Xinaps Support

When making use of curtain walls with glazing panels of which part of the glazing is built up of Spandrels you can do the following to calculate the glazing and Spandrel aea.

1. Check the area of the curtain wall in the properties display and in the Xinaps Daylight Evaluator (facade)

2. From this area an amount of m² is glass (gross glass area) and an amount of m² is solid (solid)

3. When in the settings menu Daylight area starts at 600 mm above the floor is set to 0 mm, gross glass area and net glass area will be the same. In order to calculate the window to wall ratio this is set to 600 mm by default, which is the Dutch standard for making daylight calculations. To calculate the the precise area of Spandrels in relation to the gross glass area set this to 0 mm above the floor.

4. Check if mullions have to be taken into account. From the face the mullions are and other non transparent materials are already subtracted. However, when glazing is put in front of the mullions instead of connected to it on the side the thickness of the mullions have to be taken into consideration. In the glazing bead width enter half of the width of your mullions. For example 40 mm mullions become 20 mm glazing bead width. This gives you the net glass area.

5. To calculate the area of the Spandrels, open the settings menu of the daylight ratio evaluator and delete all default glazing material names. Enter the material name of your Spandrels in the field and click OK. A new calculation will be made which will give you the area of the Spandrels. 

6. Subtract the area of the Spandrels from the net glass area of point 4.

7. When opening an elevation and calculating the areas by hand you should find the same amounts. NB: make sure that the area is calculated consistently and on the exact borders.

Side notes:

The Xinaps Daylight Ratio evaluator uses an algorithm that has a consistent way of working that leads to more accurate calculations. Numbers displayed in the interface however are rounded numbers, when calculating non-rounded numbers are being used.