Building Element Opening Type Data

A building element (often shortened to element) is a component of the building such as a wall, ceiling, floor or window. For convenience, building elements are divided into categories such as ‘External wall’, ‘Internal glazing’, etc. In the MacroFlo view, only the categories ‘External glazing’, ‘Internal glazing’ and ‘Door’ are important. Elements in these categories are called openings. They may be assigned data allowing MacroFlo to simulate the passage of air through them.

An opening type is a type of building element in the context of MacroFlo. It consists of a specification of the element’s air flow characteristics and the way they vary with time. Opening types are created and edited in the MacroFlo Opening Types dialog.

Another type of opening is a hole. Holes have fixed air flow characteristics and do not need to be assigned air flow characteristics in the MacroFlo view.

 

Every opening has an attribute specifying its opening type. When the opening is created in ModelIT, its opening type is set by the active MacroFlo Openings Template. This setting can later be changed using tools provided in the MacroFlo view. The opening type attribute for an element consists of a pointer to one of the opening types defined in APcdb. This means that if the opening type data is edited in the MacroFlo Opening Types dialog, the change immediately and automatically takes effect for all elements to which that opening type is assigned.

 

The mechanism for changing the opening types of openings is as follows:

1.       Select an opening or a set of openings (this is called the selection set).

2.       For the selected openings, replace all instances of one opening type with another opening type.

The first operation may be done in various ways depending on the selection set required (see Selecting openings for opening type editing).

For the second operation the usual method is to use the function ‘Edit selection set opening types (see Changing the opening type for selected openings). An alternative method for individual openings is to use the Query button – see Query.

The same mechanisms may be used to inspect the opening type of openings without changing them.

 

There are several ways to select a set of openings in the MacroFlo view.

 

At the model level of decomposition you may select a single room or a set of rooms by clicking in the model workspace or the model browser. For the purposes of opening type setting, this selects all the openings contained in those rooms.

 

At the space level of decomposition (surface mode applies here) you may select a room surface. For the purposes of opening type setting, this selects all the openings contained in that surface.

 

At the surface level of decomposition (opening mode applies here) you may select a single opening or a set of openings.

   

After you have selected a set of openings you can change (or simply inspect) their opening types by clicking on the icon ‘Edit selection set opening types’ on the Edit toolbar.

 

 

Edit selection set opening types dialogue (space level shown).

On the left of the dialogue a graphic of the selection set is shown. At model and space level, the graphic uses the same view rotation as the active model window. It is usually easier to see the various elements if you select an Axonometric view in the active model window before using the ‘Edit selection set opening types’ tool.

If more than one element category is represented in the selection set it is first necessary to select one of these categories from the list headed ‘Select category’. Any edits will be applied only to elements (openings) in the selected category.

Under the heading ‘Opening Type’ you will see a list of the opening types currently assigned to the selected openings. By clicking on each opening type in turn you will be able to identify the openings where the opening type is used. These openings are highlighted on the graphic.

At any stage in this inspection process you may replace all the highlighted instances of the selected opening type with another opening type. To do this, click on the desired replacement opening type in the list headed ‘Possible replacement opening types’, and then click on Replace.

If you need to create or modify opening types during this process you can open the MacroFlo Opening Types dialog by clicking on the Opening Types button.