Niraj Poudel
Sefaira makes an assumption about each plane within the SketchUp model and automatically assigns an Entity Type (e.g. Floor, Wall, Roof etc.)
It is important to periodically check the Entity Types while designing, and before uploading the model to the Web Application.
Showing Entity Types
The entity assignments can be displayed by first activating the Entity Palette and then clicking the Show Entity Types button.
Entity Types Definitions
Envelope
- Roofs - Planes tagged as 'Roof' experience thermal transfer with the outdoor environment.
- Floor - The floor plane with the lowest Z (default blue axis) vaule is analyzed for thermal transfer to the ground. (Internal floors are not analyzed for thermal heat transfer to the outdoors.) All planes tagged as floors add to the total square footage of a building.
- Walls - All planes tagged as 'Wall' experience thermal transfer with the outdoor environment.
NOTE: Internal walls should be tagged as 'Internal Wall'. The 'Wall' type is for exterior wall planes. - Shading - Planes tagged as 'Shading' experience no heat transfer. They are analyzed for shading properties only.
NOTE: All contextual massing surrounding the central building should be tagged as shading. For more information on capturing context, visit our article on the subject. - Fixed Glazing - Exterior planes tagged as 'Fixed Glazing' experience thermal transfer with the outdoor environment and solar heat gains, but will not allow natural ventilation.
- Operable Glazing - Exterior planes tagged as 'Operable Glazing' experience thermal transfer with the outdoor environment and solar heat gains, but will allow natural ventilation.
Interior
- Internal Wall - Planes tagged as 'Internal Wall' do not experience heat transfer with the outer environment. They are analyzed for internal daylighting impacts. Click here for more information.
- Internal Glazing - Planes tagged as 'Internal Glazing' do not experience heat transfer with the outer environment. They are analyzed for internal daylighting impacts. Click here for more information.
Other
- Ignore - Planes tagged as 'Ignore' are not analyzed by Sefaira and will not appear when uploading to the Web Application.
Changing Entity Types
In order to edit a SketchUp plane’s entity type, you can simply right-click on the plane, navigate to “Sefaira Plugin” and select the desired “Tag as…” option from the list:
Isolating Entity Types
In the Entity Palette, click the bullet point to the left of the entity or entities you would like to isolate. Un-click the bullet in order to show all entities. You can isolate more than one entity type at a time.
If you have any comments or questions, please check out the SketchUp + Sefaira Forum or contact support@sefaira.com
regarding floors: is the ground floor supposed to face "outwards" -meaning down. or should it be oriented up like all other floors?
Is "Party wall" a new feature? it is missing in my context menu for surfaces
Hi Simon, The red face of the ground floor should be facing towards the interior of the building.
Party wall was taken out of the entity palette because it is essentially the same thing as an internal wall. I apologize for the confusion with that image.
Hi Alyson,
I'm curious why there is no tagging for exterior doors, since they would treat energy transfer differently than glazing or walls. How are they normally tagged?
Hi Michael,
For the purposes of early concept/schematic design analysis, door details are not needed and should not be modeled. If you have a glass door, tag it as glazing. If it's an opaque door, keep it as a wall.
Hello, I have a doubt. What tag is given to doors?
Hi Mitesh,
Please see my previous comment above from March 07, 2017 on doors.
"For the purposes of early concept/schematic design analysis, door details are not needed and should not be modeled. If you have a glass door, tag it as glazing. If it's an opaque door, keep it as a wall."
What about below grade walls? I have a building on a very sloped site with 2 floors of parking below grade and would like to differentiate between walls that are exposed to the elements and those in contact with ground.
Hi Allison,
Currently, you are not able to designate a specific wall as being below grade.
Also, parking garages are typically unconditioned spaces and do not make up your building envelope. You do not need to include the walls of the garage in order to optimize your wall R values for the actual building. The garage space should be tagged as "shading" if it provides any shading benefit to the rest of the building or should be ignored all together.
How do you recommend modeling exposed structural slab edges, in multi-story buildings?
For Double Skin Facade DSF, which Entity Type work ?