2.2.1. Drawing floor plan in the application<br>

### 2.2.1. Drawing floor plan in the application

The plan view is drawn in the current sheet. If a new sheet has to be created, select “Worksheets” in the “File” menu and click on the “New” button, select sheet type (“Plan view” in this case) and click “OK” and then “Close”. The new sheet becomes the current sheet. Select the “Construction” tab in the lower set of tabs – project layers.

Editing of the structure consists of 4 sub-stages:

1. Drawing walls and creating rooms using the “Wall” component.

2. Appending the layout of rooms with components: “Window”, “Door” and “Opening in wall”.

3. Inserting, if necessary, horizontal partitions.

4. Final specification of data of partitions and rooms and windows and doors assigned to them.

Re 1. Drawing walls using the “Wall” component and creating rooms

Select the “Components” tab on the toolbar, then select the “Wall” component by clicking once on the button of the toolbar . The component insertion mode is enabled – wall insertion in this case. This is indicated by an appropriate message displayed on the status bar (in the middle bottom part of the screen) and by a schematic wall fragment appearing under the cursor . Clicking anywhere on the drawing starts the insertion of the wall. Subsequent click locates the end point of the wall and the select (standard) mode of the program is enabled again.

! You can specify the co-ordinates of the starting and terminal points of the wall by clicking (when drawing the wall) on the status bar area, where co-ordinates are displayed. You will then be prompted to enter the X and Y co-ordinate values. When you do that, the specified point will be inserted.

Two crossed lines – vertical and horizontal – form a kind of pointer that helps in precise positioning of the mouse pointer in relation to the reference frame (horizontal and vertical scale) and in relation to other components in the drawing.

! When inserting components it is possible to edit fields in the data table, such as “Length”, “Width” and “Angle”. Specifying values in these fields enables precise definition of the parameters of the wall that is placed on the drawing.

After inserting the first wall, select the “Wall” component on the toolbar again or press the F3 key (“Repeat last operation”) and proceed with placing the next wall. Walls should be joined together to form enclosed areas, which will automatically be identified as rooms. You will know that a room is created when a label (a rectangle with rounded corners) appears and the area becomes crosshatched.

It is very helpful to use special operating modes of the software when editing rooms: REP, AUTO and ORTO. In the REP mode the same component is always selected for inserting. In the AUTO mode the program proposes possible points of joining the component being inserted (e.g. a wall) with components already placed in the drawing. This facilitates joining components without the need to make precise movements with the mouse. It is also possible to join components when the AUTO mode is disabled, but this requires more precise positioning of the mouse pointer. The ORTO mode enables insertion of only horizontal and vertical walls, which facilitates editing of rectangular rooms.

You can select the required operating modes by double clicking the left mouse button when the pointer is positioned on the appropriate field in the lower right corner of the screen below the project layer tabs.

! If a plan view of another storey already exists and you want to use that plan view as a template, you can display its contour by selecting “View / Show shadow of other worksheet” – by default the first tab to the left with plan view is selected.

It is also possible to make an approximate diagram of the rooms without specifying the real dimensions and arrangement of the rooms. In this case you have to enter manually the proper surface area of the rooms, etc. This solution enables faster editing of the construction (it does not require precision). However, it is not recommended, as the drawing that you get is not good for demonstrating the manner of fitting the system and cannot form a basis for calculating heat loss. It also requires that you append data for all connecting lines, which in effect may take more time than precise editing of the arrangement of rooms.

You can find more information on inserting walls in section 5.3.1.

Re 2. Appending “Window”, “Door” and “Opening in wall” components to the diagram

To place, for instance, a window in a wall, select the component on the “Components” toolbar and drop it on the wall by clicking the left mouse button when the crosshairs pointer is on the wall axis at the point where you want to locate the centre of the window. A window is an additional component of the wall and it can be moved and turned only within that wall. The window data, including its dimensions, are listed below the wall data in the data table.

Re 3. Inserting additional components: “Horizontal partition: floor or ceiling”

You can append the construction with horizontal partitions – this is helpful when you want to do calculations with Instal-heat&energy.. There are two horizontal partitions available on the toolbar: floor and ceiling . After selecting the component move the mouse pointer to the drawing area and click anywhere within the selected room. The partition is inserted over the entire area of the room within wall axes. This operation has to be repeated for each room.

! Internal ceilings should be placed and labelled in the project only once. You can insert an internal ceiling either as a “Ceiling” on the lower storey or as a “Floor” in the upper storey (the latter method is preferable).

Re 4. Final configuration of data of walls and rooms and of windows and doors assigned to them

Each of the components, that is the wall, a window, a door or an opening in the wall assigned to the wall, a floor or a ceiling and also the room recognised by the program, has defined parameters, which can be viewed and amended in the data table. You can toggle the data table on and off using the F12 function key or the “View / Show/Hide data table” command. The data table displays the fields that correspond to the component currently selected (marked). To select a component click on it with the left mouse button. When selecting a wall the mouse pointer must be positioned on the wall axis, when selecting a room or a horizontal partition the pointer must be inside the label of the room. You can select several components – press and hold the Shift key when marking components. If you select several components of the same type, two rooms for instance, you can change their data simultaneously.

Most of the data of each component are assumed by default, some data must be appended, some data are optional.

! Many data items and values are determined automatically on the basis of the drawing or other data. These values are shown enclosed in brackets and they can be overwritten by the user. To restore the default value (assigned by the program) enter “?” in the given field and press the “Enter” key.

Depending on the purpose of the plan view (background for radiator or radiant heating design, or for calculating heat losses), the range of data to be appended will vary.

! Information on the design of all types of partitions required to determine their thermal properties used in calculating heat losses and seasonal heat demand is appended in the data table in the construction layer after loading the file to Instal-heat&energy, creating the necessary partitions and saving the file.