Building Energy Analysis plugin for SketchUp

In the comments on another post, Neil Finlayson of Greenspace Research over in the UK asked if I'd greet James Morrison "(all the way from Scotland)" at the Green Building Studio booth. I don't know either of these guys, and being just another dopey 'Murrican suspicious of all foreign hooligans, knew that something nefarious was afoot and that I would be taking a great risk with my health and safety to agree to this foolhardiness... but I tracked down that randy Scotsman anyway.

He had infiltrated the booth of California-based (my fellow Americans) Green Building Studio, which offers time-saving web-based, 3D-CAD/BIM-integrated whole building energy analysis for any type of structure, as well as more conventional engineering consultation and service.

But, darn it all, what most intrigued me was a SketchUp plugin by those scary foreigners, Greenspace Research, that Green Building Studio offers as part of their services. Called "Demeter," it can import gbXML models from Revit and Archicad, then spit out an editable SketchUp model with energy lifecycle cost and carbon footprint information. (I don't have any knowledge about the level of complexity and detail entailed in their process; something to inquire about.) Check out the demo.

This also seems like it could also be a good way to generate user-friendly visual models incorporating energy and environmental information that those certain clients—you know the ones—can look at and maybe monkey around with some on their own computer. (Though that might be opening a can of worms you'll curse me for...)