subscription

1. Inputs for HVAC system characteristics such as supply cooling and heating temperatures, ventilation rates, fan characteristics, cooling and heating setpoints, duct sizing, and safety factors
2. Inputs for HVAC area (room) characteristics such as wall, window, roof, door, skylight, and partition areas. In addition, there are inputs for # of people, electrical appliances, infiltration, lighting, miscellaneous, exhaust, and plenum loads
3. Weather data from over 800 cities throughout the world
4. A complete u-value database for common wall, roof, window, floor, and door types
5. A complete appliance list for determining internal electrical equipment load contributions
6. Many reports including summary, detailed, psychrometric, wall/window breakdown, 24-hour load breakdown, and graphical reports
7. A feature that allows the user to export all inputs and outputs to custom Microsoft Word and Excel documents
8. Equipment selection
9. Support for both English (IP) and Metric (SI) units

Drawing Compare is available exclusively for AutoCAD MEP 2009 customers participating in the Autodesk Subscription program. Download this module now to get the Drawing Compare feature. The Drawing Compare feature enhances collaboration by using color-coded displays to show items on a drawing that have been changed, added, or deleted by other members of the design team. Changes to items such as styles, fire ratings, or other non-graphical properties are also tracked. Combined with redlining features, such as revision clouds, the Drawing Compare features help make communication across the design team clearer than ever.

The comparison process is like how drawings were compared when they were received on tracing paper or Mylar sheets and then overlaid on the original project drawings using a light table. Drawing Compare displays informational data about the objects in your drawing as well as displaying the graphical changes on the drawing screen.

You select the review drawings and compare each to its corresponding project drawing on the Setup tab of the Drawing Compare palette. After the comparison, you view the results on the Review tab of the Drawing Compare palette and in the drawing area.

Drawing Compare identifies objects that have been modified, added, or removed in the review drawings. Based on the status of the objects (modified, new, or missing), colors are assigned, and a list of the changes is generated.

In the following example, a simple floor plan was modified to show what information Drawing Compare displays during a comparison session. The review drawing shows that changes to the project drawing include moving the lower vertical interior wall segment to the left (resulting in a shorter horizontal interior wall segment), adding an exterior door to the right exterior wall segment, and removing a window from the upper exterior wall segment.

When the drawings are compared, color-coded changes are displayed, based on the type of change.

Information about changes is also displayed in the Object Report List on the Review tab.

Subscription customers can download Autodesk Impression for free from their Autodesk Subscription website.Impress your colleagues and clients with compelling presentation-ready graphics created directly from your DWG™ and DWF™ files. Autodesk Impression software is easy to use, saves you time, and recognizes data from your CAD files. Autodesk Impression 2 software is available to AutoCAD®, AutoCAD® Architecture, AutoCAD® Civil 3D®, AutoCAD® Map 3D, AutoCAD® MEP and AutoCAD® Revit Architecture Suite software products’ subscription customers.Benefits of Impression include:

• Generate Great-Looking Images—Fast. Presentation graphics are about winning business. Your images have to sell your projects. With Impression you can easily apply graphical styles to your CAD files using prebuilt styles or customized styles that you create—from pencil styles to watercolor fills.
• CAD Compatible - Because Impression understands CAD data, the illustration process is much faster than with general-purpose graphics applications. Open any DWG or DWF file in Impression. Impression recognizes blocks, layers, hatches and other CAD-specific data.
• Easy to Learn and Use - Impression is designed so that anyone in the office can learn the application in minutes and can get great results right away.
• Quickly Create Multiple Design Iterations - Quickly update your presentation graphics when designs change or apply your signature style to all the drawings that you produce.
• Integrate Into Existing Workflow - Impression fits easily into your existing workflow and is interoperable with many popular graphics applications.

