ECOTECT - General Modeling

ECOTECT Modeling Space

Mouse operation

Left Click Selection
Right Click (hold) Orbit
In perspective or axonometric view, clicking and holding down the Right
Mouse button allows you to rotate the model interactively. Simply drag the
mouse to the left or right, up or down as the model rotates around the
current perspective focal point. Release the mouse button when the
desired view is achieved.

Wheel (hold) Pan
(rotate the wheel) Interactive Zoom

Zoom operation
Interactive Zoom
To interactively zoom in and out of a model there are two ways it can be done. By
holding down the Shift key while dragging the with Right Mouse button. This works by
calculating the distance from the original cursor position in either a positive or negative
direction, thus moving in or out accordingly.

Zoom Window
Left to Right Only objects in window area will be selected.
Right to Left All objects in window area will be selected.

View

F5 Plan
F6 and F7 Elevations
F8 Perspective
(Mac user: you have to hold down Fn on the bottom left.)


User Preference and Model Setting

Select User Preference and go to Modeling tab to set the unit of measurement, zone
height, and grid size as shown above.

Measurement Unit Feet and Inches
Zone Height 10
Grid Size 1












Next, select Model Setting and go to Grid tab to set up grid size

X 1
Y 1

In Grid Extent, set all axis minimum to 0 and maximum to 10000

Then, go to Location tab to import the weather data file by clicking Load Climate Data.
ECOTECT will import only *.wea format. If you have *.tm2 or *.tmy, you have to open the
fixed format file in Weather Tool and save the file as *.wea file.
Zone Management and Layer


Similar to AutoCAD, ECOTECT drawing management divides into layers. Typical
architectural drawing set consists of layered drawing sheets; in ECOTECT, layers
operate in the same manner. You can create new layer by either going to the top right
arrow in Zone Management and select Create New or clicking the little red plus icon in
the bottom right.

Once, the new layer has been created, you can show
or hide by clicking the light bulb icon next to the layer
name. You can also lock the layer. This means that
when you select objects in modeling space. The
objects that are located in the locked layer will not get
selected.

The Current Layer represents in Bold.













Creating a Simple Room for Simulating Daylight

Overall Room Dimension 10X20X10

Partition and Zone

You can use either partition or zone to create a simple room. Partition is commonly
used for lighting simulation, while zone is used for thermal simulation. In this case, we
are going to use partition to create the room. Create a new layer called wall, make it as
Current Layer, and select the partition icon on the left to start drawing.


Once, you click to start drawing you can type in the exact dimension of each wall. In
order to close the room, you have to go back to the point where you start the drawing. A
window will pop up, click ok.

For zone, select zone and start drawing. The different between zone and partition is the
closing operation of the object. In zone, pressing ESC key will close the object without
going back to the point of origin.

Moreover, zone always gets created in a new layer. In order to move zone to the correct
layer, simply select zone using the arrow tool, then select the layer, right click and select
move object to this layer.

Window and Door

Window and Door are child objects, and they will be created and linked to the parent
objects like partition and zone. In this demonstration, you are going to delete zone and
focus on partition wall. Select the wall that you want to create the opening.

PC Ctrl +Insert (near print screen button)
In the Insert Child Object, specify the size and location of the window.


MAC Select the partition and select the window icon on the left side. (See next page
on how to create guideline for drawing the window.)













Room with an Opening

If you want to create a guideline to accurately locate your window, I suggest creating
another layer called guideline, which you can either hide or show this layer. Select Line
from the left side tool bar and draw a line as shown below.


Switch to front elevation by selecting F7, select the line and Move from the left tool bar.
Move the line to the right by 3.





You can copy the line by selecting move and check Apply to Copy box. Now, move the
same selected line by 14 to the right, and you should get the image below.



Create two lines for horizontal guidelines at 3 and 7 from the ground. Please check the
axonometric view to make sure that guidelines are created on the south partition.



Select the south partition and the child object, window, and start tracing the guidelines to
create an opening. You can close window by pressing ESC.


Now, window is a child object of the south partition. These two objects are linked
together. If you want to copy the window to the north partition, you will have to first unlink
the objects, make the copy, and relink the objects.

Select both the partition and window and select unlink.


Select the window and copy to the north partition. Make sure that you have select Apply
to Copy option. I would recommend moving the axis holder in blue box back to the point
of origin, which is the southwest corner of the room before making the copy operation.


Next, you have to relink the parent and child objects for the north and south partition
separately. You can select multiple objects by holding down SHIFT and click the object
to select.


You can check whether the object has been linked through Sketch Display >>
Display/Rough Sketch. If the objects are linked, you will see the northwest back corner
of the room. (If not, then the objects are not linked, please relink the objects before
moving onto the next step.)


Louvers

Vertical louvers are created by using partition. First, you have to change the height of the
partition in User Preference to 5-6 which is the height of the opening. Next, use
partition to create vertical louver with the width equals to 8.

Next, make the duplicated the louver by using >>Editing/Duplicate or Ctrl +D. A
Duplicate dialog window will pop up. Specify the offset in the x-direction to 8, and check
the Dont prompt me checkbox.
The image above is what you should get after you select ok and close the Duplicate
dialog box. By pressing Ctrl +D, you should be able to continue making the duplicates
until you fill the opening with a vertical louver system.



At the moment, the louvers extend out from the window box. Lets move the louvers in
4. First, select the vertical louvers by dragging the red area as shown below.



Select the corner of the vertical blade and move to center. This will make the center of
the louver bladed touch the window box by using Move tool. Therefore, when you look in
Sketch Display, this is the image that you should have.





We have learned that the best orientation in Boston is 172.5 degree from North. Lets
turn the room -10 degree from south to get the optimum orientation.

Select all objects and select Rotate from the left tool bar. Its crucial to move the point of
origin to the southwest corner of the room, then use the top southwest corner of the wall
as a fixed turning point. Typing 10 to turn the model, then press ENTER.


Lets rotate the louvers by 30 degree. Go to Object Transformation locating of the right,
select Transform Around Object Center.

Use this point as the fixed
point for rotating the model

Object Transformation Tab

Transform around object center

Select all vertical louvers, then type in 30 to rotate.


The outcome should look like the image below with the vertical louvers turn 30 degree.






In this step, you are going to project the shadow from the sun. First, go to Shadow
Setting tab on the right (the little sun icon). Check Daily Sun Path and Annual Sun Path
and select Display Shadows. You can play around with other checkbox options.


Drawing Slope Roof

In order to draw a slope roof, you have to first construct a guideline for the top pitch. This
is similar to the window guideline set up. Set up the guideline on the top of north partition
as shown below.

In the elevation view F7, move the line up 3. Make sure that the line is aligned with the
north wall after move.








Move the line to the south wall.



Use Plane of the left tool bar to create the slope roof. Close the plane by clicking at the
origin plane point or pressing ESC.





In order to change the shape of the west, east, and south walls to match the slope, you
have to first unlink the window from the south wall. Then, select the south wall, select
Add Node, select the Arrow tool. Next, you have to click (and hold) the top southwest
corner of the south wall and drag up to meet the southwest corner of the roof.



Use the same operation to modify west, east, and south walls. You must delete the
original flat roof. Last, but not least, relink the window and the south wall.

After modifying walls and adding a slope roof, you should get a simple room model as
shown below.



Please check in Sketch Display for the northwest corner to make sure that the parent
and child objects are linked. Save your model for daylighting analysis.



You can turn on and off the louver layer to see differences in shading effects.


Without Vertical Louver System

With Vertical Louver System