Patent ID: 7769595

Claim:
An automated method for creating a schedule for one or more construction plan elements of a construction project that states whether or not the construction plan elements meet predetermined environmental or efficiency criteria, or both, comprising: (a) providing on a local computer an architectural software design tool and a construction plan drawing having at least one construction plan element, wherein the construction plan drawing is created with the architectural software design tool; (b) providing on the local computer an add-on computer software code that runs as an internal component within the architectural software design tool, and that includes a palette containing one or more parametric symbols, and optionally one or more corresponding parametric symbol values, wherein the palette includes a parametric symbol for each of the construction plan elements; (c) selecting one or more of the parametric symbols that is included in the palette for insertion into the construction plan drawing; (d) inserting one or more of the selected parametric symbols into the construction plan drawing; (e) using the add-on computer software code and an Internet connection, transmitting data corresponding to each of the inserted parametric symbols from the local computer to a remote server system, either directly or via an optional communication module; (f) using the add-on computer software code and an Internet connection, accessing data from a web site present on the remote server system that includes data for construction plan elements corresponding to inserted parametric symbols, wherein the data states whether or not the construction plan elements meet predetermined environmental or efficiency criteria, or both; and (g) using the add-on computer software code, creating a schedule from the data, wherein the schedule states for each construction plan element corresponding to an inserted parametric symbol whether or not the construction plan element meets predetermined environmental or efficiency criteria, or both.