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Overview
This Tutorial Section discusses in detail how Walls are modelled, used & some of their properties within Hero, including how they are integrated into the Visual & Data-Grid Views.
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All zones Zones are completely bounded by walls Walls along their edges, and when a zone Zone is initially drawn, the walls Walls for that zone Zone are created automatically. If required, the newly created walls Walls will split & connect to nearby walls Walls from other zones Zones automatically. When two walls Walls are connected like this, we call them they are called Adjacent Walls in Hero.
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Default Values & Previous Values
Newly created walls typically Walls are assigned either the Default Properties of walls Walls such as the Default Wall Assembly & Default Wall Heights, or if you adjusted a wall changed an existing Wall away from these properties, the New Wall will use this Previous Value. For example .
E.g: if you
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changed a
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Wall away from the
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Default Assembly to a Fibre-
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Cement Wall that is 2450mm high, then the next
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Zone created will have the new
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Wall Assembly as Fibre-cement
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at 2450mm height.
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WALLS WITHIN THE VISUAL VIEW
Selecting a Wall
You can Select a wall Wall either within the Visual View or the Data-Grid.
Walls also share the common context-menu actions of Select Parent (which will select the Parent Zone of the Wall) which can also be called by double🖱 Double Left-clicking Clicking the wallWall.
The Send to Back feature can also be very useful for walls Walls particularly when special floating walls Floating Walls are aligned over the top wallsof other Walls, so that you can select the desired wallWall. Select the wall Wall on top and choose the 🖱 Right-Click Context Menu -> Send - To - Back feature and the previously selected wall Wall on top will now be below any other wallsWalls. You can now select the wall Wall on top.
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Deleting Walls
Walls can be deleted by:
selecting the wall Wall and pressing delete
⌨ Delete; orby using the right-click context🖱
Right-ClickContext-menu deleteDeleteaction within the Visual View;by right🖱
Right-clickingClickinga wall Wall anchor & choosing theDelete Pointaction.
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When a |
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Wall is deleted, the |
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Walls to the left & right of the deleted |
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Wall are connected so that the room remains contiguous. If you are deleting a Wall Anchor, it will be the |
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Wall who has this anchor as its right-anchor that will be deleted. |
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Moving Walls
Walls can be moved in the Visual View by selecting them and then dragging 🖱 Dragging them into their position.
You can also drag 🖱 Drag the corner anchors of a wall Wall to move that wall point Wall Point and extend or shrink the length.
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Walls cannot intersect walls Walls of other zonesZones, and in these situations, Hero will block any attempts to move further. |
You can move a wall Wall or a wall-anchor Wall Point in a straight -line ↔ or ↕ direction by holding ⌨ Shift.
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Splitting Walls
Walls can be split into new walls Walls by the Split Drawing Mode feature which is detailed in the Split & Merge Drawing Mode
You can also split a wall Wall vertically by the right🖱 Right-click context Context-menu action Split Wall (Vertically). This will split the walls Walls & add a new wall-anchor Wall Point at that pointlocation.
Splitting a Wall
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(be it via the Split Drawing Mode or
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Context-menu actions
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) can be required to model situations such as when you have different construction assemblies side by side
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E.g: If along a
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Wall length the
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Assembly type changed from a
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Brick-
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Veneer to a
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Weatherboard section; or if the
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Height, Insulation, External Colour or any other property of the
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Wall differed from the other you would split the Wall.
You may also need to split walls Walls to change the geometry of a zone, such as when you extending a zone or shrinking it. In certain situations, you need to split the wall Wall to insert a wall anchor Wall Point before you move it into it’s new position to create the desired final geometry. *** DO AN EXAMPLE like “In this example, we see the existing zone, and the new room plans which may have come from an updated version of the plans
E.g: For a situation where we have an existing Zone and we receive new plans from the designer and which require us to then move the walls. We would use a
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Split Wall in the indicated position & insert
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Wall Points to be able to shift this section of the
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Zone while leaving the remaining portion.
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You can also add further walls Walls to a zoneZone, that do not need to lie along the zone Zone edge, through the Special Floating Wall feature, which is discussed in more detail later.
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Merging Walls
Two or more continuous walls can be merged back into a single wall Wall using the Merge Drawing mode Mode as detailed in the Split & Merge Drawing Mode section.
PROPERTIES
Geometry
Wall width
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WALL PROPERTIES
Property | Description | Edited Within |
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Width | Wall Width is calculated automatically and can be seen in the |
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Data- |
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Grid Width Column. |
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Width |
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can only be changed by moving the |
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Wall Points within the Visual View | Visual View (not editable within Data-Grid) | ||
Height | Walls have a Total Height, and then the Base Height which represents the Height above the Level height that the wall starts, and a Top Height which represents the Height above the Level height that the wall ends. For a typical wall, the Base Height will be 0, and the Top Height will match the Total Height of the Wall. The Total, Base & Top Height of a wall are all visible under the Height column of the Wall data-grid. Changing the base height will shift the top-height & vice-versa rather than effecting the total height.
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| Wall Data-Grid Height Column | |
Orientation | The orientation of the wall is shown in the Orientation Column of the Data-Grid and show the orientation of the wall in terms of what direction the external side of the wall is facing. | Visual View (not editable within Data-Grid) |
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Thickness | The thickness of the wall is determined by the Assembly & Insulation selected for the wall. This is the thickness that is shown in the Visual View, as well as in the optional |
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Thickness column of the Wall Data-Grid which is default hidden from view.
