Placing Spaces

An accurate heating and cooling loads analysis can only be accomplished if spaces are placed (created) in all areas to account for the entire volume of your building model. You place spaces in either bounded, semi-bounded, or unbounded areas.

• Bounded areas are areas that are bounded by room-bounding components such as walls, curtain walls, curtain systems, columns, roofs, floors, and room and space separation lines.
• Semi-bounded areas are not fully bounded by room-bounding components.
• Unbounded areas are open areas without any room-bounding components.

The latter 2 spaces need room-bounding components, such as space separation lines, to fully bound the area. The computation height of a space is 0' 0" (0.00 mm) above its reference level (default setting).

1. Open a view where you want to place a space.
2. Click Analyze tabSpaces and Zones panel Space.
3. On the Options Bar, specify parameters for the space.
4. Move the cursor into the drawing area and click to place the space.
5. Continue placing spaces or click Modify.
6. To see room-bounding elements, click Modify | Place Space tab Space panelHighlight Boundaries.

   Revit MEP highlights all room-bounding elements in gold, and displays a warning. To see a list of all room-bounding elements in the model, including those that do not display in the current view, click Expand in the warning dialog. To exit the warning and remove the highlighting, click Close.

Tip: Tile a floor plan and a section view so that you can verify both the vertical extents and horizontal boundaries of the space when you place it.

After you place a space, it is added to the Default zone. You should assign each space to a zone. This removes the space from the Default zone.

After you finish placing spaces, all occupied and unoccupied areas in the building model should contain spaces as indicated by being shaded. If areas are unshaded, you must resolve them. Unshaded areas are typically caused by shafts, chases, and sliver spaces. You can examine a shaded 3D analytical model in the heating and cooling loads dialog to detect gaps.

After you place a space, it is added to the Default zone. You should assign each space to a zone. This removes the space from the Default zone.