Cymap 2013

AEC Magazine takes a look at the latest Building Services application from CADline and finds one of the most focussed UK compliance tools on the market.

by Martyn Day

We have built computer systems to simulate nuclear explosions, model the Earth’s climate and break complex encryption codes. Yet in creating buildings and structures the majority of engineers and architects have mainly used computers as replacements for simple 2D drawing boards.

It has only been in the last 20 years that CAD systems have started to morph from drawing board replacements to expert systems, not only assisting in detailing the design but also adding dedicated industry knowledge within the design environment.

Alongside traditional CAD, there have been a number of specialist standalone engineering applications developed for number crunching. These have tended to concentrate on mechanical calculations — temperatures, air pressure, energy usage and to perhaps assist with meeting regulations such as Part-L.

As CAD vendors’ aspirations have grown, and with the industry slowly moving to 3D and Building Information Modelling (BIM), they have sought to acquire many of these expert systems to include in their core offerings. For example, UK building services developer, Hevacomp was recently acquired by US-based Bentley Systems. Autodesk has its own Building Services (Mechanical Electrical Plumbing) products for Revit and AutoCAD, as well as acquiring Green Building Studio and Ecotect and is adding in additional analysis to its core products.

One of the last independent specialist services design systems is Cymap from UK developer and CAD reseller CADline. Originally developed in Bristol in 1973, the software was acquired by Graphisoft in 1999 and integrated closely with its ArchiCAD products, while remaining a standalone analysis tool. The software was then sold to CADline, DXF or GBXML from any which tightly integrated it with AutoCAD MEP in CADline Cymap 2013 capable 2D or 3D CAD system. Room profiles are then 2009. It has remained allocated and floors defined. standalone and has seen A combined Cymap Mechanical and Cymap From this, energy, pipework, considerable functional- Electrical seat is £3,500, lighting, ducting, electrics ity expansion together with £690 subs. and wiring calculations can with regular updates to Cymap Mechanical or Electrical standalone is all be based. make it one of the most £2,500, with £490 subs. The software conforms to focussed UK compliance There is a 50% discount CIBSE, Part-L, SAP, LG7 tools on the market. on additional copies Lighting, IEE, DIN, VDI ,

Cymap has over 50,000 VDE and ASHRAE industry users in 20 countries, standards, with many others including the likes of Arup, Skanska and to boot. The software includes its own Buro Happold and was used on Heathrow reports generator, document management Terminal 5, the Millennium Dome and and database. within the Royal Navy Carrier Fleet. Mechanical Cymap Cymap Energy calculates the heating and Cymap is a standalone application that is cooling loads of designs. It can analyse the available as a combined Mechanical and annual energy consumption as well as Electrical license or in single seats of taking into account summertime/winter either discipline. differences and partial plant conditions.

The latest release, Cymap 2013, has an The software has a powerful U-value calupdated interface and links to the TAS culator to create composite fabrics with Building Designer developed by interstitial condensation checks, all calcuEnvironmental Design Solutions, which lated to BS6946. The software comes with can accurately predict energy consump- a large database of materials that can be tion, CO2 emissions, operating costs and mixed and matched to create the exact prooccupant comfort. posed construction type.

Cymap offers a range of calculations Cymap Pipework integrates with the that cover the following key building energy analysis to calculate the cooling design areas: Heating, cooling, energy band heating of pipe networks. The softconsumption and psychrometric analysis, ware will automatically place radiators in piped services covering a wide range of the design and provide pipe routing layfluids, ducted services with noise levels at outs, while providing a detailed bill of the grille and in rooms, low voltage wiring quantities too. design from the transformer to whole cir- There is also a range of Public Health cuits, lighting design for internal/ emer- utilities for potable water and gas. The softgency/ external, as well as day-lighting. ware automatically connects draw offs to

The software is ‘wizard driven’ so is fair- the pipe network and can perform tank ly easy to learn, but still requires a certain head calculations. level of knowledge — it is the system that Cymap Lighting caters for single and IT experts use. multi-room analysis together with dealing

The process starts off by importing a with external floodlighting. Along with the

floor plans the software accepts associated lighting data in TM14/ EULEMDAT and IES formats.

Cymap also comes with an extensive database of more than 80 manufacturers and supports links to websites.

Analysis can be done for daylight or artificial light and can be calculated via lumens or radiosity, complying to the LG7 standard. The results are displayed on the 2D drawings and 3D models showing the calculated light levels. The software also outputs a bill of quantities.

Cymap includes a simple to use shadow analysis capability that works both on interiors and exteriors. On a model with surrounding buildings it is possible to see how shadows affect the site, both from the existing and proposed buildings. The shading is quite simple but effective. Electrical The electrical aspect of Cymap is particularly impressive. Project loads and distribution boards are entered with a database of existing components. Users can define circuit switching symbols if necessary as well as cable trunking, tray and conduit layouts, and the software will calculate the cable lengths. The software also features fire alarm audibility calculations.

Once complete, the design can be exported to a schematic wiring program.

Cymap Wiring complies with BS 7671 and takes the output from Cymap Electrics’ board and load definitions. The software calculates short circuit fault levels, voltage drops, cable sizes and discrimination analysis, all while producing a detailed bill of materials. Lighting protection Supporting European-wide standards of Dehn BS / EN62305, Cymap Electrical provides full Risk R1-R4 with risk component analysis, including checking the separation distance down conductors. There is also an air termination rod design with the ability to assess lightning strike potential. All these calculations work across the project and deliver detailed quantity lists. TAS Building Designer

TAS works alongside Cymap and is a dynamic thermal simulation that allows designers to accurately predict energy consumption, CO2 emissions, operating costs and occupant comfort.

Each window, door, ventilator or other aperture has its relative altitude and ori-

1entation automatically calculated to give a potential airflow network through the building. TAS creates tabulated and graphical output, and uses rendered 3D views to display solar shading. Cymap and TAS work together with a bi-directional link. Cymap zone/room geometry is exported to generate the TAS building simulation (TBS) file, which can be used for analysis. Once the dynamic simulation has been completed, the results can be imported back into Cymap, to enable building services, sizing and design work to be undertaken. 2 Conclusion The sheer breadth of functionality on offer within the two elements of Cymap are really quite incredible and AEC Magazine regrets it does not have enough space to go into in-depth analysis of it all here. However, we can say that the graphical user interface is nothing special in these days of BIM and 3D; it merely does the job. Having had decades of development, Cymap is indeed an expert Building Services application that works well with most CAD systems and CADline has continued 3 to keep the product up with emerging standards and compliance needs. In comparison to competitor products, the fact that it is developed in the UK and owned by one of the largest AEC value added resellers means that UK compliance and regulations come first. CADline has indicated that in future releases the product will include more 3D aspects. However Cymap is likely to come under increasing competition from products like Autodesk Revit or Autodesk BIM 360. That said, I just do not see any large vendor catering so deeply or quickly for UK needs.

■ cymap.com

1 Cymap covers, energy, pipework, public health, wiring, ductwork, electrics and lighting and comes in Mechanical, Electrical or as a combined suite 2 Pipework networks and routing in Cymap covers everything from heating, plumbing and gas 3 The rendered colour view of a lighting analysis, which combines accurate internal lighting with the combination of external solar impact