What is the Importance of Site Constraints?

[ehsan_omidHTLEZ]

I deleted the site constraint and re-analyzed my building in win and sun hours categories. I received the same result so my question is what is the purpose of creating site constrain? 

[arne.bjelland]

Hi!

Good questions. Constraints are being used to define the maximum space which is allowed to build within and is often something that is specified in the local zoning regulations (see link). So it is not something psychical that is built but rather a limit that you have defined. This is why the analysis such as sun or daylight do not take constraints into account. 

Hope that helps!

Best.

Arne

[ehsan_omidHTLEZ]

Thank you for your response, however my question remains unanswered. Why should I create the site Constraints in the first place? How does it affect or improve my design process?

[arne.bjelland · Accepted solution]

Thank you for your followup question.

With Constraints you are able to manually define the maximum space which is allowed to build within the plot and therefore it can potentially guide you if your designed proposal is within or outside this space while you are designing.

So if you want to check if your proposal is within a regulation or not, you can toggle on Constraints and see if any geometry is outside the manually defined constraint volume. Potentially this will impact your design decisions. 

You mentioned in the  original post that the analysis was not affected by removing the constraints. Do I understand you correctly that you expected the analysis to have different results with and without the constraints?

Regards.

Arne

Regards. 

[anirudh.sood]

Hi, we are starting to integrate Forma into our practice workflows. I can see Site Constraints tool being particularly useful however, as of now, the constraints are not visible in the floor plan editor. That seems to be a critical design flaw. I understand that constraints are visible in 3D view, but to accurately reference site constraints, they need to be visible in floor plan editor. Otherwise, what's the point? Can you please confirm when this will be integrated into the platform? 

[josh.goldstein]

@anirudh.sood,

Thanks for your feedback.

Just to confirm: You're pointing out that the constraint is missing from the 2D floor plan view as shown in the second image below?

If so, we agree that could be improved - and that view could also show other things like the terrain texture and surrounding buildings to provide more context in the 2D view. Perhaps that constraint should also appear pink here as it does normally. 😅

[anirudh.sood]

Hi Josh, Yes that's what I meant. It will make the 2D plan editor so much more usable. Pink is always good!

[josh.goldstein]

Totally agree! Thanks again for highlighting this - we've got this feedback recorded and we'd love to make improvements here. Can't promise a specific timeline but it's definitely on our radar.

[josh.goldstein · Accepted solution]

Hi again @anirudh.sood!

We're happy to announce that constraints are now drawn in the floor plan sketcher 2D view, and their visualization is improved in the 3D view.

You'll now be able to reference your constraint in 2D, and see your building through it in 3D. 

Here's a comparison showing our improvements:

Thanks for your feedback and patience!