Wednesday, November 16, 2005
Construction Software
I found a few products that can make designing a little easier.Reliance Software's Home Construction Estimator claims to be a fast and intuitive way to perform cost estimates on houses. Designers can compare different options for price, can adjust the cost based on location, and can chose from payment plans. It is on sale now and there is a free demo version available here.
Johnson Controls' Leedspeed is a program that helps designers navigate the often annoying LEED process. It has two main sections: Assessment/ROI Planner and Project Management/Certification.
In the Assessment Portion, the program choses the latest version of the appropriate LEED code then ranks the LEED points based on environmental and bugetary concerns. It also provides an overview and points per credit, documentation requirements, summary of reference standard (where applicable), environmental importance, recommended design strategies and technologies, potential design synergies and trade-offs, economics (where available), calculation methods and formulas, resources and definitions, and case studies (where available).
In the Project Management/Certification Section, the program assists in project management by organizing tasks and responsibilities, listing work schedules and archives building data.
The program also helps with producing the LEED certification application and related documents.