7.10.2. Duplicating by means of expanding groups<br>

### 7.10.2. Duplicating by means of expanding groups

Duplicating of installation fragments by means of expanding groups enables fast creation of typical fragments of an installation, such as risers. You must, however, remember that in the case of expanding predefined groups (supplied with the program), the fragments created by ezpanding will not have their data appended automatically, i.e. the data included in the basic module will not be duplicated when expanding the group. If the duplicated fragments are to have their data appended, you must either create your own expanding groups (see section 7.11.5) and append their data at the stage of creating these groups, or duplicate fragments using the clipboard.

There are two ways in which fragments of installation are stored on the toolbar: in the form of modules, which cannot be expanded automatically, or in the form of expanding groups, to which you can add subsequent modules when expanding the group in a specified direction.

! Expanding a frame of a group is not always equivalent to automatic self-duplication of that group. The direction in which the group may be expanded and self-duplicated at the same time is indicated by arrows on the edge of the group frame.

¨ To place a fragment of installation and duplicate it by means of expanding groups:

1. Pick from the toolbar the required fragment of installation which is an expanding group. Each expanding group has one defined direction in which subsequent modules are added onto the group. This direction is indicated by two light olive-green arrows. For a riser, for instance, fragment of installation is represented by:

2. Place the expanding group in the project.

3. The frame surrounding the group has eight square marks (handles) provided for changing its dimensions. If you click and drag the square mark positioned between the two arrows, you will automatically add subsequent modules. This is what you get after expanding a riser by dragging the upper square mark:

! The placing of subsequent riser modules depends on the existing arrangement of floors. It is therefore advisable to specify floor elevations before expanding an expanding group.

Expanding groups of apartment systems may have similar properties. They, however, would have to be expandable sideways.

There are no restrictions on placing one expanding group within another expanding group. Risers with apartment systems may be structured this way. The external group is the riser group. When you expand this group upwards you get subsequent storeys. Each storey has its separate internal group – an apartment system group. Each of these groups can be expanded sideways. This way you get subsequent receptors in apartment systems, separate for each storey.

! If you invert an expanding group before it is expanded, subsequent added on modules will also be inverted.

Remember that expansion of a group is not just duplication of the last storey, it consists in inserting new modules.

In addition to the standard expanding groups included on toolbars displayed after installing the program, you can define your own groups and place them on a new toolbar designed for user-defined groups and modules only.

You can find information on creating expanding groups in section 7.11.5.