GBS vs. IESVE - Autodesk Acquisition

[christo4robin]

Here in Boulder, the local jurisdictions are really getting hardcore about building performance. Energy Consultants are popping up like 49'ers to the Gold rush.

We've looked at implementing our own building performance modeling, based on the Revit model, but so far only looked.

I thought that IESVE, with the integration that is being developed between RevitMEP and VE, was going to become the tool of choice when the link to Architecture became direct rather than through gbxml.

Then, I got an email a week or so ago that said Autodesk was going to acquire Green Building Studio. See text below...

Synergies Benefit Carbon Neutral Design
After nearly 10 years of market changing innovation, Green Building Studio is delighted to announce we have signed an agreement for Autodesk, Inc. to acquire our assets. In other words, our Green Building Studio (GBS) web service will soon join the Autodesk product family. Please be assured that our talented team will continue selling, training, and supporting architects as they use our web service to design carbon neutral buildings today and in the future.
“Autodesk is committed to providing technology that makes sustainable design easier and more efficient,” said Jay Bhatt, senior vice president, Autodesk AEC Solutions. “We look forward to adding the Green Building Studio technologies to the Autodesk portfolio and helping our customers more easily leverage the coordinated, reliable data created in the Revit® platform for building information modeling (BIM) to help predict performance and design buildings with reduced environmental impact.”
After closing this deal, Autodesk also plans to continue support for the Green Building Studio web service, carbon neutral building design training, and to strengthen the web service’s integration with its BIM software. The gbXML schema will remain an open industry standard, and the GBS web service will continue to be available to any other BIM software.
“We have partnered with Autodesk for many years, and commend their ongoing support for sustainability,” said John Kennedy, President & CTO, Green Building Studio. “We are eager to contribute our industry expertise in green buildings to drive mainstream adoption of sustainability and accelerate the AEC industry’s transition to carbon neutral buildings.”
We expect to finalize the acquisition in the next few months. In the meanwhile, if you have any questions please feel free to contact us.

OK, so now I am confused - which tool is coming down the pike? What are the differences between GBS and IESVE? If we are going to invest in learning one of these, which one is best?

Anyone know anything?

[Tyveka]

Like almost everything else when Autodesk acquires a company, wait and see...
They may have bought them out to close them down.

Personally, though, I think GBS is better than IESVE - we've had nothing but trouble trying to build an energy analysis model out of the Revit MEP plugin. You'd have to model your Revit building two different ways - one the way it would be built, the second in the way that the IES plugin can actually read a useful model - and they don't complement each other.

We are in the same position, we'll probably just bide our time and see how it all shakes out, just using our standard, already used tools (not BIM) in the meantime...

[arqt49]

I have installed and tried for 1 month GBS and it seemed great. Lots of options and outputs.
The trouble with GBS is that they are still implementing a IFS or gbxml file input.
Without IFC or gbxml input file, the perspective of inputing all geometry and material data is a great disavantage, not even considering making changes in the project inside GBS.
Meanwhile, I am still waiting for version 2.0, which they say it will come with that.
Australian Ecotect is another option, but not with a complete output as GBS.

Ignore the above. I when I said GBS, I meant DB (Design builder) :P

[Andre Baros]

Not only Green Building Studio Autodesk also just picked up Carmel Software which does thermal load design software. Apart from the uncertain future issue, I think it's pretty hard to compare Green Building Studio to the IES Virtual Environment. IESVE is a full featured program for doing all kinds of desing and analysis functions, while Green Building Studio is a one show pony which tells you how many H2's you're putting on the road. It's like comparing Design Review and AutoCAD.