Appendix B. Frequently Asked Questions

By default, tabs are set to automatically hide any column that does not contain any valid data for any of the rooms being displayed – this is done to avoid unneeded clutter and is particularly useful for internal gains and air exchanges (e.g. if no room in your model contains more than three gains, the columns relating to gains 4 through to 10 are automatically hidden). However, you can turn off the auto-hiding behaviour by un-ticking the Automatically Hide Unused Columns item in the Tabular Space Data Tab menu or by right-clicking on the tab and selecting the equivalent item from the pop-up menu – this will make all columns always visible in that tab.

 

Unlike the older Export Space Data feature (which exports a fixed, non-editable subset of attributes for all rooms in the model), Tabular Space Data’s exporting feature works from either the currently active tab or from all tabs in the currently active group. Therefore, it is your responsibility to ensure that you select the appropriate rooms you want to export, and that your current tab/tab group set-up features all the columns you require. Also, be aware that the Export items on the side panel and in the File menu will export the columns from all tabs in the group, whereas the Copy All Data From Current Tab option in the Edit menu will only export the columns in the currently active tab.

 

In order for the import process to apply changes, the rooms referenced in the data you are importing must be selected in the current model. Any rooms that are not selected will be ignored and any modifications you have made will not be applied.

You must also ensure that you do not modify the Room ID values in the data, as this could also cause rooms to be skipped.

Finally, ensure that all column header text remains unchanged and is included as the first line in the data you are importing – failure to do this will result in no modifications being made to your room attributes, as Tabular Space Data cannot identify the different columns in the input data.

 

There are two possible causes of this message:

          

 

This message means that Tabular Space Data was unable to identify the Room ID column in the import data (left hand message) or was unable to identify any recognized columns in the import data (right hand message). Without the Room ID column, it is not possible to perform an import, as there is no way for Tabular Space Data to determine what rooms the values should apply to. When preparing the data for import, you must ensure that it includes the Room ID column, with a valid ID for each room.

Some examples of valid and invalid input (viewed within Microsoft Excel prior to copying to the clipboard or saving to a tab-delimited file) are given below:

 

Valid Data for Input:

Missing Column Headers:

Missing Room ID Column:

 

The intention of the export functionality in Tabular Space Data is to allow you to make use of external tools such as Microsoft Excel for editing room attributes – thus, the tool is designed with the intention of the user exporting data from a model, making appropriate modifications and then importing the modified data back to the same model.

It is not intended to be used to transfer information between different models – there are two main reasons behind this:

-          Room IDs may not be consistent between different models, and the export/import functionality relies on consistent IDs in order to apply changes.

-          No true model data is exported. Notably, there is no geometry information, templates, Apache systems or profiles included in the data. Therefore, there is no mechanism to correctly apply the attributes to a different model.

For this reason, you should never attempt to import data from one model into another.

Unlike the Query Room and Building Template Manager features, Tabular Space Data uses a preferential ordering when it displays internal gains within a room – this is based upon the gain type, with the following ordering being used:

1.       Fluorescent and Tungsten Lighting

2.       Display Lighting

3.       People

4.       Machinery

5.       Computers

6.       Cooking

7.       Miscellaneous

This ordering does not affect the editability of the internal gains – it is only provided to provide a greater likelihood of gains in different rooms/templates being displayed into the same columns.

 

The Room Checks columns have been pre-supplied in a new Room Checks tab group, but this tab is not automatically activated – you must manually select it by choosing Open Group… from the Tabular Space Data File menu.

The nature of the checks performed means that they can take time, particularly on projects with large numbers of rooms – for this reason, it is recommended that you only activate the Room Checks tab group when you need to perform the checks. In addition, switch back to one of the standard tab groups once you have completed the checks.

 

It is not possible to create new room grouping schemes or room groups within schemes by means of the import method – all grouping schemes and groups must exist prior to attempting to import data with grouping information.

In addition, you must ensure that any grouping scheme columns in the data to be imported maintain the “(Grouping Scheme)” label – if this is removed, the data will not be recognized.

 

If you find that you can no longer access your Tabular Space Data tabs and/or groups, or you just wish to revert back to the default set-up for Tabular Space Data, you can use the Repair Installation… item in the Help menu of the VE window (note: not the Tabular Space Data window).

IMPORTANT: This will reset ALL Tabular Edit features (including Tabular BTM, Tabular MacroFlo and Tabular Apache Systems) back to their default states and you will lose any customisations you have made.