Chapter 2: Overview

Project Data Files

The tree in the left panel represents a quick way to review the data files associated with the project and then, if you want, print a hard copy for your files. Selecting Loudspeakers, for example, produces in the right panel a listing of all the loudspeakers used in the project, complete with their locations and their aiming angles.

Selecting Send Picture To from the File pull down menu will give you the choice of sending the window to the Clipboard, to File in a number of different file formats, or to the EasePage Designer. The EasePage Designer allows you to customize the graphic by adding notes and then either save or print the graphic.

Saving the window to the Clipboard allows you to copy the window into another program such as Word, customize it and then file it away or print it.

No matter how you save it, you end up with a hard copy list of the Loudspeakers being used in the project and their location that you can turn over to your installation crew. It takes all the guesswork out of where to hang the loudspeakers and how to aim them.

Now it’s time to open the Edit Project Data window where most of the modeling takes place.

Either select the Edit Project Data icon in the tool bar or click on Project Data under the Edit pull down menu.

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Note the intersecting red, green and blue lines. They mark the 0, 0, 0 point of the model and the x, y and z axis to help you keep your orientation while viewing the model from different angles. Green is the + y axis, Red the + x axis and Blue the + z axis.

The blue icons represent loudspeakers.

The purple lines show the loudspeaker aiming points and can be easily turned off.

The areas outlined in green are the Audience Areas upon which most of the performance mapping will take place. The red chairs are Listener Seats that have been placed in the model for use in detailed electro-acoustic simulations.

As you can see, the top portion of the Edit Project screen is devoted to the Main menu bar and a number of Tool Bars. The left side of the screen has two Tool Bars, the ones most often used in constructing a model. These Tool Bars place within easy reach the most frequently used tools needed to Edit (construct or change) a model. Don't worry about having to memorize their use; dragging the cursor over any tool brings up its description. Try it, it works.

The status bar at the bottom of the screen gives you the identity and location of any item you have selected (picked) and other useful status information.

It should be noted here that many of the Tool Bar commands can also be initiated with Key commands. If you know the Key commands, it’s usually easier and faster to use them. Most, if not all of the commands can also be accessed by using the pull down menus in the Main menu bar. The Tool Bars can be moved to any spot on the screen by grabbing the Move bar on their left side and dragging them to a new location. They can also be deleted and then restored at a later time using the Modify Toolbar command under the File pull down menu.

The scroll bars on the sides and bottom of the screen allow you to turn, rotate and resize the room drawing. They make it easy to view the room from any angle, a very important feature. Try out the scroll bars. Its fun, and you need to become familiar with them.

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Chapter 2: Overview

Note that the model turns or rotates around the center of the image. You can change this by using the cursor and left mouse button to select a point on the model. The model will then rotate or turn around that point. It should be noted that the model itself does not rotate or turn. What is actually rotated or turned is your point of view of the model. By moving the scroll bars, you are virtually moving yourself around the model for better viewing.

Another way to turn and rotate the room is the Turn icon in the Tool Bars. Use the left Mouse button and cursor to turn the drawing and the right Mouse button to zoom in and out on the drawing.

The F11 and F12 key commands also allow you to Zoom In and Zoom Out at will. You can also shrink and expand the drawing using the scroll wheel on your mouse. And, last but not least, the Zoom In icon in the tool bar section allows you to draw a box around any part of the drawing and zoom in on it.

When you want to return to the normal isometric view click on either the 3D Perspective icon or the Full icon in the Tool Bars.

Terminology

To help you understand some of the tools and their use, a brief description of EASE parameters and terminology follows. The key words are highlighted in bold type.

In EASE Rooms are constructed from Faces formed by joining 3 or more Vertices together to define the boundaries (margins) of the Face. A Face can have from 3 to an unlimited number of Vertices.

Rooms can be Open or Closed. A Closed Room is one whose Faces completely surround (enclose) the Room. EASE needs a Closed Room before it can calculate the total surface area and room volume figures needed for many of its simulations.

Faces normally have only 1 side of interest to the simulations (the reflective side) and it must be properly oriented (having the reflective surface facing into the Room) in order for the Room to be closed, e.g. have boundary walls. Two-Fold Faces have two sides that are of interest to the simulations. They are used to add barriers and reflective/absorptive panels into the room as well as to paste (Coat) one Face on top of another.

