Autodesk Forma - Operational Energy

 The software allows you to calculate the operational energy required to run the building. But the availab settings are not enough.

For eg., in the above picture, concrete roof cannot be specified. The options are very limited to wood, etc. This software is not a viable tool to be used to calculate Opex in India. 

Autodesk Forma - Temperature Study

The Microclimate tool shows a image with gradation of temperature around the proposed building.

On the right side, you get options to choose a different time and month. This feature does not seem to be of much use. The microclimate gets affected by lawn, waterbodies, sizes of trees, foliage, etc. The Forma model cannot model these things now. 

It will be better to import a Revit or an IFC model with these features into Forma and then do a study like this will help the architect to locate/size/include these kinds of landscape features to modulate the microclimate. 

 

Autodesk Forma - Sun hours

The Sun hour tool helps us to understand clearly and easily. In the image below, the direct sun light received on a particular surface is indicated on a scale of dark grey to yellow.

This is for a city little bit North of the equator and so during the Summer (June) there is no direct sunlight on the southern facade at all. For the same building in Winter (December), the Sun swings around to lit the southern facade but the northern facade does not get direct sunlight.

Based on the particular climate in your city, you can decide to have fenestration in these areas or not depending on whether you need to bring the direct sunlight or not. In tropical countries, we definitely try to keep the sun away during the summer.

Autodesk Forma - Wind Analysis

For a simple project, the wind analysis tool, quickly calculates the wind patterns / velocity and presents in a graphical manner.

As you can see, the tunnel effect is being created around our proposed buildings because of the neighboring tall structures. However, our rear garden / open space (with trees) is green - meaning the breeze is quite right. Eventhough, some of these results are intuitive to an experienced architect, it is a wondeerful way to quickly figure out the best location to propose an open to sky space or to orient the windows to catch the breeze.

Autodesk Forma - Daylight Potential

I created a sample project to figure out the Daylight Potential command. Forma takes it into account the location of the building + the neighboring buildings to give a very nice 3d imagery to figure out the different daylight potential of each exterior element.

The sample project shows that the roof has a potential to receive 87%, one of the side walls has 25% of the Daylight and so on. The feeble shade difference shows the difference in the daylight potential. The shaded colors are based on Autodesk's scale of satisfactory daylight to impossible daylight!