Room Data Sheet

The Room Data Sheet module can be used in early planning phases, as it allows building owner requirements to be quickly and directly incorporated into the planning process. This allows initial approximate results to be derived, detailed calculations to be performed, and comparisons between target values and actual values to be made later.

One example is thermal loads by electrical appliances: Determining the number of lights, PCs, and other consumers with approximate their electrical capacity provides initial load totals that can be output according to various criteria (e.g., by building section). However, the determined number can also be used for detailed cooling load determination in order to be stored in the load profiles. For later comparisons between target values and actual values, these can also be compared with the number of elements actually modeled.

Creating a Room Data Sheet

In the first step, the rooms can be imported from an Excel room data sheet or a building model, or created directly in LINEAR Building. Next, you specify which parameters are to be recorded for the rooms. All room parameters available in LINEAR Building are initially available, for example, input data and calculation results from load calculations, structural information for determining locations such as building parts and floors, and other room properties such as room types. In addition, any number of custom parameters can be imported, loaded from templates, or defined manually.

Organizing Data in Property Sets

In the Room Data Sheet module, parameters are organized in so-called property sets. These bundle the values and settings of the parameters (name, unit, restrictions, calculation formulas) and have a specific name. Each property set appears as a separate table. Examples of property sets are sanitary data, electrical data, ventilation, zoning, supply routes, etc. A property set for sanitary data can contain parameters such as the number of sinks, number of toilets, or number of showers.

The property sets then serve as a template for the tabular representation of the data. At each point in the building structure, the rooms are listed as subordinate elements in the tabular views. Data is entered per room or for entire room groups. The hierarchical arrangement and many intelligent filter options help to simplify and speed up data entry. Errors or deviations in the data can be easily identified by means of so-called Restrictions. Easy-to-use and preconfigured text patterns, value ranges, and value lists, as well as matching filters, provide addiational help in this regard.

Calculations

Parameter values and even restrictions can also be calculated. All other parameters and even user-defined variables can be used for the calculation. A rough preliminary determination of loads in a user-defined parameter is possible, for example, by multiplying a recorded number of consumers by a load value as a constant. Changes are applied immediately. Area-related values can also be determined using the Room Area parameter. Parameter and their values can in turn be used for further formulas and calculations.

Integration

The room data sheet data is available in other modules, for example for cooling load profiles, pipe diagrams, or the design of radiant heating/cooling systems. It can be compared with building models and supports the pipe route concept in LINEAR Solutions for Revit, even without modeled consumers.

Exchange and Structure

Comparison with Excel room data sheets enables collaboration with other planning peers. Rooms can be grouped and displayed not only in the traditional way according to building section/storey/area/apartment, but also according to freely definable structures such as room type or supply shaft.