QUESTION:

Can I use ECOTECT Zones like layers in AutoCAD ?

ANSWER:

When you are doing thermal and acoustic calculations in ECOTECT, zoning is very important as you can set a zone to Thermal, meaning that it represents an enclosed volume of relatively homogeneous air. Each thermal zone therefore needs to define a room, essentially, with a complete envelope of enclosing surfaces. This way inter-zonal heat flow paths and incident radiation collection can be automatically determined and will have effects on the right air volumes. For a more complete description of zone requirements, see the section entitled Thermal Modelling in the main ECOTECT help file.

In lighting and shadow calculations zones are not as important. However, if you wish to compare light levels in different rooms you will still need to organise your "layers" based on zone definitions. As a result, it is usually best practice to use a thermal zone for each room and then add any external or extraneous geometry to additional non-thermal zones. This way you can use the same model for all types of calculation, with all the essential thermal and acoustic geometry in room-based zones but with detailed window frames, skirting boards, furniture and the like in separate non-thermal zones that can be turned off when not required.