topic Re: Creating HLA drawings for PHPP calcs in Sustainable design

Creating HLA drawings for PHPP calcs

Kerib — Wed, 15 Jul 2026 20:40:09 GMT

I'm new to Archicad, and trying to figure out the easiest way to do heat loss area (HLA) calculation elevation drawings for extracting data to insert into my PHPP (passivhaus planning package). In Vectorworks, I could use the zone tool on elevations - but it looks like I can't do that here. In Autocad, I'd just go fully manual - but I'd really like to use some smarter workflow here.

Essentially what I need are areas mapped out on an elevation, broken down by type of construction (u-value), with a label marker for that zone included. The area needs to extend to the outer edges of the thermal zone (i.e. bottom of floor slab, top of roof insulation, etc). Sort of like this example image.

I'm aware of the Energy Evaluation tool, but that's a bit off my radar for these early days. My model is a provided measured survey to start with, so no real data in it as yet - and this PHPP is for the existing building.

Googling for help isn't helping! Any tips, nuggets, or helpful pointers would be very, very much appreciated.

Operating system used: Windows 11

Re: Creating HLA drawings for PHPP calcs

Velocipede2022 — Sat, 15 Aug 2026 01:28:59 GMT

Did you ever figure this out? I too am new to archicad and am very disappointed in its ability to help with thermal area calculations like this. Have not figured out a way to automatically calculate thermal envelope based on orientation.

Re: Creating HLA drawings for PHPP calcs

Kerib — Mon, 17 Aug 2026 08:15:32 GMT

Unfortunately not. I sat in a presentation by a firm of architects a few months back - they're Passivhaus Designers - and they made a particular point about how they use Archicad to give them the external areas. On that basis, I know it's possible. The How eludes me entirely.

Re: Creating HLA drawings for PHPP calcs

Velocipede2022 — Wed, 19 Aug 2026 02:58:53 GMT

So played around with making a morph to the boundary of the thermal envelope. The made surfaces such as north walls, south walls, slab on grade, etc. then you can schedule the surfaces a get the areas to input into Phpp.