CAAD system with integrated quantity surveying, energy calculation and LCA

In the framework of the German LEGOE project, an integrated tool
is developed for computer aided architectural design (CAAD),
quantity surveying (catalogue of building elements), life cycle
cost calculation and estimation (construction and
refurbishment), direct energy consumption (heating, hot-water,
electri-city) and environmental impact assessment (mass flows
and effect oriented evaluation). During the design process the
architect works in his usual CAAD environment with building
elements (e.g. one m2 of outer wall) which in turn are composed
of detailed construction specifications, energy and mass flow
coefficients and cost data. These elements are part of an
independent catalogue of elements with all their relevant data.
The different application programs use the same basic data and
write the specific results into a project-specific database
called a PDB which allows the comparison of these data to
reference data from other projects. Evaluation and visualisation
programs refer to the PDB only.