Trimble has introduced PreDesign, a new service for SketchUp’s professional subscribers, which enables architects and designers to test design strategies and understand how a site’s climate and environment will impact design proposals. Created to help better prepare designers for the conceptual phase, PreDesign also provides the data and graphics needed to articulate and build a narrative around early-stage climate-related design decisions.
“SketchUp is a fantastic way to develop ideas in 3D and we are continuously exploring new capabilities. We saw tremendous value in making it easy for our users to include design research in their pre-design workflows,” said Andrew Corney, Product Director at Trimble.
“With PreDesign, we’re providing designers with the insights they need to take a truly holistic approach to creating suitable design strategies and communicate value to their clients,” he added.
Although climate plays a significant role in a project’s energy requirements and performance, pre-design research is often overlooked. This leads to lengthy investigation of design dead-ends, extended cycles to align design teams on key concepts and greater potential for costly rework later in the project.
PreDesign simplifies and enhances design research by providing the climate stats and insights designers need to crystallise climate-related design constraints and confidently propose the most viable solutions for a project. “PreDesign provides useful information that we need to position our projects for better design outcomes from the very start,” said Adam Osterhoff, principal architect at Heartwood Studio.
“Its compelling visual outputs and intelligent talking points also help us clearly communicate the value of our proposals to clients,” he added.
PreDesign reduces the need to navigate multiple platforms to obtain local weather information, such as average temperatures and predominant winds, by gathering climate data about a site and delivering insights into architectural response, shading, glazing, daylighting and outside spaces.
PreDesign is available now as part of SketchUp Pro, Studio or Enterprise subscriptions.