This article describes how to use the Carbon Checker Extension for Solibri Office. Please note that this article is still work in progress and doesn’t yet include the details of all the functionalities.
Notice
The extension is currently available for testing in Solibri Solution Center Beta. To use it, you need a beta testing account for Solibri (for more information, see Solibri Society).
The article contains the following topics:
The Carbon Checker extension for Solibri Office helps your AEC design organisation to quickly analyse the model’s carbon footprint by embedding generic emission factors into BIM objects in Solibri Office.
The extension comes with preloaded generic emission factors regarding above ground buildings from SYKE Rakentaminen (FI), and Boverket (SE). Carbon Checker enables you to work with material information in Swedish, Finnish and English and create bill of quantities together with carbon calculations per individual BIM object, yet structured per material, component type or technical discipline.
The extension includes the following resources:
Roles:
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Carbon Checker - FI - SYKE Construction - English.xml
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Carbon Checker - FI - SYKE Construction - Suomi.xml
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Carbon Checker - SE - Boverket - English.xml
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Carbon Checker - SE - Boverket - Svenska.xml
Rulesets:
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Duplicates.cset
Classifications:
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Carbon Checker - Auto - Conversions Unit.classification
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Carbon Checker - Auto - Conversions Value.classification
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Carbon Checker - Auto - Emissio Factors A1-A3 Typical.classification
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Carbon Checker - Auto - Material [Local Name].classification
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Carbon Checker - Auto - Material [SE-en].classification
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Carbon Checker - Auto - Material Category System.classification
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Carbon Checker - Auto - Resource ID.classification
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Carbon Checker - Step 1 - Included Components.classification
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Carbon Checker - Step 2 - Material [SE-en].classification
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Carbon Checker - Step 2 - Material [SE-sv].classification
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Carbon Checker - Step 3 - Cavity Ratio.classification
ITO definitions:
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Carbon Checker - ITO Grouped.ito
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Carbon Checker - ITO per GUID.ito
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GWP per Component.ito
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GWP per Discipline.ito
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GWP per Material.ito
The extension has its own layout, which includes the Classification, Checking, 3D and Information Takeoff views:
To install and set up the extension:
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Open Solibri Office and login with your SSC Beta credentials.
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Click File > Roles. There are four roles to choose from, depending on the location of the project and the language you want to work with. The emission factors vary between Sweden and Finland and, therefore, the location according to the project should be chosen respectively (SE/FI). The language used for material descriptions can be English or the local languages (Suomi/Svenska). When you’ve selected a role, all the necessary resources of the Carbon Checker Extension are automatically preloaded.
The Carbon Checker extension includes only one ruleset, Duplicates. The ruleset is used for detecting duplicate components, which should help you prevent calculating unnecessary emissions.
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For Default Layout Set, click
and select the Carbon Checker Layout.
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Click Save.
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A dialog opens, asking you whether your units are set to standard SI. It’s important to select the correct units for ITO before any calculations take place. To do this, go to Settings > Units and set the Linear, Area and Volume units to m, m², and m³ respectively. For more information, see here.
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Open a model.
If the project is an entirely new construction built on a green field, every BIM object is then Included in Calculation. In other cases, it’s crucial to only include the components of the project that are newly added or changed for the calculation of carbon emissions. For example, if you’re only updating plumbing and ventilation, only those components are a subject to carbon calculation and must be classified as Included in Calculation.
To define the included/excluded components:
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To open the classification settings, click
in the Classification view toolbar.
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Classify the objects that should be Included in calculation and Excluded from calculation with respect to your knowledge of the project. Components that are part of the Included in calculation class will be passed on the other Classifications and Information Takeoff templates.
In the Classification Name column, each existing component of the project must be classified as Excluded from calculation as carbon calculations should be applied to new objects only. The objects that are newly constructed are set to be Included in calculation.
In the example below, we assume that the first two floors are existing objects, thus set to Excluded from calculation while the second floor and the roof are Included in the calculation:
Important
This step varies from project to project. It must be double checked with the designers whether the class selection matches the reality of the project as metadata about the status of object can be missing or wrong in the model.
Tip
You can also do it the other way round - first select and add all new components, and then set the rest of the components to be excluded from the calculation.
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Click OK. The Classification view will now show the classified objects as separate classes – Included in calculation and Excluded from calculation.
