# New Ceiling Panel

Calling the function 'New slab panel' initiates the input of a slab panel. Within this dialog box, settings from previously created slab specifications can be accessed or free specifications (without specification = without designation) can be defined. If an existing slab specification is chosen, the various settings from that specification are adopted.

After defining the reference contour, layer contours are generated according to the layer thicknesses from the specification. 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 slabs are generated from the resulting layer contours and the layer thicknesses.

Options for slab panel input:

**Ceiling thickness**: If no specification has been selected, the thickness of the new slab panel can be set here

**Floor construction**: This setting is also only selectable without a specification and describes the height difference between the top of the raw floor and the top of the finished floor in the slab panel

**Current storey**: The new slab panel can be assigned to an existing storey in which it will be managed in the future. If multiple slab panels are created in a storey, they are numbered in the order of their creation.

### **Vertical position of the slabs**

There are various options for the vertical position of the slabs. The upper storey plays an important role here:

The upper storey is automatically determined based on the bottom edge of a storey; the designation (GF, FF 1, ..) does not matter. The upper storey is the storey located above the current storey in which walls are currently being input. Only storeys belonging to the same storey group are considered.

Example: A slab belongs to the ground floor of the group "Main building" and the top edge should be taken from the bottom edge of the upper storey. The program will then find the storey OG1 above it from the same group "Main building" and will ignore OG2 from the group "Extension".

**Reference for top of raw slab**: Two options can be chosen for the position of the top of the raw slab:

> **Lower edge of upper storey**: The top of the raw slab is positioned relative to the bottom edge of the upper storey. This is the correct choice when no separate storey is created for the slab and the slab closes the current storey above.
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> **Lower edge of current storey**: The top of the raw slab refers to the bottom edge of the storey to which the slab belongs. Together with the offset (next field), this allows entering the vertical position as was common with program versions prior to V14.

**Offset to reference for raw slab top OA**: This is the distance between the top of the raw slab and the reference height chosen above.

**Top of raw slab absolute**: This value refers to the absolute height zero point in the entire building. This elevation is calculated from the height setting 'Reference for top of raw slab' and the entered offset, or can alternatively be defined directly.

**Overhang**: With this value, the reference contour of the slab panel to be created subsequently can be enlarged at all contour lines by an overhang or reduced by a cutback value (negative value).

**Wall takeover**: For automatic contour generation of the slab panel, you can set here from which existing storey and with which reference a slab contour should be generated. Wall takeover is only performed with external walls that form a closed contour.

**Button 'Input'**: With this input function, slab contours can be created in any shape. The input functionality of the floor plan input and the temporary aids are available for this purpose.

**Button 'Interior point'**: By graphical selection within a closed wall area, the program creates contour polylines that are automatically bounded by external and internal walls. In this way, for example, small slab panels over interior rooms can be created that describe different slab thicknesses or change their spanning direction. All enabled lines, component and wall edges are taken into account if they can be connected into a closed contour.

**Button 'Wall takeover'**: This function generates, from the previously selected storey, a slab contour with reference to the external or internal contour, or the reference lines of the external walls.

After defining the slab panel contour, the main direction of the beams can be set graphically with the crosshair and the temporary helper functions. This alignment determines the screen orientation of the slab panel and the secondary beams in the model area 'Slab construction'. The chosen main beam direction is placed perpendicular to the screen in the slab construction (Y-axis). If necessary, the entire building is displayed rotated on the screen to achieve this.