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Not editable directly (based on Assembly + Insulation) | ||
CONSTRUCTION | A wall has a Construction or Assembly which is the construction build-up of that wall, including its external cladding, internal surface & any other materials within the assembly. Walls also have an optional Insulation Option which is the insulation materials specifically for that wall section that get added in addition to its Assembly materials. In Hero we separate the function of Assembly & Insulation so that the user has flexibility to change & test various insulation types quickly for each assembly & quickly optimise the passive design aspects of the house; as well as for its use as an important reporting metric. The Wall Construction Library tutorial provides further detail on Wall Assemblies & Insulation Options, and how assemblies & insulation options can be edited or custom created. A Wall’s Construction in the Project is shown & can be changed within the Wall Data-Grid’s Construction column. The Currently Selected Wall Assemblies from the Construction Library will be shown and a new type can be selected. When a wall connects to another adjacent wall such as for internal walls, the assembly usually gets automatically changed to the previous internal wall assembly, which by default is an Plasterboard stud wall. Likewise when a wall disconnects from another adjacent wall it will reset to the previous external wall assembly. When changing an assembly, if the new assembly contains an Insulation Option similar to the current insulation of the wall, this will be selected. However if there is no similar Insulation Option on the new assembly then the default for that assembly will get applied. For example in this example we are changing from a Brick Veneer wall that has R2.0 insulation to a Single Brick wall which has no Insulation Options in its list…when we change the assembly to Single Brick, we can see the Insulation value gets set to the default No Insulation option for that Single Brick assembly. The Insulation Options available for that Wall Assembly will be shown in the Insulation column. You can select an existing Insulation Option by using the combo-box drop-down menu or you can type in the desired R-value in the table’s cell and hit enter; or for more complicated options you can create a New Insulation Option within the Wall Builder for that assembly. When typing in a R-value into the insulation column, if there is an existing Insulation Option for that Assembly that matches the entered R-Value it will use that Insulation Option, otherwise a new Fibreglass Insulation Option of the desired R-Value is created, assigned to the wall and added to that Wall Construction’s Insulation Option List. For Example in this Project, the 4 External Walls are all of a Brick Veneer with Non-Reflective Sarking Type Construction. The Insulation Options for this Assembly within the Construction Library are shown in the drop-down menu, and can be selected. If the insulation type desired was a R2.7 insulation batt, we could model this by typing 2.7 and hitting enter. If we go the Construction Library for this assembly, we see this type is now part of the Insulation Option list for that assembly. Alternatively if the insulation was a complicated combination of insulation materials such as a reflective EPS board insulation, we would need to go into the Construction Library and create a new Insulation Option, change the existing insulation material to the desired R-value & type, and add a new air-gap to the assembly to represent the reflective air-space. Now when we select the desired wall in the Wall Data-Grid we can see that this Insulation Option is available for selection. | |
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EXTERNAL COLOUR | Walls can have their External Colours changed to model the different solar absorptances of different finishes. This is changed within the External Colour column of the data-grid which shows a Colour’s name and its solar absorptance. The first three options are the defaults for Light, Medium & Dark, and then there are variety of custom colours that relate to various other colours such as typical Colorbond colours etc. |
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ADJACENCY | Energy-modelling is heavily concerned with heat-transfer, and the external & internal conditions on either side of the wall, along with the materials of the wall determine its heat-transfer. Similar to many energy-modelling programs, Hero allows the user to specify different adjacency or externality conditions for a wall. This is primarily viewed & assigned through the Wall Adjacency column of the data-grid. There are a variety of options that can be assigned to a wall depending on it’s state, however some wall adjacency types are locked and cannot be changed. The default adjacency is an External adjacency, meaning the outside face of the wall is facing the external environment. If a wall is adjacent to another wall and has been connected automatically by Hero, the Adjacency will depend on what type of Zone the adjacency is between. For example for two walls within a Single Home or Dwelling, the Adjacency Type is INTERNAL and cannot be adjusted. In this situation, heat transfer is modelled between the two rooms during simulation. For two walls that separate two different dwellings, such as in a multi-residential project, the Adjacency Type is NEIGHBOURING and again cannot be adjusted. In this situation, there is no assumed heat-transfer between the two rooms in simulations, and this represents an Adiabatic Adjacency, however the thermal mass of the walls are still accounted for in the simulation. For walls connecting a normal Zone to a Carpark or Corridor Zone, the Adjacency Type is Carpark or Corridor respectively and again cannot be adjusted to a different option. This is modelled similar to Internal Walls in simulations. Walls that do not have an Adjacent Wall, can have several adjacency types manually assigned in the Data-Grid’s adjacency column. These Include Neighbouring, which is used to represent Adiabatic situations where no heat-transfer is to be modelled similar to how walls between two dwellings are modelled. This adjacent type is used such as when a wall is adjacent to a neighbouring conditioned building that is not part of the Energy Simulation. Another Manual Adjacency Option is a Roofspace or Subfloor adjacencies. When this is selected, the Wall is modelled in the simulation with heat-transfer between the wall’s zone & the roofspace or subfloor adjacent. In many way of these situations, the base height of the wall will likely need to change, for example a bulkhead wall that is adjacent to the roofspace, will need a base height similar to the ceiling height next to the wall and this needs to be considered likewise for walls adjacent to subfloor zones.. Another Manual Adjacency Option is the Ground/Retaining Adjacency Type which models the wall as adjacent to Ground, Soil or a Retaining wall. In this situation, for Chenath Simulations, Hero automatically adds a 5m section of soil material to the external or back side of the wall assembly to simulation the thermal mass & temperature of the ground as per NatHERS Practice. So the user does not need to change the assembly type to add a soil layer in the Wall Construction Library as may have been previous modelling practice. ** EXAMPLE OF NEIGHBOURING BUILDING ** Floating Walls which are described in further detail later in this section, also are the only to allow select the unique “Mass” Adjacency Type which represents a Thermal Mass wall. |
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SHADING
Walls can have shading objects that can affect the way they are simulated, these include:
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