SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR DISPLAYING IMPACT ANALYSIS DATA WHILE DESIGNING AN ARCHITECTURAL STRUCTURE

• US 20150234944A1
• Filed: 07/10/2014
• Published: 08/20/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 02/18/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sefaira, Inc. (Trimble Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Sefaira, Inc. (Trimble Inc.)
• Inventors: Swartz, David Wightman, Raj, Ritwik, Sterner, Carl Styan, Gayed, Jeremy, Singh, Varun, Jensen, Mads Naestholt, Marceau, Gilllaume, Miles, Jacob, Tollefsen, Alex Jones, Schoen, Katrina Leigh
• Granted Patent: US 10,430,526 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 30/13 Architectural design, e.g. computer-aided architectural design [CAAD] related to design of buildings, bridges, landscapes, production plants or roads
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 30/23 using finite element methods [FEM] or finite difference methods [FDM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 40/18 Network protocols supporting networked applications, e.g. including control of end-device applications over a network

Abstract

Various embodiments provide systems and methods enabling a user to receive feedback regarding a computer-implemented design of an architectural structure as the user is designing or otherwise modifying the computer-implemented design using a computer-aided design (CAD) software tool. The feedback (hereafter also referred to as “design feedback”) may provide the user with useful analysis information regarding the architectural structure'"'"'s predicted characteristics (e.g., operational performance, resource consumption, cost, etc.) based on the current state of the computer-implemented design. In particular, heating and cooling loads associated with the computer-implemented design of the architectural structure can be visually displayed to the user in real or near-real-time along with the relationships to contributing factors that impact the heating and cooling loads.

Claims

1. A method for displaying real-time impact analysis feedback of an architectural structure design, comprising:

displaying pictorial representations of a heating load and a cooling load of the architectural structure design;

displaying one or more building component contributors to the heating and cooling loads of the architectural structure design;

for each of the one or more building component contributors to the heating load, displaying a first visual connector, the first visual connector visually indicating an impact of each of the one or more building component contributors to the heating load of the architectural structure design;

for each of the one or more building component contributors to the cooling load, displaying a second visual connector, the second visual connector visually indicating an impact of each of the one or more building component contributors to the cooling load of the architectural structure design;

accepting input from a user, the input changing a parameter value of a building component contributor; and

in response to the input, simultaneously modifying, in real-time or near-real-time, the heating load representation, and the cooling load representation to reflect an impact of the change in the parameter value on the heating load and cooling load of the architectural structure design.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising, in response to the input, simultaneously modifying, in real-time or near-real-time, at least one of the first visual connector and the second visual connector to reflect the impact of the change in the parameter value on the heating load and cooling load of the architectural structure design.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the simultaneous modifying of at least one of the first visual connector and the second visual connector comprises adjusting at least one of a color and width associated with the at least one of the first visual connector and the second visual connector.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the first visual connector and the second visual connector visually indicate at least one of a positive impact and a negative impact to each of the heating load and cooling load of the architectural structure design.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising, concurrently with the displaying of the one or more building component contributors, the first visual connector, and the second visual connector, displaying a graphical representation of a summary of design change states of the architectural structure design.

6. The method of claim 5 further comprising, displaying one or more design benchmarks relative to the summary of design change states.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the summary of design change states reflect impact analysis trends.

8. The method of claim 5 further comprising, upon selection of an area of the graphical representation of the current and historical summary, displaying a status of the pictorial representations of the heating load and the cooling load, the one or more building component contributors, the first visual connector, and the second visual connector corresponding to one of a current design change state and a historical design change state.

9. The method of claim 5 further comprising, concurrently with the displaying of the one or more building component contributors, the first visual connector, the second visual connector, and the graphical representation of the summary of design change states of the architectural structure design, displaying a graphical representation of an evolution of daylight levels associated with the design change states of the architectural structure design.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the accepted input comprises a design change to the architectural structure design generated on a computer-implemented design model.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the accepted input comprises a design change to the architectural structure design generated by altering the building component contributor.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the building component contributor comprises an interactive display element configured to at least one of display textual information associated with the building component contributor and display an adjustable element through which the parameter value of the building component contributor is altered.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the representation of the heating load comprises an interactive display element configured to at least one of display textual information associated with the heating load and display an adjustable element associated with heating load.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the representation of the cooling load comprises an interactive display element configured to at least one of display textual information associated with the cooling load and display an adjustable element associated with cooling load.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the first visual connector and the second visual connector comprise interactive display elements configured to display textual information respectively associated with the first visual connector and the second visual connector.

16. A computer program product embedded on non-transitory computer storage media, which when executed by a computer, causes the computer to implement a method for displaying real-time impact analysis feedback of an architectural structure design comprising:

code for displaying pictorial representations of a heating load and a cooling load of the architectural structure design;

code for displaying one or more building component contributors to the heating and cooling loads of the architectural structure design;

code for displaying a first visual connector for each of the one or more building component contributors to the heating load, the first visual connector visually indicating an impact of each of the one or more building component contributors to the heating load of the architectural structure design; and

code for displaying a second visual connector for each of the one or more building component contributors to the cooling load, the second visual connector visually indicating an impact of each of the one or more building component contributors to the cooling load of the architectural structure design;

code for accepting input from a user, the input changing a parameter value of a building component contributor; and

code for simultaneously modifying, in real-time or near-real-time, the heating load representation, and the cooling load representation in response to the input to reflect an impact of the change in the parameter value on the heating load and cooling load of the architectural structure design.

17. The computer program product of claim 16 further comprising, computer code for, in response to the input, simultaneously modifying, in real-time or near-real-time, at least one of the first visual connector and the second visual connector to reflect the impact of the change in the parameter value on the heating load and cooling load of the architectural structure design.

18. The computer program product of claim 16 further comprising, computer code for, concurrently with the displaying of the one or more building component contributors, the first visual connector, and the second visual connector, displaying a graphical representation of a summary of design change states of the architectural structure design.

19. A computer system comprising:

at least one processor; and

a memory storing instructions configured to instruct the at least one processor to perform;

displaying pictorial representations of a heating load and a cooling load of the architectural structure design;

displaying one or more building component contributors to the heating and cooling loads of the architectural structure design;

for each of the one or more building component contributors to the heating load, displaying a first visual connector, the first visual connector visually indicating an impact of each of the one or more building component contributors to the heating load of the architectural structure design;

for each of the one or more building component contributors to the cooling load, displaying a second visual connector, the second visual connector visually indicating an impact of each of the one or more building component contributors to the cooling load of the architectural structure design;

accepting input from a user, the input changing a parameter value of a building component contributor; and

in response to the input, simultaneously modifying, in real-time or near-real-time, the heating load representation, and the cooling load representation to reflect an impact of the change in the parameter value on the heating load and cooling load of the architectural structure design.

20. The computer system of claim 19, wherein the memory further instructs the at least one processor to perform, in response to the input, simultaneously modifying, in real-time or near-real-time, at least one of the first visual connector and the second visual connector to reflect the impact of the change in the parameter value on the heating load and cooling load of the architectural structure design.