Techniques for Building Rooms

If you are building completely unique rooms that are not similar to other rooms in your project (or past projects), the normal technique is described in the Worksheet-oriented Data Entry section.

However, when you are working on a project that is based on a repetitive building type or which contains rooms that are very similar to each other, you can speed up the process by using FF&EZ's special commands that duplicate existing data, the Import and Clone commands. Further, although almost all screens have some type of Clone command, there are also specialized versions for use in building project rooms. Below is a list of the commands you will want to know:

Screen	Command	Description
Rooms List	Add> Import	Creates a new room by importing a room from another project, which can include projects created to contain prototype specs, objects and rooms.
Rooms List	Clone	Creates a new room by copying the contents of the currently highlighted room. This command is described on the Reference section's Room List entry. You normally never clone something unless you plan to change one of the two (e.g., switching a king-size bed for two queen-sized beds, along with the nightstands).
Rooms List	Clone Into	Copies object usages in the currently highlighted room into an existing room that does not currently have them. This is useful if you have created a set of similar rooms with budgets (to print budgeting reports) but which do not have any contents yet. Once you add objects to one of the rooms, you can copy all typical objects to other existing rooms without having to delete those rooms in order to use the regular Clone command.
FF&E Worksheet	Clone	Creates a new set of usages in other existing rooms for the currently highlighted object usage. Use this if you have added an object to an almost complete project and want to quickly place it in multiple rooms.
FF&E Worksheet	Clone Into	Copies some or all object usages in the current room (the room containing the highlighted object usage) into an existing room that does not currently have them. This is the same command described for "Rooms List" above and uses the room on which you are currently focused.
FF&E Worksheet	Utilities> Import List	Imports external data in a pre-formatted text file to create areas, rooms and the associated object content and primary specifications. Unlike the other commands here, this is a subject unto itself and requires data that has been "cleaned" to avoid illegal or broken entries. This is covered in a major Help section of its own (see link below).

Techniques

Below are links to more detailed descriptions of how and why to use different room-building commands (some are included on this page and some have their own sections). These techniques can easily mesh with the ideas described in the Prototype-oriented Data Entry section, since all of these focus on saving time by using and then modifying copies of "base" information (such as a room type containing only the items shared by all hotel guest rooms, or a food service kitchen prototype that will be adapted to a "live" project).

Once you are familiar with how each command differs from the others, you can mix them as needed to create rooms in the most efficient way possible. The commands will be most effective if you do a little planning and map out an order in which the rooms you create first can be leveraged to easily create others.

Importing a Room	Cloning Object Usages
Cloning a Room	Importing Data from External Sources
Cloning Into a Room

Cloning a Room

Like most clone commands, this is fairly simple to use, since it creates a new room as a copy of an existing one. Note that you almost never clone a room to create an identical room, since you can simply increase the room count. You normally clone a room so you can make the changes that make the room contents unique (e.g., cloning a double queen room to create a queen business room).

Procedure:

Display the Rooms List screen.
Highlight the room you wish to clone.
Select the Clone command. This will display a copy of the room setup information, with a blank Room ID.
Enter a new Room ID and make any other changes to the setup data needed (this usually involves changing at least the "Name," since there will be something different about the new room.
Use Save to complete the process.
Locate the new room in the FF&E Worksheet and make any changes to the object contents (which is generally the reason you will need a new room or room type).

Notes:

With some planning, you can determine the point at which a room's contents can be cloned before it contains items that don't belong in similar rooms.
In the same way, you may wish to create a "base" room that only contains items that are the same in all rooms. Then, clone that to create specific room types and add the unique items for each type into the copied rooms.

Cloning Into a Room

If a project's budget is important prior to deciding on room contents, you may finish the budgeting process having created all the rooms (with budgets entered) in the project—but with no objects in them yet. The Clone Into command allows you to populate existing rooms that are similar to a "base" room without manually entering their contents and without needing to delete a room so that you can use the regular Clone command.

This command will copy all (or some) of the objects in an existing room into another existing room. It appears on both the Rooms List screen and the FF&E Worksheet screen. When you call it, this screen appears:

Procedure:

Display the Rooms List screen or the FF&E Worksheet.
Highlight the room you wish to clone (on the Worksheet, highlight any object usage row in the desired room).
Select the Clone Into command.
Select the target Room ID. When you do, the list may change slightly if the target room already contains items that are in the source room (these are ineligible and disappear from the list).
Make changes to the "Qty to Add" column or unselect any objects that should not be included. If you are only selecting a few items from a long list, you can use the Clear Selections button first and then select those items.
Use Okay to complete the process.
Locate the updated room in the FF&E Worksheet and review the results.

Notes:

Although the instances may be rare, this command creates the possibility of using it with "sub-room" prototypes to assemble pre-defined collections of objects into a unique room. For instance, a room built from a pick list of objects that represent science or medical workstations.
Expanding on the same idea, you can use the Room List screen's Add> Import to import "sub-rooms" into a project, adjust any quantities as needed, and then use Clone Into to add them to an existing room. The imported sub-rooms can then be deleted (they were just a staging tool).
The results of this command currently can't be undone. If you make a major mistake (that can't be easily corrected with normal editing), such as using the wrong source room, you can delete the room and create it again using whichever techniques make this easiest. However, if the room already contained some unique items that were not part of the this cloning process, you can create the new room as an empty room, then use Clone Into to copy the unique items into the new room. Then use Clone Into again with the correct source room.

Cloning Object Usages

If a project is midway through the development process or near the end, and a new object is needed in multiple rooms, you can use the FF&E Worksheet's Clone command to add the object to all the rooms where it is needed. This screen's version of the command differs from the normal version to make it more useful in this context. (Note that the "single-shot" version is available if you right-click this button instead.)

When you click on the Clone button, this screen will appear:

Procedure:

Display the FF&E Worksheet.
Highlight the object you wish to clone (as this implies, you need to first Add the object to at least one room where it is needed).
Select the Clone command. Note: If a room does not appear on the list of target rooms, it already contains the object you are cloning.
The "default" quantity shown is that of the source usage you selected. This will be automatically entered for a room if you simply click on the "Select" column. You can disable this (zero will be entered) or change it. You can also change at any time to enter a different default quantity. If you enter a value in the "Qty" column first, that room will be automatically selected.
The "Total" number at the bottom shows the extended total to be added to the rooms, based on the quantity you enter and the room count (e.g., if you enter "2" for a guest room that occurs ten times in the project, it will add 20 to the total.)
Use Okay to complete the process.
In FF&E Worksheet, you can sort by the object Tag (click the column header) and review the results.

Notes:

Changes to the results can be made using the normal editing methods.