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DesignBuilder vs IES VE vs IDA ICE

Dear Unmet community,

I am newbie here. In the company where I am working, we are looking for a new software that best fits our purposes. We are consulting company, and aiming to do now the simulations inhouse. After a lot of research, I found several articles related to different advantages and disadvantges, Pros and Cos of these 3 softwares. Our main aim is to simulate the energy for LEED (Ashrae 90.1) and BREEAM.

I would appreciate if some experience users give more highlights of following critical points for each software:

  • The level of accuracy and detail
  • Usability and information management
  • Data exchange capacity
  • Database support
  • Interoperability with building modeling
  • Integration of building design process
  • Speed and cost
  • Ease of use
  • Data exchange between BIM/CAD models and simulation programs
  • time-consuming modeling referring to the process of modeling building geometry, zones, HVAC systems, schedules
  • simulation guidance ability indicating tool’s ability to guide the designer for proper solutions
  • sharing experience between modelers
  • Performance gap between predicted building performance during design stage and actual energy performance of the building during life cycle in order to achieve performance goals
  • Improving the modeling capabilities of the performance simulation tools to accurately represent the actual performance of the model
  • Supporting a quantitative evaluation of energy use and CO2 emissions

signs like +++ ++ + or --- -- - for each software would be enough for me to make these signs/points in a matrix table and decide which one we will choose.

Thank you in advance for your feedback. I am looking forward for the answers I will receive :)

Best regards

Josef

DesignBuilder vs IES VE vs IDA ICE

Dear Unmet community,

I am newbie here. In the company where I am working, we are looking for a new software that best fits our purposes. We are consulting company, and aiming to do now the simulations inhouse. After a lot of research, I found several articles related to different advantages and disadvantges, Pros and Cos of these 3 softwares. Our main aim is to simulate the energy for LEED (Ashrae 90.1) and BREEAM.

I would appreciate if some experience users give more highlights of following critical points for each software:

  • The level of accuracy and detail
  • Usability and information management
  • Data exchange capacity
  • Database support
  • Interoperability with building modeling
  • Integration of building design process
  • Speed and cost
  • Ease of use
  • Data exchange between BIM/CAD models and simulation programs
  • time-consuming modeling referring to the process of modeling building geometry, zones, HVAC systems, schedules
  • simulation guidance ability indicating tool’s ability to guide the designer for proper solutions
  • sharing experience between modelers
  • Performance gap between predicted building performance during design stage and actual energy performance of the building during life cycle in order to achieve performance goals
  • Improving the modeling capabilities of the performance simulation tools to accurately represent the actual performance of the model
  • Supporting a quantitative evaluation of energy use and CO2 emissions

signs like +++ ++ + or --- -- - for each software would be enough for me to make these signs/points in a matrix table and decide which one we will choose.

Thank you in advance for your feedback. I am looking forward for the answers I will receive :)

Best regards

Josef