New Project
This topic is a brief overview of creating a project and a sampling of some of the related views. It is intended to give you a feel for the overall application navigation, layout, and capabilities. Start with the Project List Home view:
To start a new project use the [Menu] key on your device and select "New Project".
The Add New Project dialog displays:
Project Name
Enter a project name.
New or Existing Customer
If this will be a New Customer enter a new customer name to be created along with your project. If your new project is for an existing customer un-check "Create New Customer" to reveal a list of existing customers.
When ready press the "Add" button to create your project and display the main project view. Below is Project Home view from one of the Example Projects.
Across the top are the four tabs:
- Start Tab - options for entering and updating Project level information, chart viewing, and sending emails.
- Loads Tab - Create and edit construction items to define the building envelope loads.
- Rooms Tab - Optional for room by room loads, create and edit rooms and their associated loads.
- Totals Tab - Simple grouping of each type of load, Walls, Glass, etc. by Heating and Cooling.
From the Start Tab press to bring up the Project Information view:
Project Information
Project Name is your reference and appears in all charts and the email report.
The Customer spinner allows you to change the customer associated with the project.
Exposed Wall is the above grade area exposed to the elements. Floor Heating and Floor Cooling areas are used in places such as volume calculation for infiltration and floor area for duct heating and cooling.
Project Information..Continued
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Notes are for your reference. Status can be set and used as a filter in the Project List View to help find and locate Projects as well as track their progress to completion.
Project Status
Once familiar with the application you may decide to create "Template" projects to use as baselines for new projects and filter on "Template" projects.
Saving Changes
By default your changes are always automatically saved. Should you decide to abandon your edits use your device [Menu] key and select "Cancel" to go back to the previous View. Normally you will want to just use your device's [Back] key which performs an automatic Save. The [Back] key will always take you back returning to the previous view.
Project Climate
From the Start Tab press the Climate Button
Indoor Climate describes the interior desired conditions including the Winter Temperature, Summer Temperature, and Humidity.
Outdoor Climate describes exterior uncontrollable conditions. These can be entered in from a database grouped by Country, Region, and City:
Notice the outdoor values are grey and disabled. To enter manual values check the "Use Custom Values" checkbox. This disables the Country, Region, and City spinners and enables the remaining values for edit:
When you are done editing press the device [Back] key to save changes and return to the Project Home View and begin adding Project Loads.
Adding Project Loads
Project loads are the core items describing the building envelope. Although like items can be grouped and entered in multiples it is still a challenging task to properly identify and record all the different construction methods used in constructing the building. To calculate the total heat losses or gains for the structure it is necessary to break down similar areas such as windows, doors, walls, etc. For each of these areas properties such as square footage and how readily heat passes through the resulting assembly must be recorded.
Select the Loads tab:
This is one of the Example projects which already has loads. The default loads for a new project include a few of the basic items every project will need, i.e. one wall, ceiling, floor, door, and window. You may edit or delete any of the construction loads. Lets create a new Above Grade Wall.
Adding a Wall
Press the phone's menu key and select "Add New Load" to get the following dialog:
First choose the construction type, in our example above the default first item is Above Grade Wall. Once a construction type is selected the "Copy From" will contain all similar items from the current project as well as the same item from the Default Project. For example your starter project does not contain a Skylight so you will only be able to copy a Skylight from the Default Project. If your project already contains one or more Above Grade Walls these will also be available for you to copy.
Press "Add" to copy an Above Grade Wall From the Default Project and display the "Above Grade Wall" edit view similar to the one from our Example Project:
Above Grade Wall
Identifying the Construction Item
Each detail load view has similar functions and layout. The first list items narrow down your type of construction.
The example above shows a Frame Wall with R13 Insulation and a secondary grouping identifying the type of exterior construction and the resulting uValue for the construction item.
Wall Orientation
Although the orientation of a wall does not affect it's value any windows and glass doors attached to the wall may "inherit" the orientation of the wall making it easier for you to change the overall orientation of a project by changing wall orientations and not every individual item.
Sample Window Orientation
This is the orientation dialog for a window that aligns itself to a wall
Sometimes you might want to create one wall wrapping the entire structure, i.e. the same wall for a 30' x 40' structure is 140' x 8'. To do this you can optionally select the "no direction" option:
And for each of the windows select the appropriate direction.
Dimensions
Length, height, and area are self explanatory. The area of wall components (windows, doors) are automatically removed from the wall area as indicated by the area, opening, and net area columns. Net Area = Area - Sum of all Components.
Heating and Cooling Totals
Totals for the particular item display at the bottom. Use checkboxes to disable heating, cooling, or both for the current load.
Multiple Occurrences
If an item occurs multiple times use the Occurrences list to identify the quantity, i.e. "3 Windows". The individual area shown will be for one item on the current view with all other views showing the multiplied value. Selecting zero occurrences has the same effect as disabling heating and cooling.
Add Remaining Loads
Use "Add Load" to create new loads or edit any existing loads to match the characteristics of your structure. Detailed descriptions of each load will be added to the "Loads" sub-forum.
Project Rooms
Rooms are optional, used for creating room-by-room load calculations when sizing ductwork. Below is a sample from the Example Project:
Sample List
Sample Bedroom
Sample Bedroom Loads
These are included to give you a reference, we will not be covering rooms in this topic.
Project Totals
Project Totals are a quick reference grouped by major type of construction:
Project Totals..Continued
Project Totals..Continued
The Project Totals Tab is informational and contains (mostly) information about Construction Loads. From each of the four Project level tabs you may have noticed the "drawer" at the bottom. Touch, or drag upwards to reveal Project level calculated information:
Project Values Opening..
Completely Open
Continued..
Room Totals
The same "Drawer" value list is also available for Rooms.
Charts
There are six Charts available from the Project Home Start Tab. Open the selection view by pressing the Chart Button:
Chart Selection
Project Heating Loads
Project Cooling Loads
Project Heating and Cooling Loads
Room Heating Loads
Room Cooling Loads
Room Heating and Cooling Loads
Email Report
The email function allows you to send project values and charts from the Project Home Start Tab. Open the selection view by pressing the Email Report Button:
Email images are scaled at 400 x 400 suitable for desktop display. The body of the email contains text representation of project values.
Settings
Project Settings allow you to change display units of measure and control whether or not the sample projects are created. If "Create at App Startup" is checked any sample projects which you have deleted will be re-created.
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