Preparing Building

Learn how architects prepare plans and models to create a building model for building analysis.

You can link an architectural model as a basis for further planning or use a two-dimensional drawing as a basis for remodeling the architecture. Through MEP spaces and zones, you bring further data into the building model, e.g. spaces and zones setpoint temperatures, thermal loads and airflow rates. During building detection, the data is transferred to LINEAR Building and forms the basis for further calculations such as heating and cooling loads.

A CAD architectural model differs from the thermal model of a building, for example regarding the room dimensions: When speaking of clear widths, lengths and heights in architecture, the wall axes are usually assumed for thermal considerations for interior walls, the outer edges for exterior walls and the storey heights for room heights. Geometric features, such as rooms connected by open passages that are to be calculated separately, must be interpreted correctly. Depending on the design, suspended ceilings must also be taken into account when calculating the assumed room volume.

A structured approach to load calculations also usually requires zoning, i.e. the grouping of rooms with identical technical requirements for heating, cooling, ventilation or room acoustics.

Against this background, an appropriately prepared architectural model is a very good basis for thermal load calculations, but direct use is usually not possible.

LINEAR Building Analysis supports the detection of the geometry with valuable automatisms such as corrections to dimensions, recognition of shafts or the combination of component layers from several partial models for a correct U-value calculation. LINEAR Building Analyse offers easy-to-use operating and visualization functions for data enrichment in zones and rooms.