Metracker Prototype

Overview
Metracker is a prototype computer tool designed to demonstrate the specification, tracking, and visualization of building performance objectives and their associated metrics across the complete life cycle of a building. The underlying concept is that, to better assure the intended performance of a building, it is necessary to establish a baseline for expected performance and periodically compare actual performance to this baseline. This process requires a standardized yet flexible format for archiving performance data, and sharing these data between various software tools and their users across the building life cycle. Ideally, these performance data are archived with, and related to, other information about the building. To these ends, Metracker is based on the Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) data standard developed by the International Alliance for Interoperability.

It should be emphasized that the Metracker prototype is not intended, in and of itself, to be a commercially viable software product. Metracker is fundamentally a demonstration user interface that provides a window into an underlying data model and the project-specific contents of a data archive based on this model. The Metracker interface is tailored to focus attention on the process of tracking and archiving building performance, and thus provides specific capabilities such as data visualization. However, the building performance data viewed through the Metracker interface are ultimately archived in a standardized database that is accessible to any software cognizant of the IFC data model. This is an important distinction to keep in mind when thinking about life-cycle performance metric tracking, software interoperability, and Metracker. It is not really Metracker itself that is interoperable, but rather the performance data within an IFC archive.

The true purpose of the Metracker prototype is therefore to illustrate how these data are structured, and why life-cycle performance tracking is useful, so that other software tools can archive and access these data to better assure building performance. If Metracker properly serves this purpose, it may never advance beyond the prototype stage. Instead, the capabilities that it illustrates will be adopted and adapted by other software such as design analysis/simulation tools and energy management and control tools that feed and retrieve performance data in support of various performance assurance activities across the life cycle.

Download Metracker
Please register your interest in Metracker before downloading the software and its documentation. This information will help us assess the value of this type of tool. Please note that Metracker is prototype software in beta release, and is offered here primarily for demonstration purposes. Metracker runs on the Windows platform. This link will allow you to download the Metracker prototype software and supporting documentation for installation on your computer. You will be asked to agree to a no cost end-user license agreement before downloading Metracker.