The Building workspace
Structure of the VICUS Buildings user interface: workspaces, main views, navigation tree, 3D scene, mode toolbars and camera control
Overview
VICUS Buildings is the Building workspace of the VICUS platform: a 3D modeling and simulation tool for thermal building simulation. The interface consists of a main toolbar for switching the main views (Model, Simulation, Results), the navigation tree with the building structure, the 3D scene and a context-dependent property panel on the right edge. This page describes the layout of the interface and the camera control; the terms of the data model are explained in Building structure & terms.
Workspaces: Building and Heat-Network
The VICUS platform comprises two workspaces: Building (VICUS Buildings) and Heat-Network (VICUS Districts). Under View > VICUS Workspaces, both workspaces can be switched on and off individually — but only with a master license that covers both products. With a Building-only license, the workspace is fixed to Building and the toggles are disabled. At least one workspace is always active: if the last active workspace is deselected, VICUS Buildings automatically activates the other one.
The active workspace controls which menus and tools are visible. In the Building workspace, in particular:
- The Reports menu and the import entry Import > EnergyPlus IDF… are only visible in the Building workspace.
- The building databases (materials, constructions, schedules, usage profiles, etc.) appear only in the Building workspace, see Database concept.
- The camera quick views (View from north/east/south/west/above, bird’s-eye views) are Building functions.
- Network-specific menus (Network, network databases, steady-state calculation, network exports) are hidden in the Building-only workspace.
Main toolbar and main views
The main toolbar is located on the left edge of the window. It contains:
New 
Open 
Save — project management, see Creating & managing projects
Undo (Ctrl+Z) and 
Redo (Ctrl+Shift+Z or Ctrl+Y)- The three main views:
Model — editing the 3D model (geometry, properties)
Simulation (F10) — simulation settings: climate & location, outputs, dynamic simulation, DIN 4108-2, see Starting a simulation; F9 jumps directly to the page with the simulation start options
Results — interactive results display in the scene, see False-color display
External results… — launches the external evaluation tool PostProc, see External evaluation
During a running simulation, a progress bar (tooltip Simulation progress) is additionally shown in the main toolbar.
Welcome page
With no project open, VICUS Buildings shows the welcome page with the buttons Create project… (Ctrl+N) and Open project… (Ctrl+O), as well as the tabs Recently used projects (with preview images, creation and modification dates) and Building examples. On the right, current news and available program updates are shown.
Layout of the model view
The model view is split horizontally (the splitter width is saved):
| Area | Content |
|---|---|
| Navigation tree (left) | Hierarchical project structure: buildings, shading objects, drawings, images, OpenStreetMap; with its own toolbar for selection and visibility, see Selection & Visibility |
| 3D scene (center) | OpenGL display of the model with scene toolbar (top) and info bar (bottom) |
| Mode toolbar (right of the scene) | Vertical tabs for switching the editing mode |
| Property panel (right) | Context-dependent panel of the active mode (e.g. add geometry, building parametrization) |
Scene toolbar
Above the 3D scene there are four tools:
| Tool | Function |
|---|---|
 Snap | Toggle object snapping (F3); the arrow next to it opens the snap options, see Drawing aids |
 Visualization | Shows the settings for network visualization (scaling of pipes, consumers and labels) — only relevant for the Heat-Network workspace |
 Measure | Toggle distance measurement mode, see Drawing aids |
 2D mode | Toggle orthographic top view (2D mode) |
Info bar
The info bar below the scene shows, from left to right: context-dependent operating hints, the snap status with the current snap coordinates (Snap: …), the number of selected objects (Sel: N), the button 
for the Selection information dialog (tooltip Show detailed selection information), and the display of the current mode (Mode: …) and the projection type (3D / 2D).
Mode toolbar (editing modes)
The vertical toolbar to the right of the scene switches the editing mode; the property panel on the right changes accordingly. In the Building workspace, the following modes are available:
| Group | Mode | Function |
|---|---|---|
| Draw |  Add | Drawing objects in the scene: rooms, roofs, surfaces, windows, holes, shading, see Drawing rooms |
| Transform |  Move  Rotate  Scale | Transform selected geometry, see Transformations |
| Edit |  Align  Trim  Copy  Edit | Align surface normals, trim geometry, copy, edit single-surface polygons, see Trim & copy and Align & repair |
| Parametrize |  Building  Structure | Building parametrization (constructions, boundary conditions, windows, usage profiles, surface heating), see Assigning constructions; Structure mode with room properties, structural units and building structure, see Structural units |
| Surroundings/Location |  Surroundings  Location | Surroundings analysis (sun path, shading factors), see Surroundings analysis; location parametrization (grid settings, view depth, origin of the world coordinates) |
In addition, there is the Certification mode 
for the verification of summer thermal protection; the same verification is also reachable via the simulation view, see DIN 4108-2. The modes Move, Rotate, Scale, Align, Trim and Copy are only active when suitable geometry is selected; the Edit mode is available as soon as the project contains buildings.
Good to know:
The complete quick reference of all keyboard and mouse commands is opened via Help > Keyboard and mouse control… (F1) — it makes a worthwhile cheat sheet during the first working days with the program.
Camera navigation
The camera is controlled with mouse and keyboard (quick reference under Help > Keyboard and mouse control…, F1):
| Input | Effect |
|---|---|
| Hold left mouse button | Orbital controller: camera rotates around the clicked point |
| Hold right mouse button | First-person controller: mouse rotates the camera around the camera position |
| Hold middle mouse button | Pan the camera |
| Mouse wheel | Move the camera forward/backward (zoom) |
| W / S | Camera forward/backward |
| A / D | Camera left/right |
| R / F | Camera up/down |
| Q / E | Rotate the camera around the global Z axis (perspective projection only) |
| Hold Shift | Slow down movement (factor 0.1) |
| Hold Space | Speed up movement (factor 10) |
With the Ctrl key held, keyboard navigation is disabled so that shortcuts like Ctrl+S do not move the camera at the same time.
Predefined camera positions (Ctrl+1 to Ctrl+9) and finding selected geometry (Ctrl+G) are described in Selection & Visibility.
Display options in the View menu
| Menu entry | Function |
|---|---|
| View > Parallel projection (2D) | Switch to orthographic projection; enabling it automatically changes to the view from above |
| View > Reset view | Resets the camera to its initial position: looking down onto the coordinate origin |
| View > Show IDs in navigation tree | Displays object IDs in the navigation tree, see Building structure & terms |
| View > Show main grid at z=0 | Toggle the main grid in the z = 0 plane (default: on) |
| View > Show ground plane | Toggle the colored ground plane (default: on) |
| View > Show surface normals | Show the normal vectors of all surfaces — helpful for the construction check |
| View > Extrude surfaces (experimental) | Experimental display of the surfaces with component thickness |