Can Ecodesign methods be integrated in CAD systems? How can LCA results be communicated and visualized in a CAD environment? What are the requirements for a broad variety of designers and users? These questions were addressed through a project conducted together with Dassault Systemes and Prof. Charles Pezeshki, the Dassault Systemes Ecodesign fellow from Washington State University.
To address as many different users as possible, it was necessary to undertsand how Ecodesign is practiced among different disciplines. This insight helped to understand the needs and desires of the Ecodesign community. Based on these experiences, a concept for bringing Ecodesign methods into CAD was proposed to Dassault Systemes. The figure above shows a proposal for the communication of LCA results in CAD – The office chair was analyzed in a previous project with Steelcase.
Funds
The project was funded by Dassault Systemes 3DS.
Further information
You can read more about the theoretical background and results of this project in the following papers and publications:
- Collado-Ruiz, D., Ostad Ahmad Ghorabi, H. LCA within design: not a matter of “just doing it”. In: XIV International Congress on Project Engineeering, 2010, Paper-Nr. 08-024, 10 pages, ISBN: 978-84-614-2607-2.
- Ostad-Ahmad-Ghorabi, H., Collado-Ruiz, D., Wimmer, W. Towards Integrating LCA into CAD. In: Proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Engineering Design, Norell, M., Grimheden, M., Skogstad, P. (editors), 2009 (7): 301-310, ISBN 978-190-4670-11-7.
- Ostad-Ahmad-Ghorabi, H., Bey, N., Wimmer, W. Parametric Ecodesign – An Integrative Approach for Implementing Ecodesign into Decisive Early Design Stages. In: Proceedings of the 10th International Design Conference. Marjanovic, D. (editor), 2008: 1327-1334, ISBN: 978-953-6313-89-1.
External websites
- Dassault Systemes website (external link)