Subscription users can download from their subscription website, this plug-in provides Electrical design engineers with a tool for importing lighting configurations made using DIALux; one of Europe’s leading lighting design, calculation and analysis tools. This plug-in exports spatial geometry facilitating model production in DIALux and imports lighting fixture layouts, assigning manufacturer specific information, via exchange file. This facilitates the design and layout of lighting configurations for AutoCAD MEP 2009 subscription users.DIALux Plug-In CommandsThe DIALux plug-in is designed for AutoCAD MEP 2009. As such, it loads and executes with this release only. The plug-in provides two, command line tools:

• DialuxExport - This command exports AutoCAD MEP 2009 spaces as rooms to an external file that can be imported into the DIALux application.
• DialuxImport - This command imports lights from DIALux, by reading an external file into AutoCAD MEP 2009.

Exporting Spaces from AutoCAD MEPTo begin exporting spaces from AutoCAD MEP to DIALux, you must first open a drawing containing valid spaces objects (or create these as required). Next, follow the steps outlined below to export spaces to DIALux as rooms.

1. Type DialuxExport at the command line. This action prompts for space objects,as illustrated in Figure 1. Select one or many spaces to export, using standard AutoCAD selection methods. Once complete, press Enter to continue – this action displays the Select Export STF Files dialog box.
2. In the Select Export STF File dialog, specify an export filename and click Save. This file has an STF (Setup Information Files) extension and can be imported directly into the DIALux application, sharing AutoCAD MEP spaces as DIALux rooms. This process helps speed the production of room objects in DIALux.

Importing Rooms into DIALuxThe STF file exported from AutoCAD MEP can contain one or many spaces. When imported into DIALux, DIALux uses the data to create a series of rooms. Each room has the same name as its corresponding space in AutoCAD MEP. The following lists the steps necessary to import this file into DIALux and create rooms.

1. Open the DIALux application
2. From the File menu, chose Open. In the dialog that appears, ensure the file type is set to STF Files (*.stf) and navigate to the location of your file, as illustrated in Figure 3. Figure 3 – Open STF Files in DIALux
3. Click Open to open the STF file and read all spaces into DIALux into as rooms. Please refer to the DIALux documentation for information on creating and opening projects and using this application.

Using DIALuxA key feature of the DIALux application is its ability to link to manufacturer databases of lighting fixtures. These databases can be downloaded locally as plug-ins or accessed across the internet. Lighting fixtures can also be loaded into a current project through manufacturer specific portals, such as that illustrated in Figure 4.Figure 4 – Manufacturer Specific PortalsLights can be inserted individually into a project, or as groups of lights in lines or arrays. Figure 5 illustrates a typical view of a room in DIALux with the ‘3D Light Distribution Display’ and ‘False Color’ options enabled.Figure 5 – Lighting Layout in DIALuxImporting Lights in AutoCAD MEP 2009Once the lighting analysis has been completed in DIALux and all lights positioned, the project can be exported back to an STF file. To export DIALux data, and import it into AutoCAD MEP:-

1. From the File menu choose the Export option and Save STF File (Figure 6).
2. In the dialog presented, enter the name of the STF file for export. Figure 6 – Exporting STF Files from DIALux
3. This file can now be imported into AutoCAD MEP 2009.
4. At the AutoCAD MEP command line, type DialuxImport
5. In the Select Import STF File dialog that appears, navigate to the saved STF file.
6. Select this file and then click Open to import lighting fixtures, as illustrated in Figure 7.

Each light defined within the STF file will be inserted as an AutoCAD MEP lighting device. Devices can have view dependant display representations, allowing them to appear differently in plan or model view. The devices used for DIALux lighting fixtures have a simple representation, as illustrated in Figure 8.Each light imported from DIALux has its manufacturers name and model information automatically attached through a standard property set. This information can then be scheduled using AutoCAD MEP tables, or devices added to circuits to aid with load calculations.Figure 8 – Lighting Devices in AutoCAD MEPAppendixThe DIALux application does not need to be installed to prepare an export file from AutoCAD MEP. An export application is available from DIAL Gmbh, Germany. http://www.dialux.com/