BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Integrated Environmental Solutions (IES), a world leading provider of integrated performance analysis software and consulting services for sustainable building design, today announced the addition of climate exploration, water reviews, low zero carbon technology consideration, and analysis for certain LEED credits to its VE-Toolkits. Enabling architects and master planners to choose from sets of typical properties, the updated VE-Toolkits also provides users with more detailed, highly visual and rich-text reporting. With these new features, IES offers rapid feedback on LEED and Sustainability analysis to improve architects overall productivity from the earliest stage of the design process. The three-tab combination consists of Overview, Sustainability and LEED sections. The user can utilise these tabs to analyse design ideas in many ways, while assessing the overall feasibility and impact of sustainable strategies at the earliest stages – ultimately allowing the user to make informed design decisions using performance data. The VE-Toolkits are accessed via Revit(R) and SketchUp(TM) plug-ins, as well as through IES' gbXML import for ArchiCAD(R) users. The Overview and Sustainability tab are part of the Sustainability VE-Toolkit, while the LEED tab makes up the VE-Toolkit for LEED(R). The tab allocated for LEED has been expanded to cover the two most recent versions of the New Construction, Schools, and Core&Shell schemes. For example, for the NC 3.0 2009 requirements, up to 15 LEED points can be assessed across the five credits covered, with the VE-Toolkit providing an indicator of whether or not the credit can be achieved. Users can review daylighting, comfort, water, and renewables.
