Product category:
Infrastructure and CAD Software
News Release from: CADline | Subject: Cymap
Edited by the Buildingtalk Editorial
Team on 08 February 2007
CADline help provide quality environment
Steven Hunt purchased Cymap from Autodesk Partner, CADline for design package that would automate design calculations.
CADline: helping Steven Hunt provide a quality environment for shoppers, patients...and orang-utans Established in 1988, Steven A Hunt and Associates is a national mechanical and electrical engineering consultancy with a strong track record of success in providing business services solutions across a wide range of commercial clients
This article was originally published on Buildingtalk on 8 Feb 2007 at 8.00am (UK)
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The company has a particular focus on the education and healthcares sectors: however, in addition to six new primary schools and a major diagnostic treatment centre, other recent projects have ranged from a major regional supermarket chain to a multi-purpose equestrian centre at Aintree Racecourse.
More unusually perhaps, work is currently underway to design services for the new Orang-utan House at Chester Zoo, "demanding a high level of research to create an environment which replicates their natural habitat," confirms principal, Steve Hunt.
The practice concentrates on specialist high-quality design projects and two years ago decided it was time to review its software direction.
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"Over time we had improved our drawing production packages and in-house software," he recalls.
"However, our business involves huge numbers of design calculations which are converted into drawings and much of the process remained essentially manual and based on Excel spreadsheets".
Integrated process.
"In order to meet the ever-tighter timescales and design quality of our demanding client base, our ultimate goal therefore was to introduce a fully automated, end-to-end process which would take an architect's drawings and pass through an integrated services design and drawing solution".
Steven Hunt's initial requirement was for a design package that would speed up the process by automating the design calculations.
A full analysis of what the market had to offer was therefore undertaken and the decision was made to purchase Cymap from leading building services and consultancy specialist and Autodesk Partner, CADline.
"We opted for Cymap as its format was highly visual," says Hunt.
"As a result, it was much easier to work with and enabled us to spot errors without the need to trawl through pages of written data".
"In addition, it offered a technically sound drawing facility which met our needs at that time." "We had already had a positive experience of CADline, who clearly understood our needs and longer-term objectives," he adds.
"Critically, they assured us that as part of their own development programme, plans were underway to integrate Cymap with a drawing package which would get us much closer to our target of full integration".
The design team at Steven Hunt undertook full Cymap training with CADline and quickly became fluent with its easy-to-use functionality.
"In common with all our building services clients, Steven Hunt has found Cymap easy to learn and has derived valuable benefit almost from day one," says CADline Product Manager, David Payne.
"Cymap can be used at all stages of the design process - from initial conception through scheme design and creating working drawings to the final production of record drawings - to improve both productivity and design accuracy".
"In particular, it enables routine and complex calculations associated with buildings to be undertaken with regard to heatloss, heatgain and energy consumption to optimise the resulting design".
Design options.
The next stage of the process was undertaken in early 2006 with the purchase of Autodesk Building Systems from CADline.
This upgraded drawing package - "a top of the range solution" in Steve Hunt's view - enables the practice to draw complex installations integrating other services and to examine and automatically self-correct clashes.
It allows architects' DWG drawings to be imported, creating e-space environments which can then be used directly by Cymap to continue the design process.
For Hunt, one of the key benefits has been the ability to consider the best design option in each case".
"Once the building model has been entered, Cymap enables calculations to be made upon the entire building," he confirms, "exploring design days other than just the peak demands".
"This provides a much clearer overall picture of a building's thermal characteristics and frees up time for our engineers to consider better design options, in contrast to earlier calculation methods which would only allow traditional, tried-and-tested solutions".
Payne agrees and adds: "Customers also benefit as Cymap's highly user-friendly interface means that non-design experts can get actively involved early on in the development process and take advantage of its ability to make changes instantly to explore 'what if' scenarios in achieving the best design outcome".
Ensuring compliance.
In April 2006, the picture became more complex with the latest Building Regulations Part L, which have put new pressures on the industry to reduce carbon emissions in building design.
Like other building services companies, Steven Hunt had problems with the government's own iSBEM compliance software and has turned to the Tas design simulation tool - again supplied by CADline - to ensure designs meet the tougher energy efficiency demands of the new regulations.
CADline's plans to link Cymap, ABS and Tas are well advanced, with the objective of providing intelligent, two-way dataflow throughout the design process".
"For Steven Hunt, as with our other clients, this will provide 'the ultimate' they are seeking - a simple services model which can be used by each designer to seamlessly carry out their part of the design, avoiding all duplication and risk of error," confirms Payne.
For his part, Hunt has been, "impressed with CADline's technical ability, training skills and understanding of our business, but above all with the company's honesty".
"CADline never makes a promise it cannot keep, which in turn enables us to make fully informed decisions when advising our clients and managing our business.".
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