QUESTION:

As a new user to ECOTECT, I was told that it is better to draw the 3D model in ECOTECT itself for a more accurate analysis instead of importing it from a CAD program.

I was wondering how the wall thickness is drawn, like those shown in the web site gallery examples. From the tutorial, we start modelling by using the zoning tool which automatically creates a space, but it does not show the wall thickness visually. Do we have to draw it manually or is there a command ?

ANSWER:

It really depends what your aim is in terms of the analysis...

If you want to do thermal and acoustic analysis, you need to create the bounding geometry of each individual space as a separate zone. This way ECOTECT can understand the spatial relationship between zones, automatically calculate their volume and then use adjacent co-planar surfaces that overlap between zones to work out inter-zonal heat flow paths, etc. This is only really possible if the boundaries of each zone comprise single planes.

However, if you only want to run lighting, overshadowing or solar access calculations, ECOTECT does not need to know about room volumes and inter-zonal flows, so you can model the geometry any way you like - including using wall thicknesses.

CAD tools have no real concept of rooms and spaces. for them, space exists only as a by-product of your arrangement of planes, prisms and solid objects. Thus, when you import a 3D CAD model for thermal or acoustic analysis, you probably have to spend more time selecting and zoning the model than if you had created a much simpler zone-based model in ECOTECT manually. Obviously if you only want to look at shadows, export to Radiance or do analysis that does not require spatial zones, then you can use the imported CAD model without much modification.

Unfortunately there is no single command to add thickness to a complex set of walls or other surfaces. However, you can simply select the surface(s) you want and use the Extrude - Normal command in the Object Transformation panel. It should be quite a quick process to align the corners of adjacent walls using the Extend Selection command in the Modify » Cutting Plane menu.

For more information, read the Getting Started ECOTECT help page as it should set you in the right direction. Also the Important Concepts section will also explain in detail why zones are required in certain calculations and not others.

There is also an example of wall thickness vs. none on the Layers and Zones page under Important Concepts.