Archibus Space Calculations

The Room Categories and Room Types tables provide a two-level hierarchy of classification for rooms (room categories and room types) and are independent of Room Standards. Once you assign a room category you must assign a room type from within that category.

• Room Supercategory: Supercategories are the level above categories and are usable, service, vertical penetration, and other. These define how the categories act in the space calculations.
• Room Standards: Room standards are the architectural room description and are the standard to which the room was constructed. For example, cube style A might have certain dimensions.

Room Supercategories

Indicates to the system that areas of these categories are usable areas, vertical penetrations, or service areas. Choose from the available values:

Vertical Penetration — If the room category will be assigned to areas representing vertical penetration, choose this value from the drop-down list. You will want to set Occupiable? to No.

Service Area — If the room category will be assigned to areas representing service areas, choose this value from the drop-down list. Depending on operations at your site, a service area can be either occupiable or non-occupiable.

Usable Area — If the category does not represent vertical penetration area or service area, you will want to complete this field with Usable Area. Set Occupiable? to Yes unless the area is storage.

Other — used by sites following IFMA or BOMA standards. The most common “other” area is external areas.

Room Categories and Chargeback Calculations

The all-room inventory chargeback calculations require that each room be assigned a room category; this indicates whether the room is occupiable, if it is used in chargeback calculations, and what its super category is.

• Calculations Used in No Totals
  • BOMA A Rule: If a building is rented to multiple tenants, the owner cannot charge for vertical penetration.
  • At WD it has been decided not to charge back for vertical penetration in any case.
• Occupiable? No
  • BOMA A Rule: Only occupiable spaces take on the burden of additional shared space, as the space does not generate money.
  • Therefore: Chargeable area equals room area if occupiable is set to no.
    • Example: Storage space will not take on any additional burden.
• Usable Area + Service Area = Rentable Area
• Rentable Area + Vertical Penetration = Internal Gross Area

Remaining Area

Because of the cost of the space and the goal to maximize its use, many sites wish to account for every area on a floor. Space managers can use the remaining area calculations to determine the amount of area that was not captured in the space inventory.

Remaining Area is calculated as:

• Internal Gross Area – Total Room Area

A significant remaining area can indicate that the room and group polylines were not accurately drawn; CAD specialists may need to return to the drawings to adjust the polylines and capture all areas.

In some cases, CAD specialists cannot capture all area in the polylines, and you cannot eliminate remaining area from the inventory.

As with common areas on the floor, you can charge departments for their proportional share of remaining area. This ensures that all area in the inventory is charged to departments. You can charge a floor’s remaining area to all departments on the floor, in the building, or across the entire site.

In order to charge departments for remaining area, you must first set the Remaining Area Prorate field of the Floors table to either FLOOR, BUILDING, or SITE. The Standard Space Chargeback and Shared Workspace Chargeback methods can then include remaining area with the common areas that they proportionately distribute to departments.

Room Categories

Examples of room categories.

Area Definitions

Exterior gross = outside building envelope Interior gross = inside building envelope (through columns)

Vertical penetration = stairs, elevators, Rentable area = interior gross – vertical penetration

mechanical shafts, and atriums

• Note: vertical penetration must go through

a floor plate and be under a roof.

Service area = non-human occupancy (long term) Usable area = rentable area – service area

Assigning Department and Chargeback