The Wall Construction Library holds information on the Default & Custom Wall Assemblies as well as their associated Insulation Options. It allows you to create new custom wall assemblies, edit & delete existing ones and select what assemblies you would like visible in the data-grid.

The view is split into two main sections, the Library which shows all the various assemblies in their groups, and the Table View which shows the Wall Assembly & Insulation Option currently  selected in the Library.

...

 Assembly Library

The Library shows all the various Wall Assemblies that have been either custom created by the User, as well as the Hero Default Walls.

...

Each Assembly has a list of its various Insulation Options. These Insulation Options are what can be selected for the walls using this assembly within the Data-Grid Insulation column. Assemblies generally have several insulation options such as for different insulation thicknesses, materials or air-gaps etc. Users can create & edit custom insulation options within the Table view.

...

 Filtering & Changing the Library Views

...

There are several features available to assist in organising & searching the Library.

...

Note that you cannot unselect a wall that is in current use in a project. 

The option "Hide Unselected Assemblies" at the top of the library view toggles the library from showing all assemblies, including those unselected  vs showing only selected ones. You can use this option to again reduce the number of options visible within the library. 

The Select All Assemblies option will check all wall assemblies and show them all, and conversely you can clear the selection by using the Clear All button to start selecting your desired walls again.

 

 

...

CREATING NEW ASSEMBLIES

...

 

All new custom assemblies are created by copying an existing one. Choose an assembly within a Group that your new custom assembly will become a  part of and hit the Copy button or keyboard shortcut Ctrl-C. The new assembly will have been created as a copy of the original assembly. You can now customise the assembly further within the table view.

...

Insulation Options can also be copied from the library, however they will also be copied & created just by editing the insulation within the table view which can be a faster way to customise them. 

...

DELETING ASSEMBLIES & INSULATION OPTIONS

...

Custom Assemblies can be deleted by using the Delete button at the top of the library or keyboard shortcut "Delete", noting that Default Hero assemblies or walls in current use within the project cannot be deleted.

Custom Insulation Options can also be deleted by using the same button or keyboard shortcut. 

...

TABLE VIEW

...

The table view shows a detailed view of the assembly, in terms of its Materials List as well allowing the Assembly to be edited & customised further.

 

...

Select

...

The selected item in the library is the Wall that will be shown in the Table View. If the assembly itself is selected, the wall be shown using it's Default Insulation Option, or if you have selected a specific Insulation Option in the Library, the assembly will be shown with this Insulation applied. 

...

Name changes

...

Custom Walls can have their CODE which represents the short version of their name, or their Name changed within the textfields at the top of the Table View.

...

The table has various columns showing the Name of the material, its type, whether it is a vented air-gap, and its R-Value. You can also optionally toggle the visibility of the thermal conductivity column if required.

 

...

CUSTOMISING AN ASSEMBLY

...

The Table View allows you to customise & edit the assembly in various ways.

...

If you would like to add a Material into the Assembly, you can drag a Material from the Add Material row at the bottom of the view. The material that will be added can be changed after it has been added or you can pre-select the material that will be added. Alternatively, pressing the "+" will add the material at the selected row.

 

...

MOVING MATERIALS

...

Materials can also be moved around an assembly by drag & dropping the row.

 

...

DELETING MATERIALS

...

You can delete a material within a custom assembly, by using the Delete button shown on hovering over the row, or selecting the row and using the keyboard shortcut "Delete".

If you delete a material from the current Insulation Option then a new Insulation Option will be created with this material removed. 

...

MATERIAL TYPES

...

Several materials have "Types" which further describe them. These include Concrete Blocks which have various sub-types including their density (lightweight or denseweight), their structural coring (unfilled, filled at various centres, completely filled or solid blocks).

 

Insulation materials also have a "Type" which describes the material type of that insulation such as Fibreglass, EPS Foam etc. These various insulation types will have slight effects on thickness & thermal conductivity of that insulation material.

...

The thickness of the material can be changed in the Thickness column. This will typically improve the R-Value of the material. Note the thickness of an air-gap is also important to model the correct fixed R-Value for that air-gap.

 

...

ADDING INSULATION MATERIALS & AIR-GAP MATERIALS

...

Hero handles Insulation & Air-gap Materials slightly differently from standard Materials within the Assembly.

...

For example, lets say we had a Custom Fibre Cement Assembly, shown here initially as just a Fibre Cement layer, an Insulation Layer which you can see is where the various Insulation Options typically are located for that assembly and then the Plasterboard internal surface. If we wanted to add an air-gap on the outside of the stud-wall in this assembly, such as if we were changing from a direct-fix fibre cement wall to something like a battened out cavity fibre cement clad wall, we would need to add an air-gap between the fibre-cement sheet & the Insulation Option listed for that assembly. This air-gap would typically then be inserted as a Base Material option, as you would want that Air-gap applied regardless of what R-Value batt you select for that wall within the data-grid as you optimise your model & run simulations.

 

Alternatively if we wanted to add a new insulation option for this wall which was a R2.5 glasswool wall batt, plus an additional 50mm EPS sheathing, we would insert this EPS Insulation layer as an Insulation Option, as we would likely be evaluating this EPS layer as optional, and some of these walls may still have R2.5 batts, some may be uninsulated & so-forth so we likely wouldn't want the 50mm EPS sheathing applied as a Base Material. 

 We could do that by inserting the air-gap as a Base Material, this means that this air-gap is part of the Assembly regardless of selected Insulation Option type, so the air-gap cavity would be present in all walls using this construction in the Data-Grid, even if they using the Uninsulated Insulation Option here, or using a batt such as the R2 fibreglass insulation option here.

...