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Autodesk Building Systems 2006MEP for Big Projects
1 Mar, 2006 By: Steven S. Ross CadalystAutodesk's AutoCAD-based tool for mechanical, electrical and plumbing design shows the polish of a mature product, but be sure to give it enough system horsepower.
Autodesk Building Systems, like Architectural Desktop, is built on the AutoCAD engine. It's perfect for mechanical, electrical and plumbing designs, as well as for working on fire-protection issues. Although it comes with plenty of symbols that can be used in brick-and-stick construction, it's meant for big projects. The files are, of course, compatible with Architectural Desktop; one project can be designed at multiple seats using both products at the same time. VIZ Render is included for truly magnificent rendered output.
 Autodesk building systems 2006 |
Now that Autodesk Revit Building supports ACIS solid models, Building Systems users can share projects with Revit Building seats as well. Of course, Building Systems exports to unadorned AutoCAD DWG for consultants and others using different AutoCAD versions. Users can also export data (in gbXML, usually) to third-party analysis programs.
After years of evolution (this is the sixth major release of AutoCAD-based building systems software) and some exposure to Autodesk's Revit series, Building Systems has the glistening polish of a mature product. Symbols that represent building-system components (figure 1) "snap together" in an intelligent way. The intelligent snap even works with flexible ductwork!
 Figure 1. Autodesk Building Systems 2006 searches for the right part in a catalog. |
A suite of built-in and add-on engineering tools analyze fluid and air flows, energy balances and electrical loads. It's easy to create new objects or modify existing ones from a large catalog (figure 2). Within-symbol parametric design is possible. A display manager lets you view the model in many ways, without creating new drawings for each view.
 Figure 2. The catalog editor changes symbol properties. Update the catalog to propagate the changes through the project. |
The package is easily capable of handling systems such as those found in buildings and even in manufacturing plants. But Building Systems is not meant for actually designing production processes—there are specialized programs for that.
Design Histories
The worksheets for objects used are intuitive and keep track of engineering design histories. As with mechanical design software used in manufacturing, it's simply more convenient, accurate and intuitive (especially in multiseat and multi-office practices) to keep information such as part specs, schedules and notes on design intent available in the project itself (figure 3).
 Figure 3. Users can add free-form notes to a Building Systems project to help track reasons for making certain design decisions. |
As with Architectural Desktop and Revit, this functionality comes at a price. Users will want a fast machine with at least 1GB of RAM (2GB recommended) and a solid graphics card. An Autodesk white paper actually warns against making new symbols too detailed, lest they needlessly chew up processing power.
New for 2006
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AutoCAD Tips!
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