Classes, Categories & Columns

Construction Classes & Categories

Constructions are divided into classes with different thermal property sets. There are two thermal classes – Opaque and Glazed. If particular cost planning and life cycle software is licensed, there are two other non-thermal classes – Hard landscape and Misc. In the case of opaque constructions thermal capacity, as defined by density and specific heat capacity, is important. Glazed constructions, by contrast, are to a good approximation massless, but they require properties characterizing their solar transmission properties. Hard landscape and Misc. constructions have similar properties to Opaque constructions plus some specific extra properties.

The classes of construction are further broken down into categories, as follows:

Opaque constructions:

External Wall
TSC Wall
Internal Partition
Ground/Exposed Floor
Roof
Active Thermal Roof
Internal Ceiling/Floor
Active Thermal Ceiling/Floor
Door

Glazed constructions:

External Window
Internal Window
Roof Light

Hard landscape constructions:

Pavement/sidewalk (private)
Site hard landscape
Site parking
Site pervious hard landscape
Site road

Misc. constructions:

Double facade
Foundation
Gutter
Shape beam
Shape column
Shape lintol
Shape stairs
Solid beam
Solid column
Solid lintol
Solid stairs
Structural frame

The construction categories in the Opaque and Glazed classes correspond to categories of building element used for construction assignment in the Apache View. The thermal parameter sets for constructions are broadly similar for categories belonging to the same class (Opaque or Glazed), but in some cases differ in respect of their Building Regulations parameters and default values for surface resistance.

Tabs on the tabular edit grid are arranged to give access to the following:

Tabs for constructions in the Opaque class - separate tabs for each category:

External Wall – Opaque class, Wall category
TSC Wall – Opaque class, Wall category
Partition – Opaque class, Partition category
Ground floor – Opaque class, Ground floor category
Roof – Opaque class, Roof category
Active Thermal Roof – Opaque class, Roof category
Internal Ceiling/Floor – Opaque class, Internal Ceiling/Floor category
Active Thermal Ceiling/Floor – Opaque class, Internal Ceiling/Floor category
Door – Opaque class, Door category

Tabs for constructions in the other classes - single tabs covering all categories in the class:

Glazed – Glazed class, all categories
Hard landscape – Hard landscape class, all categories
Misc. – Misc. class, all categories

Tabs for constructions in any class or category:

Assigned (thermal) shows constructions that are assigned to thermally active elements in the model.
Assigned (non-thermal) shows constructions that are assigned to thermally inactive elements in the model.
Costs/LCA shows only those constructions that have Data source BRE Impact, with extra columns showing the data related to costing and life cycle analysis.
UK Part L shows only those constructions that have Data source UK NCM – this shows all constructions that have been automatically added from UK NCM templates for use in UK Part L analysis.

NB this document describes the default tab status and dialog size. As with other tabular edit dialogs the tabs, columns and filtering can be customized and the dialog can be resized. These changes are saved between sessions for your particular Windows username.

Project construction columns

Within each tab a list of project constructions is displayed, with the following columns of summary information:

ID	A unique identifier assigned to the construction when it is created.
Category	The construction category (only displayed if the tab is not filtered to just one category).
Assigned	Whether this construction is assigned to elements in your project (not displayed – because not necessary – on the In-project tab).
Description	The description assigned to this construction.
Data source	the construction may be generic or specific to a particular regulation or rating system (e.g. NCM, Green Mark).
U-value	The U-value of the construction may be calculated by several methods: currently CIBSE, EN-ISO or ASHRAE. In the case of glazed constructions the U-values are net U-values including the effect of the frame.
Thickness	The overall thickness of the construction.
Notes etc.	This field is available for your notes but is also written to by various compliance converters when creating new constructions that they may need.
(Other columns)	Various other columns are also displayed for specific tabs, e.g. the Ground floor tab has a Ground contact floor column, and the Doors tab has a Door type column. Some of the tabs, specific to particular cost planning and life cycle software, display a considerable number of extra columns with data needed by various parts of this software. See the documentation for this software.

To edit a construction, double-click the grid row on the ID cell. Alternatively select the construction and then use one of four Edit construction options (the button, the side panel option, the main menu option or the context menu option).