Energy Modeling in Sketchup
Monday, September 22nd, 2008 at 8:43 pm 
By Ryan BrownI’m a big fan of Google Sketchup. It provides an immense amount of power that is accessible through a very intuitive user interface. We have used it extensively in planning our remodel for everything from space planning to dimensioned cabinet drawings and material studies.
Google’s creation of the 3d Warehouse, which made models easily shareable and searchable, magnified the utility. For example, when pondering appliance options, we were able to find Sketchup models and see how they would look in our kitchen in a matter of moments.
For Sketchup tutorials, see links here – Design your Dwelling Competition.
However, many people don’t realize that the functionality of Sketchup is extendable. Like Firefox, users can install plugin’s to add completely new capabilities. One fun example is Sketchy Physics, which adds a configurable physics engine:
IES Sketchup Plugin
Now for a more on-topic plugin – the IES Sketchup Plugin “Enables Environmental Performance Analysis directly from SketchUp Model”.
It allows empowering energy, carbon, daylight and solar analysis, and much more to be undertaken at the touch of a few buttons, right from the earliest stages of the design process, where the maximal difference to sustainable design can be achieved.
Share in the comments if you have an interesting use for Sketchup and/or you’ve tried out this plugin.
via Inhabitat
