Building Design in UrbanAna: Parameters and Tools

Customize buildings in UrbanAna. Use Building Tools to place, convert, or edit buildings. Adjust parameters like height, stories, footprint, and land use for tailored urban design.

Knowledge Base

Inside the Selected Building Panel you can modify the Parameters of selected Building(s).

Building Tools (Toolbar)

Interface showing UrbanAna's Building Tools button and options for creating and editing buildings

UrbanAna Building Tools

The Building button provides different functionality based on what is currently selected in the viewport:

  • No Selection: Activates the Place Building Tool, allowing you to place new buildings using the default parameters defined at the Project level.
  • Building Selected: Opens the Edit Building Tool, enabling direct editing of the building’s ground floor shape without needing to open the building group.
  • Face(s) Selected: Converts the selected SketchUp faces into UrbanAna buildings.

Selected Building Parameters (Panel)

Building parameters panel showing controls for height, stories, footprint and other building properties

UrbanAna’s Building Parameter panels with controls for customizing building properties

Building Height

Building height sets how tall should the Building be in chosen units (metric or imperial). When changing Number of Storeys, Storey Height this parameter will adapt itself automatically.

Number of Storeys

Number of storeys sets the number of Building’s storeys. When you change this parameter, Building Height (described above) will be adapted automatically to reflect calculated height based on Number of Storeys and Storey Height.

Building Footprint

Building Footprint sets the floor area size of the Building. Building Footprint will automatically be adapted if you change Gross Floor Area (described below) to match the division of Gross Floor Area with Number of Storeys.

Gross Floor Area

Gross floor area parameter is used to define gross floor area size of the Building. When you change this parameter, the Building Footprint will automatically adapt to maintain the relationship between Gross Floor Area and Number of Storeys.

Land Use

Using Land Use dropdown menu you can set the Land Use for selected Building(s). By default, this parameter is set to “Not Customized”, meaning the building will inherit its Land Use from either the Block it stands on or the Project level settings. Land Uses are used to calculate Building’s units (eg. apartments, residents, offices, etc), parking requirements,… To learn more about these settings, please visit Land Use page.

Storey Height

Storey height is used to set the height of all Building’s storeys. Changing this parameter will change the overall Building Height while maintaining the same Number of Storeys.

Editing Modes of Building (Panel)

In this section you can determine behavior of the Building when you create or modify it.

Edit Ground Floor Mode

Ground floor editing interface showing options for modifying building base shape

Edit ground floor mode interface for modifying building footprints

Toggle this option to enable or disable ground floor editing mode. When enabled and opening the building group, all faces in the building group will be deleted except the ground floor face, allowing you to modify the ground floor face. This is useful when you need to edit the building’s shape, merge multiple buildings together, or split a building into separate parts. After closing the building group, a new building with the modified ground floor face and the original building parameters will be created.

Keep Building Footprint when using Scale tool

Check this option if you want to scale Buildings horizontally, but also want to make sure they do not change their Building Footprint.

Building Tools (Tool Section)

Place Building Tool

This allows you to place new buildings with default parameters defined in Project > Building settings. By default, the ground floor will be a square shape with an area equal to the Building Footprint parameter.

Convert Faces to Buildings

If you have selected specific faces in your model before clicking the Building Tools button, those faces will be converted into buildings using the default parameters defined in Project > Building. This allows you to manually define building footprints and create custom building shapes. This bulk conversion feature is particularly useful when importing building footprints from AutoCAD – simply select all the imported faces and convert them to buildings in one click.

Edit Building Tool

Building editing interface demonstrating node and segment manipulation tools

Edit Building Tool interface showing node and segment editing capabilities

When you have selected specific buildings in your model before clicking the Building Tools button, it will activate the Edit Building tool. This tool allows you to modify the building shape by editing its ground floor face directly in the viewport, without needing to open the building group.

You can:

  • Click and drag nodes to move them.
  • Click and drag segments to move them parallel to their original position.
  • While moving nodes or segments, type a number to move the exact distance in model units.

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