Typically, critical facility systems are tied to zones – that is to say, facility systems cover a specific area on the floor plan.
In emergency situations, first responders can use zone drawings to identify at-risk areas. For example, if the sprinkler system in Zone 1 has automatically been activated, first responders can look at the zone drawing to determine the exact area of the floor that may have a fire. Similarly, they can consult the zone drawings to see at-risk areas within a zone.
Once the emergency is contained, assessment managers can travel throughout the building and examine your rooms and equipment items in terms of the zones in which they are located. For example, if a system fails, they can use the zone drawings to see the rooms and equipment items that fall within the zones and that will be affected by the failure.
As a CAD specialist, you may need to add zones to floor plan drawings.
Zone Type |
Standard Usage |
System Category |
Layer |
Fire |
Fire Protection and Smoke Zones |
Electrical System |
ZONE-FIRE |
Sprinkler |
Sprinkler Zones |
Fire Protection System |
ZONE-SPRINKLER |
Security |
Security System Zones |
Electrical System |
ZONE-SECURITY |
Emergency |
Emergency Lighting Zones |
Electrical System |
ZONE-EMERGENCY |
HVAC |
HVAC Zones |
Mechanical System |
ZONE HVAC |
- Building Code/Floor Code – The system completes these fields with the drawing's space hierarchy values.
- Zone Code – Enter a unique code for the zone. You may wish to number the zone according to the facility system, such as FIRE-HQ-18-01.
- Description – Use this field to describe the area covered by this zone.
- System Code – From the validating Systems table, choose the facility system that covers the area you graphically depicted with the zone polyline. For example, if you are drawing the zones for the sprinkler system, you would choose Sprinkler from the validating Systems table.
Note: Typically, you develop multiple zones for each facility system. You do not map each zone to a particular piece of sprinkler equipment, but you link multiple zones to the entire sprinkler system. Similarly, you do not link a zone to a particular piece of HVAC equipment, but you develop multiple zones for the entire HVAC system.
- Highlight as Outline -- On reports displaying this zone, this option determines whether the zone is highlighted by a highlight pattern or an outline. If set to Yes, reports use a fat polyline displayed in the color specified for outlines from the Highlight Pattern Acad field (below). If set to No, the system uses the highlight pattern as defined in the Highlight Pattern Acad field.
- Highlight Pattern Acad -- Displays the highlight pattern information for the selected zone. This information is used by the system to highlight the zone on a floor plan drawing.
The recommended method for mapping zones to their facility systems is to graphically represent them using the Draw Zones task. However, you may need to edit your zone information by directly editing the Zones table. To do so: