Dear all
I am trying to understand how best to minimise use of shells. I am
trying to model a building which has jagged shaped floors which overlap
and cantilever all over the place. The attached sketch is a simplified
section of the building showing how the floors change up the building.
I've reached the conclusion that, although it is undesirable to have
many shells, I will need a shell for each floor. Additionally, for
floors broken into several separate blocks (eg level 1 on the attached)
I will need a shell for each block. Please let me know if I am missing
something?!
Regards
Richard
Richard ? the method you describe is the only one I?ve found to handle
complicated building geometry. It?s a real pain but it seems to work. One
of the most difficult aspects is getting eQuest to recognize what is an
interior wall and what is an exterior wall. (In your case, interior and
exterior floors and roofs.)
Steve Samenski, PE, LEED AP
Richard,
I would make a shell for each different exposure. For instance where your
building is exposed to ground versus air, where your building is exposed to
air versus another floor, where it is exposed to a roof versus air. I would
also take into consideration thermal zoning. Minimizing zones is good but
using them to make your life easier is too.
Carol
PS if you sent two exposures we could probably say more.
Yes to what Steve said too. As you input your polygons check really closely
that your spaces don't overlap and that you selected the right command for
your floors, e;g; on the ground vs exposed to ambient, as well as your
roofs. Specifying your sight coordinates for each shell from the get go
seems to give you control, too. When space walls are off by even .05 is when
you get surprised by an exterior wall where you were sure you specified an
interior one. I have been anal enough to retype my vertices just to be sure
since I'm pretty convinced you can be off by a bit when you just click on
one.
Carol
Thanks Carol and Steve,
Is it essential to create different shells for each exposure
combination, or just a good idea? I'm worried about ending up with many
dozens of zones. If it is only optional, how else can I get eQuest to
distinguish between internal and external adjacencies? Can it be done
within the overlapping shells, using zones maybe? The attached sketch
may help to explain my question.
Thanks again.
Richard
Richard,
I wouldn't use the word essential. When you create a shell in the wizard you
have the option of calling out the roof, walls, and floor. Within your
wizard shell you cannot split the top of it to be half roof/half exposed to
another floor. They ways around that are to use 2 shells, one with the with
another floor above it and one with a roof above it, or call it all roof and
edit it appropriately when you are in the detailed data edit. While you are
doing this keep in mind and schedule/usage differences you will have as well
as your mechanical zones.
Hope that helps,
Carol