Details on Drawing Radiant Heating and Cooling

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Create tab ➤ Draw

Area <

Before you draw slabs or heating/cooling circuits, you must first define a laying area. Click the Area < button and define the corner points of the laying area in the drawing. In case of rectangular rooms, you can click the two opposite points to define the laying area. If room contours already exist, laying areas in the rooms can be drawn automatically using the Room selection option. To do this, open the context menu with the right mouse button after activating the Area < command and click on Room selection. You can then define laying areas by selecting room contours.

Joint <

With this command you can define separating joints within a laying area. The joints serve as orientation for the laying of the circuits. Joints divide the laying area into partial areas, in each of which a separate circuit is inserted when drawing in.

Plates <

This command allows you to design laying areas with plate systems. In some systems, after selecting the laying area, you can choose the desired way of laying the plates in the context menu. It is possible to insert the plates individually or let the program do the layout automatically. You can decide whether you want to lay whole plates or cuts and whether you want to start with or without offsets.

After selecting the type of laying, you specify the length of the area to be laid by means of the start and end points. When the laying side is to be determined, indicate the width of the area to be covered with plates by placing a dot inside the laying area. Then enter the number of rows of plates or confirm that the width shown should correspond to the area to be laid by pressing Enter. Depending on the system, the plate dimensions must be defined to activate the command.

Pipe laying <

With this command you draw heating and cooling circuits in laying areas. After selecting the laying area, you have the option to have the total area installed automatically by showing the Start side of the heating or cooling circuit orientation (mouse click in the installation area) or to determine the areas of the individual heating circuits yourself by selecting the Free option. You can reach the options via the context menu or by entering F (free) in the command line. After defining the start side, you can select the desired number of circuits in the context menu.

Manifold <

This command allows you to draw in manifolds. In the field to the right of the button, set the number of heating or cooling circuits to be connected before activating the command to determine the number of manifold ports. Before you place the manifold, various options for placement are available in the context menu.

Feed pipe <

This command allows you to draw feed pipes to connect heating or cooling circuits to manifolds.

Table 2. Context menu for drawing feed pipes

Command	Description
End	Stops drawing feed pipes at the corresponding point.
End (+ manifold connection)	Stops drawing at the last selected point, automatically generates a pipe extension to the manifold and connects the feed pipe to a previously defined manifold connector, if it was defined. Use this command instead of the Connect automatically command for more complex connection situations, e.g. where pipes run to the manifold inside a wall, feed pipes arrive at the side of the manifold or ceiling systems are to be connected. When connecting, the distance still required for the connection of further supply pipes under the manifold is automatically taken into account. The required distance depends on the choice of the manifold connector. If, for example, you connect pipes coming from the right to the left manifold connectors, enough space is left under the manifold for establishing the connections on the right side. The additional pipe lengths resulting from the connection are taken into account in the capacity and pressure loss calculation. Note: The power output is provided through the component on the supply pipe. If this command is used excessively (very long manifold connections), this can lead to problems with the surface temperature of the component through which the capacity output takes place.
Back	Undoes the last drawing step.
Run along adjacent pipe	The function automatically creates a feed pipe along already drawn feed pipes and, if necessary, also ties them to the manifold. Changing laying spacings of the neighboring supply pipe are automatically applied.
Select manifold	Allows to select another manifold by clicking in the drawing. When drawing feed pipes, the manifold no longer needs to be explicitly selected. As soon as you start drawing the feed pipe, the nearest manifold is automatically used. If this is not the desired manifold, you can use this command to select another manifold.
Automatic connecting	Automatically connects the feed pipe to the manifold.
Connect manually	Enables manual connection of feed pipes to manifolds. This command is suitable for drawing the feed pipe in 3D if you do not want the feed pipe to be routed in the way it is created during automatic connection.
Change manifold port	Allows you to select a different manifold port. When drawing the feed pipe, a yellow line indicates the connection to the nearest manifold port. If this is not the desired manifold port, you can use this command to select another port.
Lead outside left/left/center/right/outside right	Enables the guide to be changed while drawing feed pipes, thus making it possible to follow the course of a wall at a certain distance, for example, with the help of object snap.
Change laying spacing	Allows to change the laying spacing between supply and return pipe while drawing the supply pipe. Select Entry... to enter the desired laying spacing in cm via the command line or Manifold port to confirm the distance between the two selected manifold ports as the laying distance.

Groups <

With this command you can define series and parallel connections within a module group and take them over in LINEAR Building afterwards. After activating the command, follow the instructions in the command line.

Color <

This command allows you to colorize circuits including their feed pipes in different colors. The number of colors to be used (max. 8) and the colors themselves can be customized by the user by making entries in the command line. The default order of colors when coloring is Red, Green, Magenta, Blue.