About the integration
The One Click LCA now integrates with Bentley iTwin Experience and Bentley iTwin Platform. This connection allows you to export bill of materials from Bentley iTwin to One Click LCA, making Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) more convenient and accessible. By leveraging engineering data created in various design tools, this integration provides a summarized export of design data, enabling insights into the environmental impacts of building and infrastructure projects.
Integration Options
One Click LCA Bentley iTwin Experience: A ready-to-use application for visualizing and analyzing digital twins. It’s designed for end users, such as engineers and project managers, who need immediate insights without requiring any development effort.
One Click LCA Bentley iTwin Platform: Offers APIs and tools for developers to create custom digital twin applications, tailored to specific workflows or unique integration requirements.
Pre-requisites
Make sure you have the things listed below before starting:
- A Bentley iTwin Experience or Bentley iTwin Platform account with a valid license.
- One Click LCA account and license with Business features or higher to be able to import data
How to set up and use the Bentley iTwin Experience Integration
1. Create a new project on the One Click LCA platform where you’ll import the data from Bentley iTwin. Learn how to create a new project here.
2. Ensure your project is ready in the Bentley iTwin Experience platform with all relevant BIM data loaded.
3. In Bentley iTwin Experience, navigate to the "Carbon Calculation" button and select "One Click LCA" from the sub-tab options.
4. Use the Bentley iTwin Experience platform to create "Groups" of objects. These groups will define the bill of materials to be exported to the One Click LCA platform.
a. To create a "Group," click the "Add Group" button and select a method to define the content for the group.
b. Once the "Group" is created, click on it, then select "Add Group Property" to define the object properties to be exported to the One Click LCA platform. These properties can include attributes such as name, volume, description, material, and more.
c. Add the following properties to your group:
- Mandatory properties:
CLASS, MATERIAL, and QUANTITY: These are mandatory for the One Click LCA import process to recognize data from iTwin Experience. Without these, the integration will not work correctly. For each property, ensure it is correctly defined based on your data and project requirements. - Additional properties:
COMMENT: Use this to include any notes or annotations.
THICKNESS: Specify the material thickness where applicable.
TRANSPORT_KM: Include transport distances, if relevant.
Alternative Units: Depending on your project, you can add:
VOLUME_M3 or VOLUME_CU_FT for volume measurements.
AREA_M2 or AREA_SQ_FT for area measurements.
UNIT_PCS for counts of individual items.
LENGTH_M or LENGTH_FT for linear measurements.
You can customize the properties further based on your project needs. Refer to the guidance for preparing data for Building and Infrastructure projects and to General Infrastructure LCA Guidance to ensure alignment with best practices.
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CLASS:
To help the One Click LCA import process assign the proper classification to the exported data, you can define CLASS using a "Custom Calculation" formula. For example, you could use "Foundation" to classify the data appropriately.- One Click LCA Building Project Classes: You can view all relevant building project classes for One Click LCA here.
- One Click LCA Infrastructure Project Classes: For infrastructure projects, the available classes include:
GEOTECHNICAL
Note:
CONSTRUCTION
INFRA_SYSTEM
SURFACES
PAVINGS
INFRA_SITE
EARTH_CUT
EARTH_REUSE
EARTH_FILL
INFRA_B1, INFRA_B2, INFRA_B3, INFRA_B6, INFRA_B7, INFRA_B8, INFRA_B9
SITE_ELECTRICITY, SITE_HEAT, SITE_FUELS, SITE_WASTE, SITE_WATER
If the class is not recognized or available, you can set it to "OTHER". This step is optional, and the class can be assigned at a later stage.
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MATERIAL:
The material property defines the name of the material and serves as a key factor in linking a data point to its environmental profile for Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) calculations.
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You can map the MATERIAL property from the relevant model property in iTwin:
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You can also enter the material manually as a "Custom Calculation" formula by enclosing the material name in quotation marks at the beginning and end of the text. This will apply the material to the entire group. For example: "Concrete 25/30" or "Steel S235".
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QUANTITY:
Define the quantity of the data point and specify its unit to provide the material amount for Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) calculations.
Choose the "Quantity Type" that best matches the objects in your group to create the most accurate materials quantity estimate. For example:
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Use volume for foundations,
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Use length for linear objects like pipe networks.
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Please note that the "Data Type" value should be set to "Double" to ensure proper calculation.
The QUANTITY property can be:
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- Mapped to a relevant iTwin model property,
- Calculated based on the graphical representation of the iTwin model,
- Defined by a custom Calculation formula set by the user.
5. Once your data is ready, click the "One Click LCA Export" button to send the data to the One Click LCA platform. For authentication, you will be prompted to enter the One Click LCA API password from your OCLCA user profile. After successful authentication, you will be redirected to the One Click LCA import process in your browser, where you can follow the standard import procedure.
This will complete the data transfer to One Click LCA for further analysis.
Authentication:
Please note that currently, each iTwin Experience "Group" is exported as a separate Excel workset. The One Click LCA import process can only handle one workset at a time. For the best experience:
- Repeat the export process to import each "Group" workset separately.
- Alternatively, download the Excel files and merge the worksets into one. You can then import the merged Excel file using the provided guidance.
6. Once the data is successfully imported, you can proceed with the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) on the One Click LCA platform.
How to set up and use the Bentley iTwin Platform Integration
1. First you will need a Report. See iTwin Reporting Platform documentation for guidance on creating a Report. The Report and associated Mapping should contain all the elements and required properties for One Click LCA's Life Cycle Analysis. Please refer to links below:
2. For authentication, you will be prompted to enter the One Click LCA API password from your OCLCA user profile.
3. Once ready, you can send your data to One Click LCA by following this guidance and export your Report to via the iTwin Platform. This requires manual setting up and may take some time. An endpoint is provided to monitor export progress.
4. Once the export is complete, continue to the One Click LCA platform to view results.
Frequently Asked Questions
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