Room properties
Display floor area and room volume, calculate them from geometry or enter them manually, repair open room volumes and check the room status
Overview
The Room properties page lists all rooms of the project with floor area and air volume. Both quantities enter directly into the simulation model: the volume into the air-change and energy balance of the zone, the area into the definition of area-related loads (see Room energy balance). By default, the values are calculated from the geometry, but they can be overridden manually per room. In addition, the page shows the geometry status of each room and automatically repairs open room volumes.
Access
Mode toolbar to the left of the 3D scene, button 
Structure, then the Room properties page.
Room status and coloring of the scene
While the page is active, the rooms in the 3D scene are colored according to their geometry status; the Room status legend is shown:
| Status | Symbol | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Valid |  | Area and volume can be calculated, the room envelope is closed |
| Warning (open volume) |  | The room envelope has open edges but still yields a usable volume |
| Error (volume/area faulty) |  | Area or volume cannot be calculated (e.g. area < 0.1 m², volume < 0.1 m³ or a badly defective envelope) |
Open edges not covered by surfaces are additionally highlighted in the scene as blue lines. The tooltip of the status symbol in the table names the open area (“Room contains %1 m² of open area - can be repaired automatically.”) or reports “Room appears to be open and cannot be repaired automatically.”.
Filter
Above the table, the room list can be narrowed down:
- Building: — selection list, default All buildings
- Storey: — selection list, default All storeys; selectable only once a specific building is chosen
- Room name: — text filter on the room name, case-insensitive
Room table
The sortable table contains, per room: Id, status symbol, Name, selection and repair button, as well as Area [m2] and Volume [m3]. The font of the values indicates their origin:
- italic: calculated automatically from the geometry
- bold: manually entered value (saved in the project file)
- red: invalid value
A double-click on a room row opens the Room data dialog with general information (name, area, volume, additional heat capacity, assigned usage profile) and a table of all room surfaces with construction and boundary conditions (hint text: “Double-click on room row for additional information”).
Area and volume from the geometry
Without a manual value, VICUS Buildings calculates both quantities automatically:
- Floor area: sum of the polygon areas of all room surfaces whose normal deviates at most 5° from the negative Z axis (i.e. points almost horizontally downward). Results below 0.1 m² are considered invalid.
- Volume: calculation via a tetrahedron method (shoelace method) from the room envelope including the opening surfaces; requires a fully enclosed envelope. Results below 0.1 m³ are considered invalid.
Entering values manually
The cells Area [m2] and Volume [m3] are directly editable (mark the cell and type the value, or press F2). Manual values permanently override the automatic calculation. Entries below 0.1 m² or 0.1 m³ are rejected with a warning message (“The area of room ‘%1’ is invalid. Please enter a valid area > 0.1 m2.”).
Back to automatic calculation
Switch to automatic calculation deletes the manually set area and volume values for all rows marked in the table; the values are then determined from the geometry again. With many rooms, a progress dialog with a Cancel button appears.
Selecting a room in the scene
The button 
(tooltip Select room in the scene) in each row selects the room with all its surfaces exclusively in the 3D scene — the previous selection is replaced.
Repairing an open room volume
For rooms with status “Warning (open volume)”, the button 
(tooltip Repair open room volume) appears in the row. It automatically creates closing surfaces (“Closing surface 1”, “Closing surface 2”, …) along the open edge chains, with the surface normal pointing outward and coloring by inclination. Once finished, a message lists the added surfaces (“Closing surfaces added to room ‘%1’.”). If the opening cannot be closed into valid polygons, the button is not available.
Good to know:
The automatically newly created closing surfaces do not yet have a construction assigned. After a repair, check the construction assignment of the affected rooms so that the surfaces are treated thermally correctly in the simulation.
Assigning surfaces to a room
Assign surfaces moves surfaces selected in the scene into a different room — for example after import or drawing errors, or to assign anonymous geometry to a room:
- Select surface(s) in the 3D scene.
- In the table, mark exactly one target row (room).
- Click Assign surfaces.
The button is only active when exactly one room is marked and at least one of the selected surfaces does not already belong to that room. Once finished, the message “Surfaces assigned to room ‘%1’.” lists all moved surfaces with their source and target room.