Carbon Designer 3D
Optimize carbon before you start drawing
Estimate embodied carbon with just building type and size, and optimize, compare and visualize the carbon performance of design alternatives.
Introducing Carbon Designer 3D
Save time on carbon calculations, get early feedback on carbon hotspots, find savings, set your targets and win more projects by optimising life cycle carbon impacts within a few minutes.
Visualise the carbon impacts of design options in minutes
No LCA expertise, material quantities or BIM models required
Easily generate designs
- Easily create reference buildings and design options. You just need the building size and type to start.
- Carbon Designer 3D comes with ready-to-use localized reference building scenarios, structural systems and standard constructions.
- You can also choose to use your own constructions and create your own scenarios.
- The design creation process is broken into simple steps to guide you through the process.
Find carbon hotspots
- Carbon Designer 3D gives you feedback on your project’s carbon hotspots in a minute.
- It allows you to identify which materials and building parts have the most impact.
- The 3D model and carbon view help your clients better understand where impacts come from.
- You can also adjust transparency to better visualise their structures.
- See the percentage increase or decrease from your baselines at-a-glance.
Drill down for powerful comparative analysis
- Compare four designs at once.
- ‘Drill down’ to compare the impact of different structural systems, assemblies, specific products, and more.
- Vary the scope of analysis and choose to exclude or include features such as foundations or finishes from your analysis.
- Access manufacturer data and your private data in analyses.
Who is it for?

Developers

Designers

Consultants

Engineers

Contractors
Productivity-boosting features to speed up your workflow and give you more control
Easily change structures and materials
- Easily switch between different frames and structure types.
- User-friendly search which enables you to choose any material from across One Click LCA’s extensive database.
- Change materials or whole assemblies and add extra ones.
Upload and save unlimited designs
- Carbon Designer 3D is project-based, as opposed to the previous design-based tool.
- This gives you the flexibility to save and manage your data as you wish.
- You can create unlimited designs and compare up to four designs at a time.
Set any design as a baseline or template
- Save your designs as baseline templates to use in future projects and with others in your company.
- Any design can be set as a template or baseline, giving you the flexibility to change the baseline used in your comparisons.
Tailor your baseline templates
- Create a reference building for a new region or country that does not yet have one.
- You can choose to limit your templates to either specific building parts – eg structural elements – or different energy consumption scenarios that affect the building envelope.
Powerful analysis capabilities
for better design decisions
What insights can you get from Carbon Designer 3D?
Instantly see overall impacts

Total carbon impact

Carbon hotspots

Total carbon reductions or increases
Four ways to visualise carbon impact

By building parts

By classification

By material

By component
Data-driven design decisions

Build tall or go small?

Structural material choice

Rebuild or refurbish?

Construction systems choice

Supplier choice
What do our customers say about us?
FAQs
How can I get Carbon Designer 3D?
Where is Carbon Designer 3D available?
The template functionality allows users to add custom company templates in Carbon Designer 3D in order to create more customized scenarios for different regions or specific material types, building parts or construction practices.
Does Carbon Designer 3D work with all licence levels?
Which LCA tools is Carbon Designer 3D compatible with?
There is currently no infrastructure version of Carbon Designer 3D.
Can I use Carbon Designer 3D if I don't have any material quantities?
Absolutely, yes. The only things you need to know are building type, gross floor area, and the number of floors. For the rest, you can either customize or use default values. Carbon Designer will generate shoebox material quantities that would be translated into carbon impacts.
To know more about how Carbon Designer 3D can help with early carbon optimization, read the article here.
Is the 3D model a fully detailed representation of a building?
Is Carbon Designer 3D only for use at the beginning of a project?
Which structural systems can Carbon Designer 3D be used with?
Who developed Carbon Designer 3D?
What is the difference between the existing Carbon Designer tool and Carbon Designer 3D?
- Improved structural calculations – therefore higher accuracy.
- User experience improvements to speed up your workflow:
- User-friendly search.
- Ability to add any material and structure from across One Click LCA’s extensive database, rather than just choosing from pre-listed ones.
- Simplified design creation process.
- Ability to switch between different structure types.
- Ability to access the full details of every design you compare, including specific materials and composite elements.
- Unlimited designs and ability to compare four at a time.
- Baseline functionality improvements:
- Any design can be set as a baseline.
- Ability to create and save custom reference templates and private data for use across your company in current and future projects.
- Ability to create a reference building for a new region or country that does not yet have one.
- Ability to limit templates to specific building parts or specific energy consumption scenarios – to focus on the areas you need.
- You have the flexibility to change the baseline scenarios used for comparisons and can see the full details of every design to identify where the regional impacts are coming from and edit directly.
- Advanced visualisation
- Having a 3D model helps users understand what the reference building looks like and to understand where impacts come from.
- More visualisations – including graphs showing results by material, element, classification (eg RICS and others).
- Project-based tool, rather than design-based. You can upload as many designs as you wish and have the flexibility to save and manage your data as you wish.
What will happen to the existing Carbon Designer tool?
Ready to get started?
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