Understanding the Features section of the Area tab

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 are also used in situations where it might differ in how we calculate our gross façade. Basically, any aspects of a building that need to be treated differently from the larger areas of each floor plate and the gross façade, 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 façade. If we had a building that has a brick façade and glass railings, the railings would need to be calculated as part of a separate aspect of this façade, and therefore we cannot include it in the gross façade. 

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.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact our support team and we’ll be happy to help!