Integrated Environmental Solutions (IES) Virtual Environment
As I have arrived at the design office the Mechanical section has just got a new design program called IES (https://www.iesve.com/). Until now they have been using a manufacturer specific free to use program which obviously comes with some significant restraints, mainly that you can only use that manufacturers equipment. It seems they have been using this for some time to estimate design loads for the LEED reports which seems very inefficient to me!
I have been tasked with learning how to use IES, teaching it to the rest of the section and using it to complete the Mechanical 65% design for a fire station. One of the main focuses of using IES is that it will generate the LEED report based on what I design in the program, perfect for hitting my sustainable development competency! Appropriately the IES tagline is “Make every element of your building sustainable”.
So has anybody had any experience with IES? If so, any pointers on some good tutorials?
Is IES any good? How does it perform compared to other programs anyone has experience with?
Also, what design programs are people using outside of AutoCAD and Revit?
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Apologies mate never used it. The only systems I am using are AutoCad and Amtech.
Sorry Ali, I’ve never heard of the programme. I will ask Phil Moffat tomorrow.
Ali – Arup make wide use of IES VE across their business for modelling all types of mechanical services. The models I’ve seen so far have been used to inform 70% design solutions for D&C contracts.
I’m exploring options for making use of it for my thesis and have cornered a graduate engineer to teach me the basics. The UI is pretty good, but there are so many options it’s easy to miss something and get some strange results (“shit in, shit out”).
There are a few tutorial videos on YouTube and you can sign up to the free introductory course on the IES website (https://www.iesve.com/training, not the $100 one).
Let me know how you get on.
Thanks for the responses!
I am now working through that free course Dave, thanks! It only took 2.5 weeks to get it installed on my US work laptop…