April 03, 2014

The Athena Institute has announced a new option that gives Mac users access to the Athena Impact Estimator for Buildings, its acclaimed life cycle assessment (LCA) software.

The Impact Estimator for Buildings was developed as a desktop Windows PC software application; a lack of funds to maintain two versions has prevented Athena from providing a desktop version for Mac users.

Although the option of running the Impact Estimator in a virtualized Windows environment on a Mac (e.g., via Parallels or Fusion) has always been available, user feedback has indicated this is not always a satisfactory solution.

In response, Athena has provided another option: Mac users can now log on to the Athena server and run the software remotely. This turns the user’s Mac into an interface with the Athena system, providing seamless access to the Impact Estimator. This service is available at no cost.

How it works
Since the Athena server can only accommodate five remote users at one time, user accounts will be allotted to interested Mac users for two-week blocks of time on a reservation system.

After requesting a reservation for a user account, Mac users will receive a confirmation email containing the start and end dates of their reservation, log in information, and an instruction document for setting up their remote connection with the Athena server.

To request a reservation, click here.

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