Compound Walls

Compound walls consist of multiple layered components, each with its own properties. Compound walls can only be rectangular in shape, with constant thickness from start to end. The total thickness is calculated as the sum of all the internal components.

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• Compound walls can have any number of internal components, and you can add, remove, reorder and edit the components at any time through the Components window. 
• By default, basic walls and compound walls do not join automatically, because they are different elements that would not be joined in a real situation. Also, they are made of different materials which would not match. However, if a particular situation requires it, you can choose to activate the Allow Joints options and attempt to join two walls of different type. 
• Compound walls can use one pen weight for both borders and internal divisions, or you can assign a pen weight for the outer borders, and one for the internal components.

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Compound Wall Settings Window  

• Type pop-up window and New Type icon. This window lists all the available Types, of both basic and compound families. It is advisable to enter descriptive names when saving a new wall type. 
• Wall Family. 
• Components section: 
• Edit Components button to access the Components window; use this button set the components of a new wall or edit an existing wall.
• Total computed thickness; the sum of thickness of the internal components determines the total thickness of the wall.
• Internal pen weight of components. The pen weight can be Same As Borders to set the same pen weight as that used for the borders of the wall, or one of the available pen weights. 
• Leading Side: see Basic Wall Properties Window for the description. 
• Wall Joints options: see Basic Wall Properties Window for the description. 
• Border line type and pen weight. Internal components can only have a continuous line division. 

Wall Components Window

Use this window to set and edit the components of a compound wall. 

The table lists the components of the wall from the exterior side to the interior, with a progressive index number. The selected component is highlighted in the preview, which shows the current wall at the scale set in the lower left corner. You can check how the wall is rendered at the different drawing scales by using the drawing scale menu. 

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The total thickness of the wall is computed on the sum of the single components and shown at the bottom of the Thickness column. 

You can add, remove and reorder the components, and rename a component by double- clicking its name. Use the + button to add a new component and the - button to remove the selected component in the table. Adding a new component opens immediately the properties editor. To edit a component, click the Edit icon on the right.

The properties of a wall component are: 

• Function: each component has its own function which can define its behavior and appearance. The available functions are: Exterior and Interior Finish, Thermal Film, two kinds of Thermal Insulation, Air Layer, Substrate, Structural, Membrane. There can only be one exterior and one interior finish. The (batting) Thermal insulation component is always rendered with the Insulation line type. 
• Thickness, in the current drawing units; 
• Fill color, hatch, hatch color and hatch scale. 

Click the Cancel ✖ or OK ✔ buttons to cancel or confirm the changes to a component and return to the list of components. The + button confirms the current component and creates a new one.