The project materials dialog provides a list of materials used in the project. It is accessed via the Project materials option on the View menu, or alternatively from buttons on the construction editing dialogs.
This dialog has an extra section which is only of interest to the LCA or LCC software (see BRE materials and Cost planning and lifecycle software for details):
Figure 13 Project materials dialog with extra section visible
Materials in the database are organised in categories such as Concretes, Insulating Materials and Glass. The Material category is selected from a list. Two new categories are added, Floor finishes and Suspended ceilings, of interest only to the cost planning and life cycle software. You can also choose Show all opaque categories if you prefer to see materials from all opaque categories together (Glass is not included because the columns are different for Glass).
The materials in the chosen category, together with their properties, are displayed in a grid with columns for each property. The materials may be sorted according to any of their properties. For example to sort concretes by density click on the Density column. The first click arranges the materials in ascending order, the second in descending order.
Icons on the toolbar provide the following options operating on the selected construction:
Copy material: Copies the selected material to the clipboard, ready for pasting into a project construction.
Show material references: Displays the Material References dialog, with a list of project constructions referencing the selected material:
Compact materials database: Compact the materials database will remove duplicate materials.
Delete material: Delete the material from the project material database.
NB When the Project materials dialog is opened from the Project materials button in the Project construction dialog (with a layer row selected), the Project materials dialog selects the appropriate material category and material for your convenience.
If a material has been edited in the Materials dialog and you move on to another material or close the dialog, a check is made to see how many constructions reference that material. If only one construction references the material, the material is updated with the same ID. If more than one construction references the material, a dialog is displayed where you can select which constructions are to be updated to use the new material:
If you select all of them, again the material is updated with the same ID. If you select some but not all, a new material is created with a new, automatically generated, ID, and only the selected constructions will reference the new ID. If you select none, you are prompted that if you continue the changes will be discarded:
Press Yes to discard the changes or No to reselect constructions to update.
