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.

The Library is arranged in a tree-view under 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.

Filtering & Changing the Library Views

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 Left-Clicking the row you would like to Expand or Collapse.

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. This feature is a useful way to filter the number of options in the Data-Grid to make selection easier & avoid confusion.

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.

Custom or User created 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.

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.

Selected Assembly

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

If the 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 Insulation Option in the Assembly 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 Materials are shown from top to bottom from the most External material to the most Internal facing material. If the Assembly is used on an Internal wall, an arrow is shown on the Wall in the visual view which points towards the "external" face of this Assembly, and can be reversed by clicking this direction arrow. See the 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-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.

Note changing any attribute of any Default Wall Assemblies (except for Insulation Options) will ask you if you would like to create a Custom Assembly copy of that default.

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

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

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 types including their Density (lightweight or denseweight) & their Structural Coring (unfilled, filled at various centres, completely filled or solid blocks).
Insulation Materials 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.
Air-gaps also has a Type which describes the Reflectivity or 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 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.

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 Insulation in the 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 Data-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.

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

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.