How to work with Gross volumes for zones?

[stefan]

Our regional energy regulations demand the calculation of the "protected volume" of the building to be defined using Gross dimensions.

The explanation is in Dutch, but the picture is clear.
http://www.energiesparen.be/epb/prof/oppervlaktevolume

So far, I tried to do this using Zones that are modelled around the building, but not connected to the walls or roofs.
To cap the top, I need to use a separate copy of the roof that is displaced vertically, as otherwise the roof volume is disregarded.

And in schedules, I noticed that you can only get "net volumes" out of Zones. So I can not create gross zones using the reference line methods. Only creating them manually.

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I did experiment with Morph objects that are a bit more flexible, but could not properly schedule surface materials in the past.

Want to attach separate textures to faces and schedule their areas.

Cannot find improvements in 17 either... not in Schedules, not in Lists.

Damn... So easy to do in SketchUp, so hard in ArchiCAD.

[Anonymous]

Stefan,
Did you make any progress on this issue (since last post) ?

[Erwin Edel]

I allways model my gross volumes with mesh tool, I can make schedules by element ID that shows the volumes.

It's a quick way to model the shape, just use solid element operations to add shades to the 'main' mesh.

Zone surface scheduling in the past hasn't been too accurate, so when it comes to getting surface areas of buildings, I prefer old fashioned 2d fills that I've figured out myself.

Generally I only do this type of energy calculations once per project, so it is not too big a loss of time.