Building shape

The building shape is given as one or more parts of Building Body.

The shape of a body part a prism with vertical walls or a part of such a prism limited by the roof. The roof may consist of one or more flat polygons that cover the whole roof.

The body parts may be arranged both vertically and horizontally. The parts should not intersect. Zones may traverse several body parts.

See also Building and zone geometry import.

To edit a body part

To replace the rectangular shape of a part of the building body by an arbitrary polygon, right click somewhere within the building and select Edit. The perimeter of the building is changed to a so-called polyline. A polyline consists of line segments and break points, the latter marked by small rectangles. The polyline can be edited in five ways:

- Its breakpoints can be dragged to the desired positions for the building’s corners.

- Its line segments can be dragged to the desired positions for the building’s walls.

- A new breakpoint can be introduced by clicking on or close to the line.

- An existing breakpoint can be deleted by clicking on it.

• Breakpoints for non right-angled corners can be introduced by holding the Control key down and simultaneously clicking on a segment of the line.
• If you hold a point or a segment while dragging it near to some other figure shown on the drawing, the point (or the segment) is snapped to that figure.

Click once with the Right button and select OK to end editing, or alternatively press Enter (to accept) or Esc (to cancel). As an example, the figure below has had a new breakpoint introduced directly to the right of the middle on the building’s south wall. The wall to the right of this breakpoint has then been dragged down and an angle-shaped building has been created.

See Edit lines and polygons for more details.

Note also that the program automatically allocates names to all the facades created by the introduction of new breakpoints. This allocation has not yet taken place in the figure above, but can be seen in the last figure in this part.

The building can also be assigned geometry in the form of coordinates. This is done on the Properties page for building body part. This page is shown on the Side bar when the body part is selected.

To introduce a hole in a body part

Right click on a body part and choose Edit. Put the cursor inside the body part, right click and choose Start new contour. Change the size of the hole contour and stop the editing by clicking on Done. A hole is then created in the building body part, which can be further edited.

To add a new body part

Add object of type "Building body". It is also possible to copy a body part from another (or the same) building.

To move a body part

Drag the body part with mouse (with left button pressed).

To rotate the body part, keep the Alt button pressed.

The sides of the body part are automatically aligned with corners and lines of other objects (zones, other body parts, CAD drawings). Press the right mouse button to avoid alignment.

It is also possible to move a body part by editing the coordinates on the Properties view of the Side Bar. This is the way to move the body part in z-direction.

Notes. 1. To avoid confusions, do not move building body far away from the origin of the coordinate system.

2. If you want to move the whole building (relative to the surrounding building) or rotate it, it is better to do it on the site view. In that case the building will be moved together with the building's coordinate system.

To resize a body part

When a body part is selected, the selection mark contains 8 active points at the corner and the center of the sides of the body part (of the bounding rectangle if the part is not rectangular).

To resize the body part, drag an active point with mouse.

The sides of the body part are automatically aligned with corners and lines of other objects (zones, other body parts, CAD drawings). Press the right mouse button to avoid alignment.

It is possible to resize several objects (body parts and zones) together.

It is also possible to resize the body part by editing the sizes on the Properties page of the Side Bar. This is the way to change the height of body part.

To rename a body part

See Object name.

To remove a body part

See Removing components. Note that the building should have at least one body part.

To edit the roof

Click the body part with right mouse button and select Edit roof from shortcut menu. See Editing roof for details.

There is also a link on the Properties view of the Side Bar.