Partitioning

[p_sentobe]

Hi IES,
I'm a total IES newb, I've done the ModelIT course recently, so I'm trying to model a few test buildings.
With regards to partitioning of a space, how do I turn on the measuring function so that I know from which point along one wall to start partitioning my space?
I get the length of the partition show up as I begin drawing, but I've no clue where to start my partition.

I'm coming from Design Builder and I'm struggling with some of the ModelIT ways.

[Marc Jensen]

Hi,

What we do that tends to be easier than using your mouse to find your point to partition in IES is to use the edit feature.

If you select your space, go down one level so that you are only editing that one room/space, then from the drop down menu select Edit.

A slightly daunting box will pop out and will ask for you to create a cutting plane.
All this will do is slice your space into bits by the plane that u have specified, by default it will go to the middle of one of your axes.

Now if you are in axonometric view this is easier to see where the plane is overall, however I tend to use plan view to put it where I want it to be then to use the axonometric to confirm.

This looks like this:



You can also use the Initial cutting plane position box and it will move the plane up and down the room depending what axes and what distance you input.

Now you want to generate the cutting plane when you are keen on the location.



select if you want to divide with or without partitions then click divide the space.

You are not done yet.
You have only separated the space into sub-space 0 and 1. Select them both and press Separate.





You now have a separate space. If you go back to the divide space tab before you close the Edit Space window it will start the process again on the space that you have just partitioned.
This is great if you have multiple partitions in one room....

Whilst this method is slower than drawing the rooms onto a dxf from scratch with each room being individual, this is an easy way to modify existing rooms for lighting analysis or if you have a very simple building.
I have seen people create interesting roofs with this feature.

Good luck

[JohnLloyd]

I'd suggest you use the 'construction lines' to get your starting point, and then make use of the 'draw partitions' tool.

[PCully]

didn't notice this on the forum as well, I spoke to Paul last week on a call and we agreed Construction Lines makes this easier if you are using the Partition tool.

I hadn't considered it too much before but maybe we could look at increasing the options when using partition tool to allow key-ins to work for greater accuracy when choosing the starting point and then subsequent partition lines - anyone got any other good ideas related to this? I'm seeing more and more people starting with a mass and then partitioning rather than the trad IES/ModelIT approach of drawing rooms one by one so maybe we could re-think how the partition tool works.

Also, yes please don't be afraid of the Divide Space tool. It's not that bad and can be really powerful!

Phil

[JohnLloyd]

Go into the options first though and change the colour of Construction Lines to something nice and bright. The default grey colour makes them difficult to spot.

Phil, I think the Draw Partition tool is already very good, but as I've mentioned elsewhere on this forum it would be very useful for it to be available in 'side' views as well as 'plan'.

The Construction Lines could benefit from some development; getting it to work in a more sensible way with parallel planes would be a good start e.g. draw a construction line on the floor plane of a room, and it being in the opposite position when you look at it on the ceiling plane.

[Marc Jensen]

Hi Guys,

Here is my 2c.

I think that when we are placing a plane that we use to cut and partition the following would be lovely.

1)
Click and drag around the partition in one plane, ie the x axis to move it coarsely and then adjust it by hand

2)
When starting, it would be great if we could click into our model and the plane start there, say if we are in plan view or front etc it starts horizontally with the first click then if we want to move it to other spots we can click elsewhere. ie 2 clicks to get it to be at any angle we want, with a tendency for orthogonal..

3)
With construction lines or any tool for that matter, have a little pop up window/ or speech bubble that is linked to the icon when we hover our mouse over the icon. With even a small gif that shows how to use the tool. Something that would take 5sec to watch or 1 sec and you know what and how to use the tool.


*(Cough - Inventor and Solidworks have all of these dialed and then use the right click and gestures to select tools. Id love that functionality in IES.... )

[Marc Jensen]

In terms of Construction lines.

I have never used them.

30+ commercial models so far.

So what are they commonly used for? Might make my life easier!

[p_sentobe]

Sorry for the tardy reply everyone.

Many thanks for your tips, especially the divide tool in place of the partition tool.

I'm coming from Design Builder, so yes, I would first outline the external 'shell' of the building floor by floor and then partition off, hence my initial question.

Many thanks again.