Understanding Features within Area Sheets
In Ediphi, the best way to understand Features is to think of them as that aspect of a Use Group which is either infrequent or unique to the design of this building. Therefore, they are something that needs to be treated differently from the areas that we might include in the Area Sheet for our Below-Grade and Above-Grade sections.
Features can be used in situations where there may be a difference in how gross facade is calculated. Any aspects of a building that need to be treated differently from the larger areas of each floor plate and the gross facade are considered Features.
For example, balconies, which might need a different type of waterproofing or fireproofing, or glass railings, which are going to be calculated as something outside of the gross facade. If we had a building that has a brick facade and glass railings, the railings would need to be calculated as part of a separate aspect of this facade, and therefore, we cannot include it in the gross facade.
To visualize this in the platform, let’s add 2 features to our estimate under the Area Sheet: a Balcony, and a Glass Railing.
From here, we would go to our takeoff to obtain the gross area of our Balcony, and the lineal footage of our Glass Railing. For this example, we’ll say that the Balcony has a gross area of 630 sq ft, and our Glass Railing has a total lineal footage of 65 lf (We'll assume that the Floor to Floor for the Railing is 3lf). We can then input that information into our Area Sheet, under the Features section.
Now that these have been added, you can see that these are separate from our Above-Grade and Below-Grade areas.
Pro Tip: If a user would like a Feature’s total square footage to be displayed but not included in the project’s total square footage, add the square footage amount to any Above or Below-Grade floors under a specific Use Group. Then, within the Use Group modal under Manage Use Groups, select "Exclude from Total" for that Use Group.
Use the visual guide below to better understand features in a drawing:
If you have any questions, feel free to contact our support team, and we’ll be happy to help!