Mixed Use Buildings

[Gary Sharp]

Hi Modelur...

Finally had a project to begin applying Modelur and it gets better all the time...

a couple of feedback points

Mixed Use Tool works well but I think you could probably broaden its scope and maybe change its name to something less specific or more generic...   for example,, I am actually using the tool to group together a sereis of townhouses into one aggregate group [ie they are all the same landuse].. 

Further it would be great if you could nest "mixed use" grouping so we could develop a urban design grouping hierarchy  allowing us to create subsets of project information.

For example... my project is over 400 hectares, that is divided into 5 precincts, the precincts are divided into urban blocks, and the urban blocks are divided into individual lots, and the buildings on those lots are in some cases "mixed use" buildings.  If we could nest these levels inside one another we would have a comprehensive reporting tool.

Also, while developing my project it became apparent how useful it would be to 

1]  be able to utilise components to define buildings... in the case of townhouses [ I have over 200 I need to create individually in my masterplan], and if I want to do edit to the building form again I have to do it individually to the 200 buildings..

2] To be able to provide our own naming convention to the buildings + mixed use groupings

[Nejc Vidmar]

Hi Gary,

and thanks for your feedback, we really appreciate it!

My answers are below your suggestions...

On Friday, January 6, 2017 at 1:51:43 PM UTC+1, Gary Sharp wrote:

Hi Modelur...

Finally had a project to begin applying Modelur and it gets better all the time...

a couple of feedback points

Mixed Use Tool works well but I think you could probably broaden its scope and maybe change its name to something less specific or more generic...   for example,, I am actually using the tool to group together a sereis of townhouses into one aggregate group [ie they are all the same landuse].. 

Internally we use the term Complex Buildings already. It's sometimes also used as alternative name but Mixed-Use building seems more widely accepted so that's why we use it. Please note that if you group together the Complex/Mixed-use Building tool, you might run into wrong calculation of Built-up area. Complex Building tool was designed to stack multiple simple Buildings one on top of the another.

But it looks like some of you are using it for grouping also, so we might implement is for this case also...
 

Further it would be great if you could nest "mixed use" grouping so we could develop a urban design grouping hierarchy  allowing us to create subsets of project information.

For example... my project is over 400 hectares, that is divided into 5 precincts, the precincts are divided into urban blocks, and the urban blocks are divided into individual lots, and the buildings on those lots are in some cases "mixed use" buildings.  If we could nest these levels inside one another we would have a comprehensive reporting tool.

For such usecase, we will be adding Spatial Units, which we are just developing. And we've just discussed it with Olaf here today. This way, you will be able to subdivide plot into smaller, more manageable units. I hope this will bring you what you need.
 

Also, while developing my project it became apparent how useful it would be to 

1]  be able to utilise components to define buildings... in the case of townhouses [ I have over 200 I need to create individually in my masterplan], and if I want to do edit to the building form again I have to do it individually to the 200 buildings..

Since using Groups as Modelur Buildings, this is practically impossible at the moment. But we can create a tool which can make such task much easier - for example you create 200 buildings and modify one. Then you select other 199 and choose to replace them with the first (changed) one. How does that sound to you?
 

2] To be able to provide our own naming convention to the buildings + mixed use groupings

You can already rename buildings the same way as any other SketchUp Group. But it also make sense to be able to rename them in batch. We'll add this to our feature suggestion list! Or would you prefer having additional parameter that specifies Building's name when it's created?

Thanks,
Jernej

[Nejc Vidmar]

Gary hi,

just a quick update on one of your suggestions - in Modelur 0.5.7-r02, we've added an option to rename Buildings directly inside Modelur UI. This also works in bulk mode, when more buildings are selected. To see this option, just expand the Selected Building Parameters in Building tab.

Cheers,
Jernej

[Gary Sharp]

Updated and it works fine , thanks

[Gary Sharp]

Hi Nejc,

Looking forward to the spatial grouping function - that will be a big advance in capability for us.

PS anything that handles editing components would be a big plus

Regards