Internet based simulation of the resource requirement of buildings

Today more and more architects and engineers use CAD software supporting the generation of three dimensional product models. One prominent model being now well established in the building industry is defined by the Industry Foundation Classes (IFC). This model is also the starting point of our resource oriented design system. To get a basis for a comparative assessment of different design variants it is first necessary to augment the product model with information on resource consumption of the used materials. Therefore a database server accessible via the Internet is developed within our research project providing a service for planners to extend their product model with information necessary for life cycle assessment (LCA)and building energy simulation (EnEV). The data exchange format for the property sets is ifcXML. In our presentation the general software concept together with first simulation tools will be discussed.