How to Achieve Dynamic Space Calculation with Desired Area Display in the Plan?

[Milindsinh Solanki]

Hello, forum.

I am currently working on a housing scheme where I am trying to report its Gross Floor Area (GFA) in a worksheet. I believe the best tool for this is the Space Tool.

I want to make the area calculation dynamic so that when any wall is moved, the space automatically updates its area accordingly. However, this dynamic update only works when I create spaces using the fill bucket.

If I manually draw a polygon, use "Create Object from Shape," and convert the polygon into a Space object, the dynamic space does not respond to wall changes.

Currently, to make the area dynamic, I have to manually fill each room one by one, but this method does not provide the area display I want. I would like the entire area to be shown on the left side of the plan.

Possible Solution?

How can I achieve a dynamic space calculation while maintaining the desired area display in the plan?

 

 

Edited February 10 by Milindsinh Solanki

[Tom W.]

In the OIP for the Space there is an 'Auto-Boundary' pop-up menu: select 'Pick Boundary...' then click on the Walls you want the Space to be bound to then click on the green tick. The Space will now be 'Auto-Boundary' type.

[Milindsinh Solanki]

3 hours ago, Tom W. said:

In the OIP for the Space there is an 'Auto-Boundary' pop-up menu: select 'Pick Boundary...' then click on the Walls you want the Space to be bound to then click on the green tick. The Space will now be 'Auto-Boundary' type.

Okay, this is a great method. However, we’ve encountered two new issues:

First issue (Image 1): When auto-picking boundaries, the wall that is close to others and joined at a vertical wall (as shown in the image) tends to be excluded from the space area. But in reality, we want that wall to be included in the area. If I try to avoid that vertical wall while selecting, I get an error because excluding the wall prevents the creation of a closed loop.

 

(Image01)

 

 

 

Second issue: I want to calculate the Usable Floor Area (UFA) of the entire floor, but I want to exclude internal walls. The problem is that I need to have a single space object that calculates the entire usable area of the floor, rather than having multiple isolated space objects (as shown in Image 2)

 

(Image02)

 

 

[Tom W.]

On the second question i always have two sets of spaces on two separate layers: one set of spaces for the individual rooms + another space for the internal floor area.

 

On the first question I'm not sure whether there's a way around this. I always draw/edit my Spaces manually, probably because of the issues you describe when they're auto bounded. But perhaps someone else knows better.

[Milindsinh Solanki]

On 2/10/2025 at 5:48 PM, Tom W. said:

On the second question i always have two sets of spaces on two separate layers: one set of spaces for the individual rooms + another space for the internal floor area.

 

On the first question I'm not sure whether there's a way around this. I always draw/edit my Spaces manually, probably because of the issues you describe when they're auto bounded. But perhaps someone else knows better.

Thanks for sharing your method using space objects and custom records for dynamic area calculations. Combining the Space Area field with a custom record to display the desired area is a great approach. I’ll try this in my workflow and reach out if I have any questions.

Appreciate the help!

Best,
Milindsinh

[michaelk]

On 2/10/2025 at 1:38 AM, Milindsinh Solanki said:

First issue (Image 1): When auto-picking boundaries, the wall that is close to others and joined at a vertical wall (as shown in the image) tends to be excluded from the space area. But in reality, we want that wall to be included in the area. If I try to avoid that vertical wall while selecting, I get an error because excluding the wall prevents the creation of a closed loop.

 

The way I get around this is to draw walls that are both interior and exterior as 2 walls.

 

The little zig zag exterior walls are all L joined together.  The interior wall is T joined to the perpendicular exterior wall.

 

I believe the space object is looking for the continuous joins of the exterior wall.  So the separate interior wall isn't seen as a space border.

 

[Tom W.]

2 hours ago, Milindsinh Solanki said:

Thanks for sharing your method using space objects and custom records for dynamic area calculations. Combining the Space Area field with a custom record to display the desired area is a great approach. I’ll try this in my workflow and reach out if I have any questions.

 

I'm not sure I understand + not sure that you understood me as I didn't mention custom records + have never had the need to add one to a Space! I simply said that I have two sets of Spaces: one set for the individual rooms + another set for the whole of each floor.

 

On 2/10/2025 at 9:38 AM, Milindsinh Solanki said:

First issue (Image 1): When auto-picking boundaries, the wall that is close to others and joined at a vertical wall (as shown in the image) tends to be excluded from the space area. But in reality, we want that wall to be included in the area. If I try to avoid that vertical wall while selecting, I get an error because excluding the wall prevents the creation of a closed loop.

 

 

Following @michaelk's post I looked at this again + he is absolutely right: you must have drawn your nib wall as a single continuous wall that extends from the interior outside to the external corner i.e.:

 

I would never draw Walls like this: internal + external Walls would always have different constructions so would never be the same. And when drawn separately you can use Picked Walls Mode to select exactly which Walls you want to form the boundary of the Space + all works fine. If you use Inner Boundary Mode however the Space will see all the Walls + draw itself around them, even if they are freestanding + not connected to anything.