green areas

[kejt dhrami]

Hello

I was wondering if there is a possibility to calculate green area requirements for the specific plot or areas. I have a newer version of Modelur, which doesn't provide this, but I think the older version did, before the options of parametric maps were added.

thank you

[Nejc Vidmar]

Hi Kejt,

I am sorry, but at the moment it is not possible to specify requirements for green area. However, we will add this feature be back in Modelur 0.4.1, once we test it some more.

Best regards,
Jernej

[kejt dhrami]

Thank you so much for the fast reply :)

I'm a new user of Modelur and I am currently trying to use it to facilitate the process of setting regulations of development for specific areas in a local plan. I was wondering whether there is the possibility to import files and information on building height and land use from GIS, so that I won't have to put the data once in GIS and again in Modelur. Also, if you know of any software that links GIS with sketchup applications, it would be of great help.

As for the data measured by the software, I can enlist some additional indicators or enhancements:

1. It would be interesting to show warning signs not only for distances (which is a really helpful option), but also for 

a. incompatible adjacent land uses (f.e: industry and education)

b. access of plot to infrastructure of less than x meters 

c. buffering areas of streams / main road, etc.   

2. It would be great if you could consider land use of the plots, besides the ones of buildings. (As i read, you are trying to implement data on different plots in a bigger area, in order to measure coverage, FAR,etc.

In this case, one could measure also:

-Infrastructure coefficient (surface of infrastructure divided for the overall area)

-Public space coefficient (surface of public space divided for the overall area)

These are some indicators that are used in the urban legislation of my country (Albania), so it would be great to have them adapted in a software :)

3. Is it possible to extend the land use options? For example, if I wanted to have more than x% of commercial land use in an area, could the software show me how much commercial area can I add?

4. Can you have some other specifications about the distances in the future? for example:

a. distance from the property edge (or the plots that you plan to add)

b. distance from the road

Also, the measurement of distance can be a little bit more specific

For example:

for 3 store buildings: x meters

for 4 store buildings: y meters

This would definitely be an upgrade and will help a lot the work in countries where urban regulations are too particular

5. As for parking place provision, can you apply a standard m2/inhabitant? because, as i understood, you can only have specifications on the minimum parking lot size, the number of lots per apartment and the number of residents per PL. 

I think I'm going to bother you again in the future with my questions and suggestions. :)
I really appreciate your software and I think it is close to perfect

Thank you

Kejt

[Nejc Vidmar]

Hi Kejt,

thank you very much for your elaborate report and suggestions. Since it's quite a long one, I will post my response below your suggestions.

On Thursday, October 16, 2014 12:11:48 PM UTC+2, kejt dhrami wrote:

Thank you so much for the fast reply :)

I'm a new user of Modelur and I am currently trying to use it to facilitate the process of setting regulations of development for specific areas in a local plan. I was wondering whether there is the possibility to import files and information on building height and land use from GIS, so that I won't have to put the data once in GIS and again in Modelur. Also, if you know of any software that links GIS with sketchup applications, it would be of great help.

Facilitating regulation is a future vision of Modelur! It is a main part of my PhD research topic, which I hope to finish in early 2015. If interested I can send you a draft of the paper I've written on this topic, and it will also be published in 2015. As for automated transfer of information from GIS to SketchUp, we have not yet been able to implement it, but it is on our roadmap :-) I also do not know of any software that would do that.

As for the data measured by the software, I can enlist some additional indicators or enhancements:

1. It would be interesting to show warning signs not only for distances (which is a really helpful option), but also for 

a. incompatible adjacent land uses (f.e: industry and education)

b. access of plot to infrastructure of less than x meters 

c. buffering areas of streams / main road, etc.   

Thank you for these suggestions, I will add them to our feature request list. But we have to be careful of not adding too much of parameters as we want to keep Modelur simple and useable around the globe (each country/city has a bit different regulations). We might make some survey in the future to define what shall be included in the general release. Of course, we can later (once Modelur becomes commercial) make specialized versions...

 

2. It would be great if you could consider land use of the plots, besides the ones of buildings. (As i read, you are trying to implement data on different plots in a bigger area, in order to measure coverage, FAR,etc.

That is true, funcionality is planned for Pre-beta 5. But you can now also use Parametric maps of Land Uses to achieve the same thing :-)

In this case, one could measure also:

-Infrastructure coefficient (surface of infrastructure divided for the overall area)

-Public space coefficient (surface of public space divided for the overall area)

Thanks for the hint,  we'll add these to the feature request list!

These are some indicators that are used in the urban legislation of my country (Albania), so it would be great to have them adapted in a software :)

3. Is it possible to extend the land use options? For example, if I wanted to have more than x% of commercial land use in an area, could the software show me how much commercial area can I add?

This would be possible and I think it is an interesting suggestion worth of separate discussion. What kind of visualisation do you have in mind - something like numeric data, something like quick automatic massing (so you can get the feeling of how much you can add), or something completely different? If you want to talk more about this, please open new thread and we shall discuss this idea inthere. Maybe also somebody else will be interested in sharing their ideas on this... :-)

4. Can you have some other specifications about the distances in the future? for example:

a. distance from the property edge (or the plots that you plan to add)

b. distance from the road

Also, the measurement of distance can be a little bit more specific

For example:

for 3 store buildings: x meters

for 4 store buildings: y meters

This would definitely be an upgrade and will help a lot the work in countries where urban regulations are too particular

a and b are already planned, but will be probably introduced only once the first full (commercial) version of Modelur is out.
as for specific buildings and heights, you can always use the ratio property, which defines the distance between buildings based on their height.
If needed, we could add specific heights for specific buildings, but in this case we should think carefully how to implement it due to our moto of keeping things simple. It is our top priority to keep things simple in Modelur.

5. As for parking place provision, can you apply a standard m2/inhabitant? because, as i understood, you can only have specifications on the minimum parking lot size, the number of lots per apartment and the number of residents per PL. 

I am not sure if I understand you correctly. Can you please give me more concrete example. Eg. for building with 1.200m2 gross floor area. How do you want to have the PL requirements calcuated?

I think I'm going to bother you again in the future with my questions and suggestions. :)
I really appreciate your software and I think it is close to perfect

No problem, in the end, it is the main intention of Modelur Pre-beta program to get some feedback!

Thank you

Kejt

Cheers,
Jernej