This section describes Skema's morphing function and how to use it to get viable results in your floorplan layout.

This KB Article includes the following:

The morphing function will be used when creating a floorplan layout. Refer to the Unit Layout article for more information.

This function will be used when you want a unit to fit a space in your layout that the base dimensions of the catalog will not.

As seen below, the desired unit does not completely fill the space. The morphing tool will allow you to stretch the unit to fill this space.

To deal with these "special case" spaces, select the unit massing tool in the on-screen toolbar to create a mass within the space.

Note: The unit massing tool is different from the space massing tool and must be used to enable morphed unit functions.

It may be possible to insert one of your catalog units into this mass, even though the mass is not the same size (or even shape) as the unit in your catalog. Typically, units of similar size to the mass morph best into the mass, so identifying which unit to morph is important.

To insert a unit into the mass:

And just like that, the unit is morphed into the modeled mass!

Note: There are limitations to the morphing tool, and sometimes units will not have a feasible solution to certain masses. The tool works best with viable masses for the units intended to be morphed.

In many cases, after creating a floor plan layout, you will encounter massing at corner conditions or bends in shape. These are not able to generate as units directly from the catalog, but can be morphed into units.

These place-holder masses may need to be modified to fill any empty space. Like all instances of morphing, the area of the drawn mass should be similar to the area of the unit being morphed. In this instance, the "Three Bedroom" unit in the catalog is a relatively close fit.

The process is very similar to what was described above, except we'll have the option of selecting a space within the unit that will primarily morph as it is placed. When selecting a unit capable of morphing at an angle, an additional dialog box is added, titled "central room". This additional dialog box is another indication of whether a unit can be morphed at an angle. In this box, select the portion of the unit that will act parametrically; this is the portion of the unit that will change in size. In the example case here, there is one option: the kitchen and living space.

To insert a unit into the mass:

While units are being placed, they can be rotated, flipped, and simplified by clicking one or more of the options under the unit content tab.

No Options Checked

When no option is selected, the unit will be placed exactly as it was designed in the catalog:

Rotate

When "Rotate" is selected, the unit is rotated 180 degrees:

Flip Vertical

When "Flip Y" is selected, the unit is flipped side-to-side:

Flip Horizontal

When "Flip X" is selected, the unit is flipped front-to-back:

Simplify

The simplify tool manages cases where an element becomes extremely small or needs to be removed as part of the morphing process. "Simplify" will work to make otherwise unplaceable units solve properly for more use cases of that unit.

Use these tools to help align your morphed unit within your layout or ease the process of morphing.

Once a mass is morphed, the mass can still be changed and updated, while maintaining its morphed shape. This is known as dynamic morphing, meaning you do not have to remorph your units if you want to make changes to the mass.

For example, if you want to increase the size of a unit, you can drag the edge of the mass, and the unit with update to the new size.

Masses next to each other can also be joined or split.

To join masses, hold control and select both masses. Once both masses are selected, the on-screen toolbar will expand. The icon that looks like a copy button with no overlap is the join option.

Joining masses can be used to morph an aggregation of smaller masses or units into one larger unit.

To split masses, follow the same process, except choose the icon with a white box overlapping a shaded box. This will allow you to split overlapping masses. *Not totally sure of the functionality here*