1

IES <Virtual Environment>

Tutorial

ModelIT (Version 6.0)

2

Introduction: ModelIT Tutorial This document shows you how to use ModelIT, IES’s 3D building geometry modelling tool. The tutorial is intended as an example for you to work through to get to know the VE model building process. You can create the model that is used as the example in this tutorial or you can use a building of your own and follow the steps within the tutorial, it is up to you. The main topics that will be covered are as follow: VE and the rules of modelling Preparing and setting up for modelling – AutoCAD Drawing tools Editing tools Viewing tools Drawing aids

Virtual Environment: The Rules of Modelling When creating a model in the VE there are a few golden rules that you should try and stick to as much as possible. As with most great buildings built on solid foundations, if you have a well built model in ModelIT the results you will achieve from the rest of the software will be of a high standard. The first rule of the VE and ModelIT is always use the grid when creating a model. As with most things there are always exceptions to rules and the VE is no different, but following this rule as far as possible can save you a lot of time and effort in the future. The second most important rule is to try and avoid having vertices points too close together and use the minimum number required to create a volume. The images below give a basic example of this.

3

Preparing and Setting Up For Modelling – AutoCAD Before you begin modelling your building it is a good idea to take a few moments to analyse the CAD drawings (Floor Plan/sections/elevations) and try and build up a three dimensional model in your mind of what you are trying to create. Once you are confident and have a good idea of what your building should look like the next step is prepare your floor plans to attach to the VE. In most cases the drawings that you will require to manipulate will be in ‘dwg’ format. First you have to copy your floor plan ‘dwg’ onto a new blank drawing sheet and save this as a ‘dxf’ format. The second step to carry out is to clean up your ‘dxf’ so that you are left with only the information that you require. The walls, windows and doors (room titles if possible). The images below show the difference between a ‘dwg’ and a cleaned ‘dxf ‘.

Finally, it is advisable to find a common point on your floor plans (if your building has multiple floors) of your building and making this point the origin. In setting up your drawings in AutoCAD this way it means that you do not have to manipulate your dxf when you are in the VE.

4

Beginning in ModelIT Now that you have carried out your preparation it is time to start building your model within the Virtual Environment, the first step of which is to create and save a new model file for your project. Once you have done this you should set up your grid spacing that you are going to work with, we recommend a spacing of 0.1/0.05 meters, and your ‘Lock Settings’, which initially should be set with ‘Grid’ and ‘Axis’ checked on. (See VE 6\Help\General Help Topics...\ Section 3 – File Menu)

Now all that has to be done before you begin to create your model is to attach the dxf file that you prepared within AutoCAD. When you click on the ‘Attach DXF File’ option under the ModelIT File menu, the following dialogue box appears. You select the ground floor DXF of your building making sure that you select millimetres from the drop down menu before clicking open. You should now see the DXF you prepared in the virtual environment and you are now ready to start modelling. Note: When modelling in the VE, external walls are modelled to the inner wall line. For internal walls and partitions the closest point to halfway between two rooms is chosen.

5

Begin modelling by selecting the ‘Draw extruded shape’ option from the tool bar. When you do this the ‘Shape Settings’ dialogue box appears. The first step is to reference your volume you are about to create and the second is to define the height of this volume. (We are defining the height as we are working in plan view) Once you have done this you can model your first zone, remembering to drawing to the grid, following the internal wall line of external walls and the midpoint between rooms for internal walls. You should continue doing this until you have modelled all the room volumes on the ground floor apart from the atrium area. You can utilize the ‘Draw Prism’ tool when creating zone 3 since it is a rectangular shape. Your model in axonometric view (See VE 6\Help\General Help Topics...\ Section 2.3.4 Application Generic Toolbar) should resemble the image below.

6

The next step is to create the curved atrium section using the arc tool. First select the ‘Draw Extruded Shape’ tool and click the point that you wish to start the arc from. When you do this the ‘Draw arc’ tool should become active allowing you to select it. When you do this the arc settings dialogue box appears allowing you to define the number of segments and

the sweep of the arc in degrees. Once you have defined these settings to suit your requirements you then pick the centre point of your arc and the software will generate the arc. To complete the arc you right click on your mouse which will take you back into the standard draw extruded shape tool allowing you to do so.

Another method to creating your model is to do so using the partition tool. This time instead of creating your model room by room, create one volume to the foot print of the building and split it up.

7

At this point the ground floor is almost complete, with only the windows and doors to be added. Since the ground floor of this building has almost the same glazing as the first floor we are going to add the glazing at this stage. Note: In most other scenarios we would complete the geometry first and then add the doors, glazing and any holes required. As with most parts of the software there is more than one method of carrying out a process, adding the glazing to your model being one of them. There are three methods that you have at your disposal to do this. 1: Edit Glazing Tool 2: Add glazing in Plan. 3: Add Glazing at Surface Level. Methods two and three will be covered to complete the glazing in this particular model. If you require any information on method one or further information on methods two and three you can get this from VE 6\Help\Help Topics\ ModelIT User Guide PDF: Edit Functions: Section 7.16 Model Functions: Section 4.17 To begin adding glazing click on the ‘Add window’ tool and the ‘Place Opening’ dialogue box will pop up. In the box you need to define the base height, which is the cill height of your windows, and the height and width of your windows. (The width of your windows can be defined from the DXF.) You can now place your windows into your model, adding all the windows by this process.

Once you have completed the first row of glazing you can move onto the next stage and add the second row at surface level. (For more information on levels see ModelIT User Guide – Section 2.6:

8

Levels of Decomposition) Select a volume, go down to the surface level and copy up the glazing that you have already placed in your model. When you come to modelling the atrium glazing you do not have to copy up each individual pane of glazing. If you create a temporary zone that covers the glazing you have in place in the lower half of the atrium, (In this tutorial model the glazing in the atrium area has a cill height of 0.05m and a height of 1.6m so if you draw a temporary zone with plane = 0.05m and height = 1.6m) the temporary zone will take on the glazing you already have created allowing you to simply move this temporary zone up into place, therefore creating the second row of glazing in the atrium in one swoop. To carry out this process first create a temporary zone, plane = 0.05m and height = 1.6m. Secondly, change the model view to front view. And finally, use the move tool and manipulate the temporary zone up to the desired location and delete it. You should achieve a similar model to the image below.

Step 1 Step 2 Step 3

9

To add doors to the model you perform the same tasks, this time clicking on the ‘Add door’ tool instead. You can also do the same for adding holes between zones using the measure tool to determine the width of them if required.

As mentioned previously, the ground and first floors are the same in plan and have almost the same glazing allowing us to copy up what we have already created to produce the first floor with very little effort. Using the same method as moving the temporary zone when editing the glazing, we change the view to front elevation. Select all the zones. Click the copy editing tool and copy up the ground floor.

Now the zones prefix should be altered in the model browser to distinguish between the zones on the ground and first. There are a few ways in which this can be done. The volume names can be individually altered in the model browser itself by right clicking on a name and selecting the properties option. The information bar is at the bottom of the screen is another method that can be used by double clicking on the room name attribute and altering it. Finally, if the alteration that you are making is common to all the room volumes then you can edit multiple volume names by first selecting the rooms that you wish to edit the names of and then typing in the key-in field – ‘rename’. The rename dialogue box appears allowing you to type in what has to be altered and what it has to be altered to. (To set up you room groups see ModelIT User Guide – Section 3: Model Browser Functions)

10

The next step in creating this model is to build the roofed areas. The first area is created using the roof generator. First select the space then click the roof generator tool. The dialogue box on the right will pop up allowing you to edit some attributes of your roof. When you are happy with the settings, click OK and the software will generate a roof.

The second roof section is created by extruding a volume in the Y axis. The peak of the roof is 3m in height and it slopes down to a height of 1m from the first floor ceiling height. The use of construction lines can be employed to map out the outline of the volume if desired.

The plane in this scenario is the start point that you wish the volume to begin and it is the depth of the volume that you are concerned with and not the height. As before, you can use the measure tool to obtain dimensions required. Once you have created one half of the pitched roof it is time to create the other half. Since it is not identical we have to use another method to build it. Much like at the start when we were creating the ground floor volumes we are going to draw an extruded shape in plan view at a plane height of 7.2 metres with a height/depth of 3metres.

11

The next step is to cut this volume to get the desired pitch. First select the volume and go down to the space level. Now select the ‘edit’ option from the display mode drop down menu and the ‘Edit Space’ dialogue box will appear. From the ‘Initial Cutting Plane Position’ area, select the ‘Z Axis’ and click on the ‘Initialise Cutting Plane Locator’ button. Now click on the ‘Get Locator coordinate from space vertex’ button. Now you can go into the model space and grab the cutting plane tool and position it where you want.

The easiest method of getting the cutting plane into position for this cut is to position coordinates 1, 2 and 3 at the peak height position of the pitched roof and edit coordinate 1 by double clicking in the Z. We know from creating the other half of the roof that coordinate 1 will be 2 metres below coordinates 2 and 3 at a height of 8.2 metres. Enter this value into the box and press return and click the ‘Generate Cutting Plane’ button. You are given a preview of where the volume is going to be cut which you can check in other views to make sure that it will be in the desired location. If you are not happy with the cutting plane then you can click the ‘Initialise Cutting Plane Locator’ button and start from the beginning, but if you are happy then proceed by selecting the ‘Divide Space’ button. Finally select the ‘Separate Composite Space’ tab from the top of the edit space box, select one of the volumes from the list and click separate. All that is left to do is to go back to model space and delete the volume that you do not want leaving you with the pitched roof.

(See the ModelIT User Guide – Section 7.23 for further information)

2

1

3

12

The final area of this model that has to be created is the sloping roof of the atrium area. In creating this we will be using the ‘Edit Space’ dialogue box again. First you need to select the upper half of the atrium area and then go down to the space level and select edit from the drop down menu as done previously. It is best to change the model view to front elevation for the next step and when the edit space box appears select the tab on the right, ‘Edit Vertices’. Once you have done this, click and drag holding the left mouse button and select all the vertices at the top of the atrium.

13

At this point there are two methods which can be employed to edit the height of the atrium space. You can either enter the value by which you want the volume to be altered in the vertex shift box and click the ‘Move Vertices’ button at the bottom or you can use the ‘Move vertices’ tool. To use this tool first click on the button and then at one of the selected vertices click, hold and drag the vertices to where you wish. In this case where you are going to be cutting the volume the height to which you move the vertices does not matter, as long as it is at a greater height than the maximum point required. Now select the divide space tab from the edit space dialogue box and change the model view back to axonometric. Using the plane of the pitched roof already created move the cutting plane tool into this plane and cut the atrium to give you the slope that you are looking for.

14

All that remains to do after the final glazing has been added to the model is check the model geometry, set the site rotation and set the overall model location.

To check the model geometry, select ‘Model…’ from the Settings menu and the model settings dialogue box will appear. Check the intersection and surfaces options at this stage and click the check button. A report will be generated and hopefully your model will be given a clean bill of health. If you do not it is advisable to try and fix the problems as it may result in problems when trying to run simulations. On the generic toolbar above the model space the site rotation option can be found to allow you to set your north point which is defined anticlockwise from north.

15

Before you Leave ModelIT and enter into other VE applications there is one final component that requires to be set up. This is APlocate which determines the location of your model globally so that the software can take into account the position of your building in relation to the sun and weather data that will accompany your building location. This is a simple process that can be carried out using the selection wizard.

16

For further information on these tools or any other functions within the Virtual Environment please refer to the help menu.