Walls - Connect/Clean Up Compound Walls, apply component priorities


 Product(s):OpenBuildings Designer (and AECOsim Building Designer)
 Version(s):CONNECT Edition and V8i
 Area: Architectural Design
 Subarea: Walls

When the Connect Walls tool is used the clean up of Compound Walls can be improved by applying an appropriate priority to each Compound Wall component.

The Compound Part Definition dialog box, Function setting, controls how the sub-parts of a compound wall are cleaned up and joined.

Right-click on a compound wall in the Family/Part Editor (was Dataset Explorer in V8i), and choose Properties to open the Definition dialog box:

Each wall component can be given a priority from 1 to 8, or can be left undefined. Each priority is labelled with a suggested purpose, these are only for guidance and to aid legibility of the sub-parts list. They have no other significance.

  1. Structure
  2. Furring
  3. Substrate
  4. Membrane
  5. Rigid Insulation
  6. Cavity/Air Space
  7. Primary Finish
  8. Secondary Finish

When compound walls join, the highest priority subparts are joined first and they are not broken by subparts having a lower priority.

A couple of examples of these in use:

The functional parts of the compound wall shown above are (1) structure, (2) furring, (4) membrane, (6) cavity/air space, (7) primary finish, and (8) secondary finish.


The structure function subpart (1) has the highest priority and is never broken by a subpart having a lower priority function – in this case the secondary finish function (8).