Configuring Areas, also referred to as BIM Areas, the Work Breakdown Structure, or the Construction Sequence, is key to being able to filter the model, create assemblies, and define work packages efficiently. Project deliverables are dependent on configured project Project Areas (Package Per Area Breakdown). The Package "Per Area Breakdown" number depends on the number of hierarchical areas defined in the project. For example, an AutoCAD model by default might only have the building as an area, whereas a Revit model might include a more granular hierarchical breakdown by Level, Scope Box, Room, etc. 

Manage Areas

The Manage Areas button controls which areas display in the viewers.

Add Areas

To add Areas to the Viewers:

1. Publish a model and open it in the Models Viewer. Initially, there are no areas because they have not yet been selected.

   Open

   

    

2. To Assign Areas, go to Projects > Areas. In this example, the model has just been published and no areas have been assigned.

   Open

   

    

3. Click the Manage Areas button and Select a Model.
   Note: Select the model that will be used to define areas for all models in the project.

    

4. With the model selected, options to select Levels, Scope Boxes, and Zones displays depending on the Authoring tool. Levels must be checked.

    

5. With Levels and Scope Boxes checked, the Levels display and are collapsed by default.

    

6. Expand a level by clicking its expand down arrow button or expand all by clicking the Expand All button. The subareas (Ex. Scope Boxes) display. Check one or more levels (Ex. L01) and Scope Boxes (Ex. OA1, etc.) that will become areas in the Viewer. All parts in these areas will be assigned to the areas.

    

7. To expedite the selection of areas, enter a value in the Search text box and then click the Check Matches button. Use the Uncheck Matches to uncheck any selected areas.

    

    

8. Before clicking update, in this example, this level and these scope boxes have been selected.

    

9. Click the Update button.

10. The Projects > Areas page refreshes:

    1. The selected Levels and Scope boxes populate the data table.

        

    2. The Models Viewer is updated to display the selected Areas. Any deselected areas would be removed from the Models Viewer.

    3. The Stratus.Part.BIMArea property for each part in the area is now populated with the area.

    4. The Assign Parts buttons, Assign Parts (All Models) and Assign Unassigned Parts (All Models) are highlighted yellow.

Delete Areas

To delete Areas from the Viewers:

1. In this example, the data table has been edited and two Abbreviations have been added.

2. Click the Manage Areas button and expand the currently selected level (Ex. L01). The scope boxes areas will display.

3. Uncheck several scope box areas like these 4 scope boxes. Note: The SC-OB2 Abbreviation was previously entered in the data table for this scope box area.

    

4. Click Update.

   1. The Project Areas pages displays:

      1. The unchecked scope box areas are removed from the data table.

      2. Since the row (Area) OB2 was deleted, the Abbreviation (Ex. SC-OB2) for that row has also been deleted.

      3. The row (Area) OA1 is still selected, therefore, the Abbreviation (Ex. SC-OA1) remains.

      4. The Assign Parts buttons are highlighted yellow.

   2. In the Models Viewer:

       

      1. The unchecked scope box areas (Ex. OB1, etc.) are deleted from the viewer.

      2. For the deleted areas, the Stratus.Part.BIMArea property value has been deleted.

Edit Areas

Area Data Editing

1. Edit Row (Area) Data - Double-click a row to edit the row data.

2. Name - The imported areas will display in a tree structure under the Name column. The name of each Level, Scope Box, etc. will display. Names are not editable, but the Sort order is editable. See the Sort by Name and Sort by Elevation options below.

3. Delete - Select a row and then click Delete to delete the row.

   1. The Delete Area prompt will display.

   2. Click OK. The area will be deleted from the viewers and the Area data table.

   3. Note: To add the area back into the viewers, click Manage Areas, check the area, and then on the Areas page, click the Assign Parts (All Models) button. Otherwise, the area will not display in the viewer.

4. Save - Select an area, edit a cell value (Ex. Abbreviation, Elevation, Range). The Save button is enabled. Click the Save button, or, click anywhere on the page and the value will be saved.

5. Cancel - Select an area, edit a cell value (Ex. Abbreviation, Elevation, Range). The Cancel button is enabled. Click the Cancel button and the value will be cancelled.

6. Expand All - By default, all areas are expanded. Use the Expand All button to expand the areas after they have been collapsed.

7. Collapse All - Use the Collapse All button to collapse all areas to the highest tree branch, usually the model. Expand the model to view collapsed Levels.
   
   
   

8. Add Row Below - The Add Row Below button is intended for those projects where the admin wants to manually build a hierarchy of areas and manually choose the relationships between them (Ex. grid areas, scope boxes, etc.). The Add Row Below button enables you to add an area row below the selected area. When clicked, a copy of the selected row will be add to the data grid. Edit the row as needed. Note: In one of the Viewers, Filter by Area and the newly added area row will display. It does not yet have any parts associated with it. See the Graphical Selector section below. 

    

9. Add Row Child - The Add Row Child button is intended for those projects where the admin wants to manually build a hierarchy of areas and manually choose the relationships between them (Ex. grid areas, scope boxes, etc.). Click the Add Row Child button to add an indented row (child) to the selected row. The selected row becomes a parent row that can be expanded and collapsed. Edit the row as needed. Note: In one of the Viewers, Filter by Area and the newly added area row will display. It does not yet have any parts associated with it. See the Graphical Selector section below.

    

10. Assign Parts (All Models) - The Assign Parts (All Models) is enabled after any change is made to the data table and when a model is published. Click the Assign Parts (All Models) button when the changes should be applied to all parts.

    1. For example, if Abbreviations have been added to one or more rows, then the STRATUS.Part.BIMAbbreviation property will be added to all parts in the specified area.

11. Assign Unassigned Parts (All Models) - The Assign Unassigned Parts (All Models) button is enabled after any change is made to the data table and when a model is published. The Assign Unassigned Parts (All Models) button can be clicked during subsequent model publishes to ensure that parts are correctly assigned to new model areas and that existing parts that have already been assigned are not modified.

12. Arrows 

    1. Up - Moves the selected row up.

    2. Down - Moves the selected row down.

    3. Left - Outdents the selected row so that a child row is at the same level as a parent.

    4. Right - Indents the selected row so that the row becomes a child of the row above.

13. Sort by Name - Click Sort by Name to sort the rows by the Name column in alphabetic order.
    Note: The row order on the Areas page will drive the row order on the Projects > Deliverables page. 

     

14. Sort by Elevation - Click Sort by Elevation to sort the rows by the Elevation column (lowest to highest).
    Note: The row order on the Areas page will drive the row order on the Projects > Deliverables page. 

     

15. Graphical Selector - By default, when the model includes Levels, Scope Boxes, Zones, Rooms, and Spaces, those will be automatically be matched up when the Import as Areas button is clicked (above).  The Graphical Selector can be used to override or redefine areas in the model that will be assigned to the selected row area.  

    1. The Graphical Selector is accessed by double-clicking any area row and clicking the Graphical Selector button in the Contents column.  The Select Regions for Area dialog will display. In this example, the region displays and since Scope Boxes were defined in the model, the SB (Scope Box) button is automatically selected, and the row area's scope box checkbox is selected.
       
       
       

       1. Clear Area - The Clear Area button (not displayed) can be used to clear out previous data and selections enabling the user to check areas.

    2. Display grid - To override default area settings, click the Display grid button to display grid cells with a checkbox in the center. Grids will display if the model includes Display Grids. By clicking a checkbox, any part whose centroid is within the grid cell will be assigned to the selected area.
       
       
       
       

       1. Click Done. The Areas table will refresh and the Contents of the select row will update with the number of grid cells that are included in the area.

       2. Since the Area data has been edited, the Assign Unassigned Parts (All Models) button will highlight yellow indicating that the parts have not yet been assigned to the area. Click the Assign Unassigned Parts (All Models) button to assign all parts in the model to the areas noted on the Areas page.

    3. RM - Click the RM button to manually select Room regions for the area of the selected row.

    4. SM - Click the SB button to manually select Scope Box regions for the area of the selected row. Note: If an assembly is inside two scope boxes, all assembly parts will be assigned to the area where the assembly centroid is located. 

    5. SP - Click the SP button to manually select Space regions for the area of the selected row.
       
       

    6. Grid Line Note: For Grid Lines to display properly:
       
       

       1. In the model, finalize any name changes to the grid lines. Grid line definitions for a model are purged and reloaded on every model publish. If a grid line name changes, links to those names are broken in Stratus.

       2. If the model is republished with updated grid line names:

          1. Use the Clear Area button to clear all grid cell associations to project areas and remove all part area associations.

          2. Using the areas tools, rebuild the grid cell associations so that the project areas are linked to the correct grid line names and the parts are associated with the correct areas. You can assign the grid cells at all levels of the project area tree structure. Do this for several areas and auto-assign parts. Make sure these associations are correct using the Models > Viewer > Display Modes > Areas tab.

16. Abbreviation - Manually enter an abbreviation for each row if you want Stratus to automatically use the Area Abbreviation field as part of your assembly or package naming scheme under Admin > Company > Naming Conventions. See the Naming and Numbering (Admin) article for more information. Since area abbreviations are used within the name of an assembly or package, you'll want to standardize the naming scheme and keep them short.

17. Elevation - While you can edit the elevation, this elevation comes from the model so won't likely need to be changed.

18. Range Bottom Offset and Range Top Offset - The Range Bottom and Range Top settings tell Stratus which parts in the Z will be included in the area. 

    1. For example, in the Models > Viewer, you may filter to an area that should include anchors, but it doesn't. This is because the anchor centroid is outside of the Range Bottom or Range Top setting.
       
       
       

    2. In this example, I'll enter -5" as the Range Bottom Offset for all of the Roof areas, and, to "offset" this I'll enter -5" as the Range Top Offset for all of the Level 1 areas.

        

    3. If any changes are made, click the Assign Parts (All Models) button to assign parts to the area. 

    4. Once the Models > Viewer is refreshed, Filter to the Areas (Roof), the anchors now display.
       
       
       

19. Code - The Code represents a sub-string for cost coding. The Code will be used in the future but is not currently an active feature.

20. Color - Row colors display in the Viewers under Display Modes > Areas. 

Questions

Q: If after defining project areas the model is republished, will project areas be lost.
A: No, republishing the model does not overwrite or delete project areas defined in Stratus. In fact, if new parts are added to an area in the model, they will be included in the defined area in Stratus. And, if parts are removed from the model, they will also be removed from Stratus.

Q: Are project areas imported back into the model or drawing?
A: No. A Project Area is a Stratus only definition. It really does not need to be part of the model or drawing data.

Q: I have already set project areas by clicking the Assign Parts button. If the model is republished, will the new parts added to the model be assigned the correct project area?
A: Yes, the Part Property = Stratus.Part.BIMArea will be assigned the correct area based on the project area assignments.

Videos

Project Areas Overview (9:42)

This is an older video that includes the no longer used Import Areas option which has been replaced with the Manage Areas option. It does a nice job demonstrating how to the Range Bottom and Range Top data values can be used.

1. How to how to import and configure areas from a Revit model or CADmep drawing.

2. How to use the Graphical Selector to manually add quadrants to an area.

3. How to Assign areas to parts.

4. How to auto-name a spool with an Area abbreviation.

5. How to isolate areas to create assemblies or packages.