systems in a building.

McKew wrote a column on the topic this spring, and it generated the largest volume of reader mail of any column in the fourteen years since he started contributing to ES. The concept also took hold inside his own firm, which is conducting its own effort to integrate the idea into its current CAD procedures so it can provide clients with this additional value. He comments:

"The bottom line is that we need to deliver useful electronic files so that they can be referenced as needed on a day-to-day basis. There is a rule of thumb that 20% of the cost of a building is "design and construction cost." Eighty percent of the cost of a building over the life of this building is in O&M and rejuvenation of the building."

Dozens of readers responded, and McKew sent them his suggested CAD layer standards as promised. And that's where the excitement begins, in my opinion, because the idea will only grow and improve in the hands of more and more people interested in figuring out the best way to apply it to their particular needs.

And who knows, maybe your firm or organization has already been doing this kind of thing for a while, and you already have ideas about how to squeeze the most efficiency out of this approach. If you do, or if you have subsequent success with this idea, let us know. (After this month's foray into features, McKew will return to "Tomorrow's Engineer" in September.)

IBT TAKES ROOT

Also, we welcome you to the second Intelligent Buildings Today (IBT) supplement. This time around, we dig into the fertile soil where the domain of intelligent building design overlaps with the the ubiquitous desire for sustainable buildings. As usual, ES columnist and AutomatedBuildings.com founder Ken Sinclair heads up an insightful group of ideas from Thomas Hartman, P.E. and Paul Ehrlich, P.E.

This is interesting ground, so to speak. It is full with technical considerations but also progress for the human side of the equation, from industry initiatives to how a project team's process can protect or doom the best (design) intentions.