Core concepts¶

Termite organizes your work like this:

Project
 └─ Floors
     ├─ Hallways
     ├─ Staircases   (can be shared by several floors)
     └─ Units  ──►  Spaces (bedroom, kitchen, ...)

Project¶

A project is the container for one design. It holds your floors, hallways, staircases, generated units and plans. Everything is saved on the Termite server, so you can open the same project again later.

Create a project: in the context bar, next to Project, click + New and type a name.
Switch projects: pick another project from the Project dropdown.
The plugin remembers the last project you used and opens it next time.

A new project starts with the default list of spaces from the dataset program.

Note

Deleting a project is not available yet.

Floor¶

A floor is a closed outline: the footprint of one level of your building. Termite splits a floor into units.

Create a floor: on the Units tab, type a floor name, click Pick Boundary, select a closed polyline and click Send Floor.
Pick a floor: use the Floor dropdown in the context bar.
Draw it again in CAD: click ⤓ Load next to the Floor dropdown. The floor boundary is drawn into its own layer.
Rename or delete a floor from the context bar.

Tip

The boundary must be a closed polyline. Open shapes and true curves (arcs, splines) don't work. See Modeling tips.

Hallway¶

A hallway is a corridor that runs through a floor. Termite keeps hallways free and places units along them.

You draw a hallway as a centerline: a line through the middle of the corridor.
Each hallway has a name and a width in meters. The default is 1.5 m.
A hallway belongs to one floor.

Every floor must have at least one hallway before you generate a unit mix. See Generate a unit mix → Hallways.

Staircase¶

A staircase is a stair or core area that is not part of any unit, for example a stair or an elevator.

You draw a staircase as a closed polyline around its footprint.
One staircase can run through several floors. The scope sets which floors:
- Project: every floor in the project
- Mass: every floor of the current mass
- Or type specific floor IDs to limit it to those floors.

Every floor must have at least one staircase before you generate a unit mix. See Generate a unit mix → Staircases.

Unit¶

A unit is one part of a floor: an apartment, an office, a shop and so on. Termite creates units for you when you generate a unit mix.

Every unit has a unit type:

Unit type	Default area	Daylight
Residential	40 m²	preferred
Office	60 m²	preferred
Retail	80 m²	optional
Parking	25 m²	none
Storage	20 m²	none

The unit mix is the share of each type on a floor, for example 70% residential and 30% retail.

Space¶

A space is a room inside a unit: a living room, bedroom, kitchen, bathroom and so on. Termite places spaces when you generate a plan for a unit.

Each space has an area, a daylight need (required, preferred, optional or none) and a minimum width. The full list of spaces is the dataset program. You can view it in Settings.