According to "An assessment of energy technologies and research opportunities" the building sector accounts for about 76% of electricity use and 40% of all U. S. primary energy use and associated greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Therefore, it is now very important for architects, engineers, contractors and builders to use tools to reduce energy consumption in buildings. In this article we introduce you to another tool that you can use in your Archicad project for this purpose - Cove.tool.
What is Cove.Tool?
System: Win / MAC
Language: EN
Archicad version: 24-26
Cove.tool is a cloud-based suite of products (drawing.tool, loadmodeling.tool, analysis.tool, costestimating.tool and revgen.tool) that allows you to quickly evaluate options in the early design stages that could positively impact the building’s performance. It helps project teams optimize building projects for energy, carbon, and cost.
The cove.tool add-on integrates directly to your Archicad workflow to upload any geometry for automated building performance analysis. This plugin saves time by allowing you to export building geometry to the existing cove.tool projects in the cloud.
How Building Geometry is used in Cove.Tool?
To calculate the Solar Gain, Heat Loss, and Wind-Heat Loss dependent on the height, orientation, and surface area of the thermal envelope.
To select the inputs and standards which are dependent on the building size. For example, ASHRAE prescriptive inputs for building envelopes depend on the size of the project: a Small/ Medium/Large Office building each have their own set of R-values.
To calculate the baseline inputs which are variables of available surface area (ex. CFM and Occupant Density).
In the case of mixed-use projects, building geometry is used to split the building into specialized zones for differing building strategies. A mixed-use office/retail building will be designated by uploading geometry for the office area and retail area separately.
How to get Cove.Tool?
Download the add-on from www.cove.tools.
Sign up for an account.
Create a new project.
Open the project in Archicad.
Open the palette and login.
Visually inspect classified building elements .
Export Archicad geometry to the cove.tool web project.
How to install:
In Archicad go to Options>Addon-Manager>Add, or
Copy/Paste the folder in the default addon folder location:
On Win: C:\Program Files\GRAPHISOFT\ARCHICAD 25\Add-Ons,
On Mac: Applications\\GRAPHISOFT\ARCHICAD 25\Add-Ons
The cove.tool plugin will appear under the windows>palettes.
Where to download?
The add-on is available on the developer's website: