Synopsis

This ECOTECT tutorial explains how to display object attributes if they already exist in a model.

Duration

You will need about 10 minutes to complete this tutorial.

Training and Accreditation

Successfully completing this tutorial fulfills one of the practical skills required for completing Level 1 of the Solar Radiation Analysis training module.

Resources Required

To complete this tutorial, open the AcousticRays.eco file located in the Examples folder of your Ecotect installation.

Tutorial

In ECOTECT, textual or numerical attributes can be assigned to any object in your model. These attributes can be specified manually by the user, or defined by calculation, and can include things like the daylight factor or incident solar radiation falling on a surface, or the number of rays hitting a surface during an acoustic analysis.

1. Open the ECOTECT example file, and select any surface in the model. Go to the Selection Information panel, and look at the Attributes section of the panel. You'll see that up to three different values have been assigned to the selected object - these are the object's atrributes.
   
   
2. But what exactly do these numbers mean? To find out, go to the Display»Object Attribute Values»Properties... menu item. This displays the following dialogue box:
   

   The attribute management dialgoue box.
   Under the Manage Attribute Data tab, you can see a description of what the three different object attributes represent - for example, the third object attribute in this model had been defined as Weight Level and the units of measurement are decibels (dB). Click Ok to return 3D Editor.
3. To display object attributes over your ECOTECT model, go to the Display»Object Attribute Values»Attrib. 3: Weighted Levels menu item. This will display some dots over the surfaces of your model, and also add a title and legend to the 3D Editor window display, as shown:
   

   Display the object attibutes in the 3D editor.
   It is possible to display any one of three object attributes defined for an object at any one time.
4. However, this object attribute display by itself is not particularly informative. Go back to the Display»Object Attribute Values menu, and you'll see there are three Display options that can be used in conjunction with the selected object attribute:
   • Display Text Values shows the assigned value for the selected object attribute.
     

     The Display Text Values option.
   • Display Vectors displays the surface normal direction of an object, superimposed with the colour legend value for the specified object attribute.
     

     The Display Vectors options.
   • Display Colours shades each object with the colour legend value for the specified object attribute.
     

     The Display Colours option.
   • Any or all of these three display options can be used simultaneously:
     

     The Display Text Values and Display Colours options shown simultaneously.
5. Click on to the Display»Object Attribute Values»Custom Scale... menu item. In this dialogue box, you can specify the colours used for the object attribute legend, along with the minimum and maximum value range.
   

   The Colour Scale dialogue box.