Massing Studies Terminology

Term Description
Massing The process of visualizing, studying, and resolving building forms using mass instances.
Mass Family A family of shapes, belonging to the mass category. An in-place mass is saved with the project; it is not a separate file.
Mass Instance or Mass An instance of a loaded mass family or an in-place mass.
Conceptual Design Environment A type of family editor that creates conceptual designs using in-place and loadable family mass elements. See Conceptual Design Environment.
Mass Form The overall form of each mass family or in-place mass.
Massing Study A study of one or more building forms made from one or more mass instances.
Mass Face A surface on a mass instance that can be used to create a building element, such as a wall or roof.
Mass Floor A horizontal slice through a mass at a defined level. Mass floors provide geometric information about the dimensions of the mass above the slice, up to the next slice or the top of the mass.
Building Elements Walls, roofs, floors, and curtain systems that can be created from mass faces.
Zoning Envelope A legally defined volume within which a building must be contained. Zoning envelopes can be modeled as a mass.