About Ultralight

Editions

The Qubu Ultralight consists of Qubu Ultralight for Designers and Qubu Ultralight for Specialists.

The Qubu Ultralight for Designers is a high-speed, and easy-to-use software tool designed for the direct sunlight and indirect daylight factor evaluation of buildings and urban zones. It is efficient enough to seamlessly integrate into the regular design process, facilitating the creation of sustainable and compliant buildings. The Qubu Ultralight for Designers is designed to enhance the creative design process by providing real-time daylighting calculations that adhere to European norms.

The Qubu Ultralight for Specialists is a tool for professional civil engineers for calculating and optimizing daylighting metrics based on Direct Sunlight and Daylight Factor evaluations. It provides users with full control over the computation process and evaluation of results. It is especially useful for identifying critical points of the architectural project and for proposing improvements that can be made in the design, ensuring the designed building satisfies requirements and expectations while preserving healthy and comfortable surroundings.

Compliance

The Qubu Ultralight for Designers is crafted to adhere to the European norm EN 17037:2018+A1:2021, international standard ISO 15469:2004, and CIE 016:1970. The workflow is designed to guide users through the intricacies of these norms and standards, providing detailed results that can be utilized for evaluations at every stage of the design process.

The Qubu Ultralight for Specialists conducts pure physical simulations independent of legislation. This means it can be used for project-specific evaluations as well as assessments according to various norms, such as LEED or the European norm EN 17037. Users can request convenient constants derived from EN 17037 as needed.

Disclaimer

While the tool is crafted to align with the mentioned norms, it is not intended to substitute an audit performed by a certified expert. The computed result values are based on Qubu’s best understanding of the processes and constraints outlined by the norms, coupled with extensive testing and comparison with other industry-standard calculation methods. Variations in interpretation of the norms may lead to insignificant differences in results between the Qubu Ultralight and other tools.

Grasshopper plug-in

The Qubu Ultralight is distributed as a plug-in for McNeel Rhinoceros Grasshopper. It is built on an independent Qubu Ultralight library and does not rely on any third-party software, library, or framework.

This edition is compatible with Rhinoceros 7 and 8 for both Windows and Mac operating systems. The minimum hardware specifications mirror those of McNeel Rhinoceros 7 / 8 for Windows or Mac. Optimal performance is achieved with modern CPUs. The latest Intel, AMD, or Apple silicon CPU are highly recommended.

Licensing

The Qubu Ultralight follows a "freemium" model, providing basic functionality of the Qubu Ultralight for Designers without requiring registration. The free version has limitations, including up to 5 Direct Sunlight sensors, 12 Daylight factor sensors, and 1 free-standing Direct Sunlight point sensor.

For unrestricted capabilities, a commercial license can be obtained from www.qubu.io.

Integration with other software

The Qubu Ultralight is implemented as a Grasshopper plug-in due to its versatile nature. It seamlessly integrates into Grasshopper parametric models, and thanks to Grasshopper's compatibility with third-party software, the Qubu Ultralight can be utilized beyond Grasshopper.

Autodesk Revit

Utilizing Rhino.Inside, Rhino, Grasshopper, and consequently the Qubu Ultralight can operate within other 64-bit Windows applications, including Autodesk® Revit®, Autodesk® AutoCAD®, Adobe Illustrator, ArcGIS, Bricsys BricsCAD, CPython, dotnet, JavaScript, Microsoft Excel, Unity, or Unreal Engine.

Graphisoft Archicad

Archicad users can connect Grasshopper to Archicad BIM using Graphisoft’s Live Connection tool. This tool establishes a direct channel to stream Archicad native objects into Grasshopper, enabling users to evaluate and modify them before seamlessly returning them to Archicad. This streamlined process enables effortless evaluation of BIM models with the Qubu Ultralight.

Sketchup

Although there is currently no live connection between SketchUp and Grasshopper, Rhino is capable of importing SketchUp models with high fidelity. This functionality allows architects to assess SketchUp models using Qubu Ultralight during the early stages of conceptual design.