QUESTION:

Why do some objects in my model turn red ?

ANSWER:

To make editing and object manipulation faster and more intuitive, ECOTECT uses a series of inter-object relationships. This way a ceiling knows that it must reflect the shape of the floor from which it was created, a window knows it belongs inside a wall surface, the nodes in a planar object know they must all remain in the same mathematical plane, etc. Sometimes your model can violate one or more of these relationships. For example, snapping one node in a wall to the other side of the room or reducing the size of a wall such that its window can no longer fit within it. Objects that violate their relationships are shown in the Error colour, the default for which is red.

To have ECOTECT attempt to fix any bad links, simply select Fix Links from the Edit menu. If the object keeps turning red, or fixing its links results in unwanted changes to your model, you can simply unlink it by selecting Unlink, also in the Edit menu. Some links are necessary (such as the link between a wall and a window, otherwise they are just two objects that share the same plane), whereas most are simply there to make editing the model a little simpler and easier. If certain links are getting in the way, just unlink the objects. You can always edit them individually later.

Another reason for red objects can be because they are non-planar, i.e. and object with more than 3 nodes has one node that does not sit within the same plane equation as the other 3 nodes.

Or, perhaps the red object is a child object that is not completely contained within its parent object.

Either way the Fix Links command has options for trying to correct all of these situations.