Press Release

U.S. Department of Energy Funds Phase II of Effort for Carmel to Develop Software Language that Allows Engineers to Design Energy Efficient Buildings

San Rafael, CA, December 16, 2013 - Carmel Software announces that it has received funding from the U.S. Department of Energy for Phase II of improving the Green Building XML (gbXML) interoperability schema that allows various BIM authoring and analysis software tools to integrate with one another. Here is a more layman's explanation of what this all means:

Green Building XML (gbXML) is a schema or "language" that allows BIM (building information modeling) authoring software tools such as Autodesk Revit to communicate with building analysis tools such as Trane TRACE. For example, a user is able to design a 3D virtual model of a building in Autodesk Revit. This model includes complete visual geometry of the building and information about the types of walls, windows, roofs, lighting and occupancy density. Since this information is required by building energy analysis software tools, it is redundant to re-enter all of it into a stand-alone energy analysis software tool when it is readily available from the 3D model. This is where gbXML helps: A software tool such as Autodesk Revit is able to "Save As" gbXML meaning that it is able to export all of its geometry and other building information into the gbXML language format. Taking this gbXML file, the user is now able to "import" this building information into software tools such as EnergyPlus or Trane Trace without manually re-entering all of this data by hand. The end result of all of this is that an energy modeler is better able to design more energy efficient buildings for purposes of, say, LEED certification

In theory, the above workflow sounds seamless and attractive to anyone involved with modeling the energy usage of a building. In reality, the process is wrought with enough complications that energy modelers often forego this process in favor of more manual methods. These complications result from inconsistencies in how the various software tools integrate with gbXML. Therefore, the U.S. DOE has agreed to fund Carmel Software to develop methods and "test cases" that allow these vendors to test their gbXML integration and ensure they are importing and exporting valid gbXML models.

Phase II of this effort begins in December 2013, and it will be a continuation of Phase I in that additional test cases will be developed in conjunction with the leading engineering firm Thornton Tomasetti. In addition, the gbXML web validator that was initially developed in Phase I to allow users to test their gbXML files against the use cases will be further developed to validate any gbXML file for well-formedness.

"The fact that the U.S. Department of Energy is funding this effort to improve and promote the usage of gbXML is an incredible validation of this schema. This is the type of infusion we need to propel gbXML into the next phase of building design and analysis, " says Stephen Roth, Principal of Carmel and President of the Board of Directors of gbXML.

For more information on gbXML, goto www.gbXML.org

About Carmel Software
Carmel Software has been developing and selling engineering software for over 17 years. In 2008, Carmel sold its desktop engineering analysis applications and software code base to Autodesk, the makers of AutoCAD. Currently, our software code is used to power some of the analysis capabilities of Autodesk Revit. We are now focusing our efforts on developing mobile and tablet-based software for the building services industry with clients such as Mitsubishi Electric, Honeywell, Ingersoll-Rand (Trane), the U.S. Department of Energy, DNV KEMA, Advantix Systems, and others.

Carmel is located in San Francisco Bay Area. Please goto www.carmelsoft.com for more information.