Create Walls from Rooms

Module(s): Special: Walls, Openings, Components

You can use the Create Walls from Rooms tool to automatically create walls on the basis of rooms you have already defined. The system automatically scans the drawing files for adjoining rooms and creates a wall where the offset distance between rooms matches the thickness of one of the defined interior walls.

The Create Walls from Rooms tool is particularly useful when you have scanned in the plan of an existing building and have displayed and modified it using the tools in the Scan module. You may already have created rooms in order to calculate the floor area or perform other analyses. If you now want to work with three-dimensional walls – simply use Create Walls from Rooms!

Rules applying to this tool

• This tool cannot be applied multiple times to the same drawing file:
  The calculation automatically generates wall junctions; existing walls are not recognized.
  It is therefore important that you define all the existing wall types when you begin.

To create walls based on existing rooms

• Create the rooms prior to employing this tool. If you enter the rooms as 2D data, place the documents in question in the background.
• The rooms can be in the active document and in documents open in edit mode.
• Measure the distances between the rooms so that you can enter the wall thickness of the individual interior wall types.

1. Click Create Walls from Rooms (How).
   

   Activate Create Walls from Rooms in one of the following ways

   • Menu bar: Create Architecture Special: Walls, Openings, Components

   • Palette: Tools Create area in the following module(s):

   Special: Walls, Openings, Components

2. In Properties click the Exterior Wall tab.
3. Define properties and set up the height for the exterior wall.

   Note: As the system works with the first defined exterior wall only, define one exterior wall only. Make sure that the distance between two rooms to be joined is not more than twice the thickness of the exterior wall.

4. In Properties click the Interior Wall tab.
5. The following options are available for defining the parameters of the interior walls:
   • Enter the number of wall types.
   • Define all the other parameters and the height of each active interior wall type.
     You can switch between the individual wall types under Current type.

     Note: The system creates walls where the offset distance between parallel lines lies within a specific tolerance range (i.e. the offset does not have to exactly match the thickness you defined). Information on determining the wall thickness is provided under Calculating wall thickness.

6. Click OK to confirm.
7. Click the rooms.

   Tip: Double right clicking in the workspace selects all the rooms in the active document.

   

   A Interior wall 17.5cm
   B Exterior, 2-layer wall
   C Interior wall 15cm
   (1) to (4) rooms

Tip: To create several walls of the same thickness but of different materials in a building, you can use Change Archit. Properties to change the materials of the walls later.