Creating and Organizing Rooms
Note: "Room" is the default name for this type of item, but this label can be renamed per install (Options → General). If your menus show a different word (e.g., "Suite" or "Area"), it refers to the same feature described here.
Once a project has been created or opened, you can create and organize the rooms for the project.
To access the Rooms Tree, click on the Project tab and then click on New Room icon
or Open Room icon.
To edit the Rooms Tree, select a category and right-click. This will display the Rooms menu. When a category has been selected, the following options will be available:
Add New Category allows you to add a new category or sub-category under the selected parent category.
Rename Selected Category allows you to rename the selected category.
Delete Selected Category allows you to delete a category.
Add New Room allows you to add a new room under the selected parent category.
As with naming projects, it is also important to create a standard naming convention for rooms within a project. An example would be something like: <Sheet #> - <Room Name> <Room #> or 1 - Reception 101.
When a room has been selected, the following options will be available:
Copy Room - Allows you to copy the selected room.
Rename Selected Room - Allows you to rename the selected room.
Delete Selected Room - Allows you to delete the selected room.
Move Selection to Another Category - Allows you to move the selected room to another category.
Room Properties - Allows you to access the Room Properties window – used to populate attributes within blocks (i.e., finish schedules).
Setting up the Room Properties (Inside of a Project)
After a room has been opened, the Room Properties button will be visible and active. The Room Properties allows you to set up information that is particular to the room. By default, these values populate a table in the Spec sheet of the Microvellum drawing templates. Most of these variables have been set to look at specific variables.
Room Properties does not control which Specification Group is used to build the room, and it does not change hardware or material selection for products drawn in the room. Each row here is a text value that can optionally be auto-populated from a Specification Group variable for display/reporting purposes. If you need different hardware or materials per room (e.g., two color schemes), that must be set up through the Hardware Wizard/Material File of the relevant Spec Group. See Overview: Foundation Library Handles and Pull Tabs for more information.
To auto-populate, these values, right-click on a field, and select Edit Room Level Property.
In the next window, click on the Specification Group Name to choose which Specification Group this one field should pull its value from. This link applies only to the field you right-clicked. It is not a room-wide setting, and selecting it here does not make this the room's Specification Group for any other purpose.
After selecting the desired specification group and closing out of the Edit Room Level Property window, right-click again and select Update Database. The Room Properties fields will now be populated.
