New ceiling field

Calling the 'New Ceiling Section' function starts the entry of a ceiling section. Within this dialog box, you can call up settings from previously created ceiling designs or define custom designs (without designation = without a name). If you select an existing ceiling design, the various settings from the design are adopted.

After defining the reference contour, layer contours are generated according to the layer thicknesses from the design. The layer contours of the shells are then intersected with walls that penetrate them. Layer contours of core layers are not affected by the walls. Finally, the desired layer plates are created from the resulting layer contours and the layer thicknesses.

Ceiling field input options:

Ceiling thickness : If no version was selected, the thickness of the new ceiling field can be set here

Floor construction : This setting can also only be selected without execution and describes the height difference between the upper edge of the unfinished floor and the upper edge of the finished floor in the ceiling field

Current floor : The new ceiling bay can be assigned to an existing floor where it will be managed in the future. If multiple ceiling bays are created on a floor, they are numbered in the order in which they were created.

Height position of the ceilings

There are various options for the height of the ceilings, with the upper floor playing a key role:

The upper floor is automatically searched for based on the floor's bottom edge; the designation (ground floor, first floor, etc.) is irrelevant. The upper floor is defined as the floor above the current floor where walls are currently being entered. Only floors belonging to the same floor group are considered.

Example: A ceiling belongs to the ground floor of the "Main Building" group, and the top edge is to be taken from the lower floor of the upper floor. The program then finds the floor above it, OG1, from the same "Main Building" group and ignores OG2 from the "Extension" group.

Reference for upper edge of soffit : Two options can be selected for the position of the upper edge of the soffit:

Lower floor upper floor : The upper edge of the slab is positioned relative to the lower edge of the upper floor. This is the correct choice if no separate floor is created for the slab and the slab closes the current floor at the top.

UK current floor : The top edge of the soffit refers to the bottom edge of the floor to which the slab belongs. Together with the offset (next field), this allows you to enter the height position, as was common with program versions prior to V14.

Distance to reference for soffit OA : This is the distance between the top edge of the soffit and the reference height selected above.

Absolute upper surface of slab : This value is relative to the absolute zero point of elevation in the entire structure. This height is calculated from the height setting 'Reference for upper surface of slab' and the entered distance, or it can be defined as an alternative.

Overhang : With this value, the reference contour of the ceiling field to be created subsequently can be enlarged on all contour lines with an overhang or reduced with a cutback value (negative value).

Wall transfer : For automatic contour generation of the ceiling field, you can specify here which existing floor and with which reference a ceiling contour should be generated. Wall transfer is only performed with exterior walls that form a closed contour.

'Input' button : This input function allows you to create ceiling contours of any shape. The input functionality of the floor plan input and the temporary aids are available for this purpose.

'Interior Point' button : By graphically selecting a point within a closed wall area, the program creates contours that are automatically delimited by exterior and interior walls. This allows, for example, small ceiling fields to be created over interior spaces that describe different ceiling thicknesses or change their span direction. All activated lines, component edges, and wall edges are taken into account if they can be connected into a closed contour.

Button 'Wall takeover' : This function creates a ceiling contour from the previously set floor with reference to the outer or inner contour, or the reference lines of the outer walls.

After defining the slab bay contour, the main direction of the beams can be defined graphically using the crosshairs and temporary auxiliary functions. This orientation determines the screen orientation of the slab bay and the secondary beams in the 'Slab Structure' model area. The selected main direction of the beams is placed vertically on the screen (Y-axis) in the slab structure. If necessary, the entire structure is displayed rotated on the screen.