Introduction to rooms and surfaces

Module(s): Rooms, Surfaces, Stories

General information on rooms

A room is a three-dimensional architectural element from which you can extract a lot of information. Rooms can be created very quickly in the three-dimensional building model using the program's auto-room feature - this is useful when you quickly want to check the current floor area, for example; they can, however, also be entered individually. In this case, enter the finishing surfaces like floor covering, coats of paint or wallpaper in a single operation. If the finishing surfaces do not cover all your needs, define special surfaces like tiling patterns on a wall, or a different floor covering around an open fireplace.

Entering rooms and associated surfaces

The following tools are provided for creating rooms in the Rooms, Surfaces, Stories module:

• Room
  You can use this tool to enter rooms one by one. A dialog box with three tabs is displayed. In this dialog box you can assign fixed as well as custom attributes (e.g., room temperature) to the elements in the room. These attributes are used in subsequent analyses and evaluations.
  In the Finish tab, you can define covering for vertical surfaces, ceilings and floors and enter baseboard. You can enter the enclosure type, occupancy and area type in accordance with DIN 277 in the DIN277 tab.
  These rooms can be evaluated using the area calculation tool or in accordance with DIN 277.
• Auto-Room
  You can use this tool to create several rooms in a specific region in a single operation. The room label and the finish specifications can be assigned at a later stage. This tool requires architectural elements like walls.
  This tool is particularly useful when you need to quickly create rooms for initial analyses.

Calculating floor area in compliance with regulations

Special room-specific elements

Besides the vertical surfaces, ceilings, floors and baseboard which you enter on the Finish tab in Room, there are additional room-specific elements such as special surfaces and baseboard. These are entered individually and can be used to enter a tiling pattern, for example, or a different floor covering around an open fireplace.

These special surfaces and baseboards are defined using the following tools:

Vertical Surface

Ceiling

Floor

Baseboard

These elements are also treated as architectural elements. They can be assigned different heights, attributes, etc.

Important differences between the Room, Vertical Surface, Ceiling, Floor and Baseboard tools:

Defining or modifying the surfaces in a room later

You can use the following tools to later define or modify the finishing specification of a room (the room must already exist):

• To modify the surfaces in just a single room, click inside the room with the right mouse button and click Properties on the shortcut menu.
• To modify the surfaces of several rooms in one go, use Change Archit. Properties.
• Finish Specifications: You can use Match to transfer the parameters of a room into the dialog box and then modify them.
• Redefine Rooms, Surfaces, Stories, select the relevant symbol and click the element you want to modify.
  This tool can be employed with both Room and Vertical Surface etc.
  • In the case of special surfaces that do not cover all the sides in the room, use the following tool:
• Redefine Rooms, Surfaces, Stories in conjunction with one of the following selection criteria in the Select dialog box:
  • Story to modify the parameters of a story
  • Vertical Surface to define/modify the parameters of vertical surfaces
  • Ceiling to define/modify the parameters of ceilings
  • Floor to define/modify the parameters of floors
  • Baseboard to define/modify the parameters of baseboard

Important differences between the Finish Specifications, Redefine Rooms, Surfaces, Stories tools and the Vertical Surface, Ceiling, Floor and Baseboard tools: