Archicad Tutorial #94: Area Calculations for Wall Area by Zone

[@arthurfnarusberk]

Thank you for the video. Is it possible to calculate zone perimeter/circumference excluding the doors? My colleague asked me if theres a way to schedule room perimeter/circumference for skirting board scheduling and I couldn't find an answer for that.

[@Shoegnome]

All the perimeter fields I looked at didn't factor in holes. You could probably create an Archicad property that does something like (zone perimeter - (total door area/door height)). Assuming all your doors are the same height, that'd work well. If it's possible to create that property. I suppose you could sum up the door widths by zone, but that total number could be used within Archicad for a calculation. It might be easier to model all the baseboard with beams and then do a schedule of beam length. For a typical house project of a certain level of detail, that'd be pretty easy. Or just assume room perimeter = baseboard length (inclusive of overage which is the door widths). Actually here's another solution. You'll need two schedules. 1) zone perimeter [assuming there's baseboard on all 4 sides of every room]. 2) door width schedule that sums all the door widths. Then you manually subtract the total from schedule 2 from the total from schedule 1. That'd give you perimeter, less doors.

[@MorningThief_]

thanks for the video. i've been racking my head trying to calculate the open area of a window & door for natural vent calculations. these should not take into account the size of the frame around the door/window -- just the actual opening. when we specify louvres, they can be 1 or 2-stage louvres, which will further reduce the open area calculations. i know i can do it using Properties, but i could never call up the thickness of the window/door frame in the Properties to reduce the overall size of the window/door. any ideas???

[@Shoegnome]

I think that the window/door area is calculated by the wall hole of the Object, so Archicad is not intelligent enough to figure out the actual opening, especially for louvers. You might be able to schedule area of glass and that'd get you closer (I need to look into that as it'd make a great next video). But to do the actual opening, you'll need to do some fancy work with Archicad Properties or do averaging calculations outside of Archicad using basic window schedule data you export.

[@zsoltferenczy5487]

Does this calculation take into account the wall / window reveals or wall / window inlets?

[@Shoegnome]

My initial tests suggest no. It appears that the window/door area is calculated by the wall hole of the Object.

[@zsoltferenczy5487]

@@ShoegnomeWhy not calculate the wall / plaster area with a finishes schedule rather than a zone schedule then? I found that a surface finishes schedule takes into account the reveals as well.

[@Shoegnome]

@@zsoltferenczy5487 I've never used a Surface Schedule before, that's why! You're right though. With the right criteria, a Surface Schedule that looks at just Gyp. Bd. is probably the best answer. I'll have to do some more experiments and then do a 3rd video looking at Surface Schedules once I know I'm looking at the right information. Thank you for the suggestion.

[@Shoegnome]

Doing some additional quick tests, Surface Schedules are really powerful but they do require good modeling and some additional understanding of how elements relate. I could see how they are both more accurate and prone to error. I'm going to have to learn more and definitely record another video when I have time later this year.

[@andriusvilcinskas7591]

Great tutorial! Will test it out for sure! My aim is to develop this example schedule so that it would also show the different surface types and areas if there are more wall fineshes than 1. Thanks for your imput!

[@Shoegnome]

Displaying the different Surface types in a room is going to be much more complicated. Let me know if you figure out how.

[@user-uc2cx9km1z]

Impressive as always, thank you very much for this amazing content.

[@Shoegnome]

You're welcome!

[@geraldburwell7622]

Thanks!

[@Shoegnome]

Thank you so much Gerald. You're the best.

[@andrewsilipo]

Is it possible to use zones to create finish schedules for interior trim? Thanks for the great videos!

[@Shoegnome]

A finish schedule using Zones is possible, but it wouldn't be reading the Surfaces of the walls. Instead you'd do it using Archicad Properties, which would involve manually setting the finishes in each room. Not ideal, but there's still some value to it.