Audience Areas are imaginary planes above a room surface, usually the floor, onto which EASE maps many of its acoustical simulations. They are traditionally placed 1.2 m (3.94 feet) above the floor or at approximately the same height as the ears of seated listeners.

Note: Seating Areas are different than Audience Areas. They are areas modeled into the room, usually by pasting (Coating) a Two-Fold Face on top of a floor Face. They make it easy to change the Room’s acoustical properties to reflect various size audiences by placing materials having absorption characteristics similar to those of an audience on the exposed side of the Two-Fold Face.

Listener Seats are specific locations (points) within the Room. They are identified by a chair symbol.

Objects are items that have been grouped together to form a single item (an Object) that can be duplicated, saved or moved as a single item. Objects can be created from items of different types; for example from Faces, Loudspeakers and Audience Areas.

When you were practicing with the scroll bars, you may have noticed that when you picked a spot on one of the Faces, its border changed from black to either white or yellow. This is the program’s way of displaying the orientation of that Face. A white outline on a picked Face means that you are looking at the outside (the non exposed side) of that Face. Yellow means you are looking at the inside of that Face (the reflective side), the side that should be facing into the room. Learn this. It’s a crucial point.

Other traditional EASE color assignments are:

The backgroung color is light gray

Vertices are shown in red

Faces are outlined in black until they are selected.

Lamps are yellow.

Other color assignments are possible to suit individual needs or preferences.

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Viewing a Project

Now, let's continue our exploration of EASE. Return to the Main window by clicking on it (you may have to first shrink or mininize the Edit Project window) and select the View pull down menu and choose Standard Rendering. Choosing Architectural Rendering would have opened the Vision program module. We’ll explore Vision in detail in another section of this manual.

Selecting Standard Rendering opens a new program called Eyes. Note that the Edit Project program remains active. The choice of whether to leave the Edit Project program open or to close it is yours.

The Eyes program module provides a number of different eye-catching and illuminating ways of looking at the room. Notice that all of the walls are solid, except for the ones the program removed to allow you to look into the room. Note that the isometric view may not be the same isometric view you were seeing in the Room Editor. If it isn’t, use the 3-D icon in the Tool Bars to change its orientation. Each click on the icon will turn the view by 90 degrees around the z-Axis.

Next, go to the Item pull down menu and turn off Outline all Faces. See below.

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Some users prefer this view, while others prefer to have all the Faces outlined as they feel it helps them better visualize the room. Its your choice. Try selecting Colored Outlines, too. You may like this look even better. Go to the View pull down menu in the Eyes menu bar and turn off Solid Rendering by clicking on it to produce another room graphic. Then turn Solid Rendering back On.

The Audience Areas were probably turned off when you opened Eyes. Turn them On by going to the Items pull down menu and checking

Audience Areas.

Note that under the Items menu, you can also turn “Off” the Listener Seat and the Loudspeaker symbols.

You also have a choice of showing the Loudspeakers as symbols or as Case (wireframe) drawings. To make your choice, right click on the screen to open the Options Folder, select the Items tab and make your choice. It should be noted that Case drawings for the loudspeakers being used must be available in EASE before the program can display them. If they aren’t available, you can create your own Case drawings for ones that are missing. We’ll tell you how later.

The color of the room surfaces (Face colors) was established in Edit Project Data while the model was being built. Using Face colors is only one of many ways to color the graphic. Go to the Dye pull down menu to try out the various ways, especially the Material Alpha,

Alpha Spectrum and Random Color options.

The Material Alpha view allows you to look at the surfaces based on their absorption characteristics at a specific frequency. The Alpha Spectrum view paints the surfaces based on their average absorption over the entire frequency range. Random Color paints each surface a different color and makes it easy to distinguish one surface from another.

So far, we have looked at the room from an external point of view. There are also several ways to look at the room from the inside the room..

Selecting the Look From Loudspeaker icon in the Tool Bars (the default position is in the right section of the top row of Tool Bars) will open a selection menu giving you the opportunity to choose the Loudspeaker you want to use to look at the room.

Selecting one (Main, for example) will produce an inside view of the Room from that loudspeaker’s view point. See next page.

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