Selection Master

finishFloors

Video Example = Click the icon for a Video Example (requires internet connection)

finishFloors allows the user to quickly and easily create floor objects representing the floor finish of a room. The floor finish can be determined manually or can be automatically generated based on the finish code in the floor finish parameter of the room.

finishFloors Prerequisites

Prior to activating finishFloors there are several things that should be considered:

Video Example finishFloors Settings

finishFloors Settings

There are two primary settings areas for finshFloors:

  1. Floor by Click Settings
    • Use Finish Code Map - This setting allows the Floors by Click function to use the stored finish code mapping (explained below) to determine the correct floor type for each room.
    • Type not Found - If the floor type listed in a room is blank or is not found in the project this setting tells the Floors by Click function how to respond. Options are to give a prompt allowing the user to select the desired floor type or to simply place the default type.
    • Default Floor Type - This is the default floor type that will be placed if the 'Type not Found' setting is set to 'place default type'.
  2. Door Threshold Settings
    • Allow Thresholds - finishFloors can create thresholds at doors, but this may not be desired for doors that have a sill height. If this box is unchecked, doors with any sill height other than 0 will not create thresholds; if it is checked then any doors with a sill height BELOW the specified value will create thresholds but those with sill heights equal to or above this value will not.
    • Threshold Setting - There are three posibilities for how finishFloors handles door thresholds. First, thresholds can be ignored; second, the floor finish can be extended to the face of the door frame; and third, the finish can be extended to the center of the frame.
    • Frame Thickness Parameter - In order to use the 'Face of Frame' option for thresholds, finishFloors needs to know the frame depth, which is read from a parameter in the door family. This parameter can be anything, but in order to work properly, it must acuratley report the depth of the frame. Because different offices may have different content and standards this is a list of possible parameters; simply list all parameter names in use for frame thickness in order of preference.

Creating Floors

finishFloors create buttonOnce you have set the prerequisites, there are two options for actually creating floors; 'Floors by Click' and 'Create Finish Floors'. Both of these commands are located on the workFlow panel in the same drop down button.

Video Example Bulk Floor Creation

Clicking the 'Create Finish Floors' option will bring up the main dialog:

finishFloors Main Interface

This dialog contains the following four primary sections:

  1. Floor Types - This section is primarily for working with rooms without a finish code but can be used for manual overrides of finish codes as well. Use the drop down list to select a floor type and use the buttons below to set either all or only the selected rooms in the 'Room Settings' section to that type.
  2. Finish Code Mapping - This section allows mapping of finish codes to floor types and has two sections:
    1. Finish Code Mapping List - The dialog will pre-populate with all the finish codes found in the project or the selected rooms if pre-selection is present. If a saved map is present, floor types will also be pre-set according to the map. For each finish code, a floor type can be selected; once selection occurs each room in the 'Room Settings' section with that finish code will be automatically populated with the correct floor type.
    2. Save Button - This button allows saving a finish code map from session to session. It is recommended that office standard finish codes be inserted into a project, mapped to project template floor types, and saved for the most efficient future use.
  3. Room Settings - The section determines the final result of what floors will be created. The list contains several columns as follows:
    • Create - If checked, a floor will be created for this room, if unchecked, no floor will be created.
    • Level, Room #, Room Name - These columns give relevant information to determine what room is in question.
    • Finish Code - This is the value of the 'Floor Finish' parameter of the room which is used for finish code mapping (see above).
    • Current Floor Type - This column shows the finish floors currently associated with this room (if any). Only floor created with the finishFloors addin are recognized.
    • New Floor Type - This is the floor type to be created in the room.
  4. Replace Floors checkbox - If this is checked, all floors currently associated with a room designated to receive a new floor will be deleted and replaced by the new floor. If unchecked, a second floor will be added in addition to the existing floor.

Video Example Floors by Click

The 'Floors by Click' option is designed to work similar to the ceiling command in Revit. This command will allow you to select rooms individually and create finish floors in those rooms with a single click. The type of floor created will be based on the options in the settings dialog.

This command will remain active until you hit 'escape' to cancel it so you may continue clicking each room desired until you have created as many floors as you would like.

Video Example Updating Finish Floors

finishFloors update buttonDesigns are always changing and floors that have been created may become out of date. Floors can be updated quickly using the update commands on the workFlow panel.

In order to update existing floors select the floor or floors that need to be updated and select the command. The following items will be updated for the selected floors:

Existing floors may also be associated with rooms so that finishFloors can recognize and update the association in the future. This is useful if you have a project where a floor was created prior to your use of finishFloors and needs to be associated to it's proper room.

Lastly, floors created with finishFloors can be dissocaited from their associated room using the 'Dissociate Floor' command. This may be useful if you would like to create an initial floor quickly and easily but would like to make modification to it manually and do not want it re-updated to the room boundary (therefore losing your manual edits).

 

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