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 assembliesCustom Wall Assemblies, edit & delete existing ones and select what assemblies Assemblies you would like visible in the dataData-gridGrid.

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

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Assembly Library

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

The Library is arranged in a tree-view under groups Groups such as Weatherboard, Brick-Veneer, Rammed-Earth & so-forth. Each Assembly belongs to one of these groups.

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.

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Filtering & Changing the Library Views

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

You can use the Filter text-field to search for a specific wall assembly's code or name.

The library tree can be expanded or collapsed by using the Expand / Collapse buttons, or individually by double clicking 🖱 Double Left-Clicking the row you would like to expand Expand or collapseCollapse.

The Checkboxes on each Assembly determine whether that Assembly will be shown as an available option within the Construction combo-box in the Wall Data-Grid tab. For example, in the project shown, the only walls selected within the Library are a Fibre Cement, Metal Clad & Internal Wall type.  We can then see within the Data-Grid Construction column that only these assembly types are available for selection. This feature is a useful way to filter the number of options in the Data-Grid to make selection easier & avoid confusion.

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Note that you cannot unselect a

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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 --

 

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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.

Custom or user User created walls Walls are visually differentiated from the default walls by having Italic text.

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.

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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.

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TABLE VIEW

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

 

• - Select -- 

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Selected Assembly

The Selected Assembly in the Assembly Library is the Wall that will be shown in the Table View.

If the assembly itself Assembly is selected directly in the Assembly Library, the wall be shown using it's Default Insulation Option, or if you have selected a specific Specific Insulation Option in the Assembly Library, the assembly Assembly will be shown with this Insulation applied.

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Name Changes

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

The materials Materials are shown from top to bottom from the most External material to the most Internal facing material. If the assembly Assembly is used on an internal Internal wall, an arrow is shown on the wall Wall in the visual view which points towards the "external" face of this assemblyAssembly, and can be reversed by clicking this direction arrow. See the wall Wall tutorial videos for further details.

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

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Customising an Assembly

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

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The  specific materials Materials of an assembly Assembly can be changed in several ways.

You can change an existing material Material by using the drop-down combo-box under each Material's name.

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

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Moving Materials

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Materials can also be moved around an assembly by drag & dropping Assembly by 🖱 Drag-Dropping the row.

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Deleting Materials

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You can delete Delete a material Material within a custom assemblyCustom 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.

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Material Types

Several materials have "Types" which further describe them. These include:

• Concrete Blocks which have various

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• types including their

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• Density (lightweight or denseweight)

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• & their

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• Structural Coring (unfilled, filled at various centres, completely filled or solid blocks).

• Insulation

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• Materials have a

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• Type

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• 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.

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• Air-

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• gaps also has a

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• Type

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• which describes the

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• Reflectivity or

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• Emissivity of that air-gap.

Air-gaps also are the only material that use the "Vented " checkbox column within the table, which describes whether the air-gap is ventilated or not as per standard modelling practice.

The thickness 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. 

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ADDING INSULATION MATERIALS & AIR-GAP MATERIALS

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

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You can insert these materials into an assembly either as Base Materials or as a Insulation Option material. This option gets chosen by the user when they add the material to the assembly. Base Materials are modelled in the assembly regardless of the selected

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Insulation in the

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Wall Data-Grid. While a Material inserted as an Insulation Option will only get added if that Insulation Option is applied to the wall in the wall

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Data-

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Grid.

You can see this difference in any Hero Default Assemblies that have air-gap cavities behind their cladding material such as for Brick-Veneers walls. In the Hero Default Brick-Veneer wall with a reflective air-gap, the reflective air-gap which is just behind the brick-layer, is inserted or configured as a Base Material in it does not belong to any Insulation Option, it is simply applied similar to brick in the assembly regardless of Insulation Option selected.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.

Conversely this air-gap could have been included as an insulation option, such that it is only when this specific insulation option is selected within the wall data-grid that the air-gap is applied, but any other walls using this Assembly but a different Insulation Option would not include it.

The Assembly's Insulation Options list is a valuable to allow speedy changes between typical insulation types with stud-walls so that the assessor can quickly evaluate numerous configurations to get the best rating.

 this material will be your Insulation Option, but

Insulation and Air-Gap Materials can be inserted into the assembly in two different ways...as either a Base Material or as part of the Insulation Option. This option gets chosen by the user when they add the material to the assembly. A Insulation or Air-gap material inserted as a Base Material will not be shown within the Wall Insulation Option in the Data-Grid.

Conversely inserting it as an Insulation Option will add this Material into a new Insulation Option that is then selectable in the wall data-grid.

This allows the user to perform such examples:

• such as a Brick Veneer with a standard air-gap on the outside of the wall-stud but with a configurable insulation option within the stud wall cavity. This insulation option might be insulation batts ranging in various different thicknesses, but also could be an empty stud with either a reflective or non-reflective air-gap within that stud cavity. By inserting the air-gap on the outside of the stud-wall as a Base Material, the wall insulation can switch between that which is typically changed. Likewise by creating the air-gap within the stud-wall as an Insulation Option, this allows the user to easily & quickly switch between uninsulated options & insulated options for that assembly.

• Another example is for External Insulated Facade System or EIFS wall where the foam cladding on the outside of the stud wall is the rendered final cladding. You could choose to create an EIFS in several different ways by inserting the external foam layer as a Base Material option (which is what the Hero default EIFS Walls have) or as an Insulation Option. If inserted as a Base Material, the stud-wall insulation options can remain similar to a standard stud-wall assembly like Brick-Veneer walls etc. Alternatively, if the thickness of the EIFS cladding is something that the User would like to change and evaluate its effects on the rating, the outside foam cladding could be inserted as an Insulation Option, and then these various could be selected within the Wall Data-Grid---- DISCUSS CUSTOM WALLS GETTING DUPLICATED IF EXISTING CUSTOM WALLS ----

The Assembly's Insulation Options List is a valuable to allow speedy changes between typical insulation types with stud-walls so that the assessor can quickly evaluate numerous configurations to get the best rating.

Warning

Detecting improper use of Base Material for Insulation Materials New users can sometimes make the error of misunderstanding how Hero handles Insulation Options as a separate material grouping to Base Materials of an Assembly. This can sometimes result in improper use of Insulation as Base Materials which can occasionally cause duplication of Insulation materials. Always remember to review your Wall Assemblies and how they have been implemented in your Project using the Summary View’s Assembly tab.

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