Autodesk Inventor Helps West Hills Construction Deliver Renewable Energy Solutions

Digital Prototyping Aids Design of Energy Generation Technology for Large Facilities.

SAN RAFAEL, Calif — Autodesk, Inc has named West Hills Construction, Inc., as the June Autodesk Inventor of the Month for its successful use of Autodesk Inventor to deliver energy efficiency, management, storage and distributed generation solutions.

Using a combination of technologies, West Hills Construction helps customers not only reduce their energy use, but also generate energy onsite from renewable resources. The result has both environmental and economic benefits for all involved.

West Hills Construction was recently contracted to design an energy management system using photovoltaic (PV) arrays for a 37-foot-tall, 86,000-square-foot building that desired onsite energy generation. West Hills Construction used Autodesk Inventor software for Digital Prototyping to optimize every aspect of the design and construction of the massive energy management system.

Digital Tools at Every Stage
Following training provided by Autodesk Gold Partner KETIV Technologies, West Hills prepared a 2D site diagram of the energy management system using AutoCAD, AutoCAD Electrical and AutoCAD Mechanical software, before importing it into Inventor software.

To seamlessly manage the data throughout the design, West Hills Construction used Autodesk Vault Professional software, together with Autodesk Showcase, Autodesk 3ds Max Design and Autodesk Maya software to create client presentations with superior visual fidelity.

“Every step of the way, we have Autodesk Digital Prototyping tools to help make us more efficient,” said Rusty Wood, vice president of West Hills Construction’s energy division. “We can perform an analysis to confirm the feasibility of a design. We can then generate production-ready models that enable clients to see exactly what we’re building for them.”

Such capabilities reduce the need for outside consultants to be involved in the process, and significantly reduce costly change orders later in the development cycle. As the firm prepares feasibility studies for a major new project with a global food processing company — a project that promises to offset the company’s reliance on the electrical grid while reducing its overall energy costs — Digital Prototyping has never been more valuable.

“West Hills Construction is using Digital Prototyping to outpace the competition,” said Robert “Buzz” Kross, senior vice president, Manufacturing Industry Group at Autodesk. “Whether accelerating an existing project timeline or helping to win new business, Digital Prototyping brings a powerful advantage.”