In this step, material names are assigned to the components. The names reflect the original material names from the sources of generic emission factor databases of SYKE in Finland (www.co2data.fi), and Boverket’s climate database in Sweden.
Once all components are assigned, right click on the column below Carbon Checker Material Mapping [language] and select Classification Rules.
Assign material names to groups of objects using separate classification rules from the drop down menu of the Classification Name column.
Important
This is only an example for a wall. Communication with the architect/the creator of the model is crucial to identify all components and assign the right properties.
Tip
The names of the components depend on the role you’ve selected. You can add more classification for other languages by clicking in the Classification view toolbar.
Tip
We recommend using the first match classification method and consequent sorting of the lines in the classification settings.
All components must have a Classification Name assigned to them. When all components have their respective material names, the Unclassified category disappears.
Defining the cavity ratio is not obligatory to define, but we highly recommend it.
Beware of geometries that you suspect to be hollow, namely pipes, ducts, their fittings, furniture and others. Especially in early stage designs, we can expect them to be modelled as bulky volumes without their Thickness defined. BIM objects that are hollow, yet were modelled as bulk solids must get their Cavity Ratio specified to get carbon calculations correct.
If no Cavity Ratio is defined, the object will be assumed to have no cavity, i.e. the object is assumed to be absolutely solid.
To define the cavity ratio, use the Cavity Ratio Classification. Open up its settings, go to the Classification Rules tab and classify objects which you suspect to contain air or vacuum inside.
If you edit this classification, note that the information on how hollow the components are likely to be, if the Thickness is not specified in the model must come from the designer.
Allowed values for Cavity Ratio are between 0 to 1 including the boarder values. Any decimal number in this span will be passed on to get the Net Solid Volume of the BIM object.
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Cavity Ratio = 0 means the object is totally solid which is the case by default.
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Cavity Ratio = 1 means the object is virtual like a Space or an Opening, i.e. the object has no mass.
Below are a few examples of calculating the Cavity Ratio of a ventilation duct:
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Example 1: Rectangular Duct
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A rectangular ventilation duct has an outer profile of 200x400 mm (Connection Size), and the duct wall Thickness is 1 mm.
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H = 0.2 m
W = 0.4 m
T = 0.001 m
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Formula:
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Cavity Ratio = Inner Cavity Area / Outer Profile Area
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Cavity Ratio = [ ( H - T*2 ) * ( W - T*2 ) ] / ( H*W )
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Example calculation:
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Cavity Ratio = [ ( 0.2 - 0.001*2 ) * ( 0.4 - 0.001*2 ) ] / ( 0.2*0.4 )
Cavity Ratio = ( 0.198 * 0.398 ) / 0.2*0.4
Cavity Ratio = 0.98505
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98.5% of the Brutto Volume is hollow in this example. Only 1.5% of the Brutto Volume is Net Solid Volume and has mass for which we want to calculate the embedded carbon.
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Example 2: Round Duct
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A round duct has an Outer Diameter of 200 mm, and the wall Thickness is 1 mm.
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D = 0.2 m
T = 0.001 m
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Formula:
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Cavity Ratio = Inner Cavity Area / Outer Profile Area
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Cavity Ratio = [ Pi * (D/2 - T)^2) ] / [ Pi * (D/2)^2 ]
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Example calculation:
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Cavity Ratio = [ 3.14 * (0.2/2 - 0.001)^2 ] / [ 3.14 * ( 0.2/2 )^2 ]
Cavity Ratio = 0.099^2 / 0.1^2
Cavity Ratio = 0.99
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99% of the Brutto Volume is hollow in this example. Only 1% of the Brutto Volume is Net Solid Volume and has mass for which we want to calculate the embedded carbon.
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All necessary Takeoff templates were preloaded when you selected the role:
To calculate emissions, click Takeoff All ITOs in the Information Takeoff view.
In the various ITO definitions, emissions are calculated per individual component, grouped per Component, Discipline and Material. Check out the ITOs for results which will be displayed in the GWP [kg CO2e] – A1:A3 column.
Tip
GWP stands for Global Warming Potential. A1:A3 means that CO2 is calculated as a sum of 3 lifecycle stages, namely A1 Raw Materia, A2 Transport, A3 Production according to the EN15803 standard.
The emissions of each object can now be found in the Information Takeoff box in the column GWP [kg CO2e] which presents the Global Warming Potential in kg of CO2 equivalent.
You can export the calculated results to an Excel spreadsheet by clicking Report: