Environmental Results
This is a Query engine method that will allow you to evaluate the Environmental Metrics of individual elements in your model. You will need to provide (at a minimum) the following 3 inputs:
- ElementM: Your objects (Structural Floors, Mechanical Ducts), these may come from Revit/Rhino
- TemplateMaterials: This is your MaterialTemplate which contains your associated object Material Names, with their densities and their associated Environmental Product Declarations. This is where the magic happens in the method - connecting all objects with all of their environmental data (normally very time intensive for LCA practitioners!) You can see the workflow below where the Material Template is being pulled from (it's sitting as a JSON in a folder, it was previously pushed from Excel to that folder.)
- MetricFilter: You will use the EnvironmentalMetric enum (dropdown) object here to select which environmental metric you would like to evaluate, most of the time it's ClimateChangeTotal (embodied carbon), however you have many other options, whether they fully evaluate is dependent on the data available in the chosen Environmental Product Declarations.
As a matter of workflow hygiene, it's a good idea to check that your Element Material Names match the names of the Materials in your MaterialTemplate (in addition to also reviewing your densities (in kg/m3!) and that you've chosen appropriate EPDs.) You can do this by using the following components:
- ElementMaterialNames this is a Query method that allows you to look at the names of the materials in your objects, copying these into your material template is actually a great initial step.
- GetProperty this simple method from the Material Template JSON will allow you to see the MaterialTemplate materials being pulled, these names should match the above object Material Names exactly, if there are any spelling errors or missing materials, the EnviornmentalResults method will throw errors.
By using an 'Explode' component you can see the A-D results broken down (generally stored in A1-A3 for most generic EPDs).
You may also use the 'TotalMaterialBreakdown' Query Engine Method to view your results, which is a unique way of viewing the impact of certain material choices across your model, this will allow you to see:
- MaterialName
- The Associated Environmental Product Declaration name
- The Total A1-A3 ClimateChangeTotal (in this case) for that particular material
You can visualise your results in Rhino through the 'DisplayObjectResult' query engine method this allows you to see your results on an object by object basis through a chosen gradient scheme.
If you initially pulled your objects from Revit, it's straightforward to get the results mapped back, particularly if you have a parameter to push the results to.
Starting from your EnvironmentalResults node being exploded into A1-A3 results, you would simply map that resultant quantity to a 'SetRevitParameter' Modify Engine Method node, this would require your objects, their values from A1-A3 and the associated parameter name that you want them mapped to. You can then use a Push component to Push those updated objects back to Revit with their shiny new environmental information.
