Informed Spaces

An informed space is project geometry that carries a placement instruction for Urban Massing generation.

Use informed spaces when some area of the site should influence where massing is encouraged, discouraged, required, or forbidden.

TODO screenshot: show one or more informed spaces in the viewport, with an informed space selected in the tree and Placement Impact visible in Properties.

Where informed spaces appear

• in the left tree under Informed spaces,
• in Properties when an informed space is selected,
• and in Reports → Informed spaces after generation.

They are evaluated in the Zone stage against the active site boundary, canvas, and generated massing.

Typical uses

Common informed-space uses include:

• tree protection zones,
• road setbacks,
• utility corridors,
• lakes or water-edge buffers,
• preferred development strips,
• and no-build volumes.

Keep separate phenomena as separate informed-space objects when you want separate review and control.

Informed Space properties

When an informed space is selected, these properties are available:

• Name
• Object Type: Informed Space
• Color
• Placement Impact

Use clear names so reports are easy to read later.

Placement Impact values

None

No generation effect.

Use this when you want the geometry to remain in the project without affecting placement.

Place here

Soft positive preference.

Use this when massing should preferably overlap the informed space, but exceptions are acceptable.

Always place here

Hard positive requirement.

Use this only when the geometry is clean and the requested outcome is realistic.

Do not place here

Soft negative preference.

Use this when overlap should usually be avoided, but some overlap may still be acceptable.

Never place here

Hard negative restriction.

Use this when the informed space represents a strict no-build condition.

Working guidance

• Start with Place here or Do not place here before moving to hard constraints.
• Confirm the site boundary and canvas first, because informed spaces are evaluated against that grid.
• Rename informed spaces clearly before running long generation passes.
• If the geometry is wrong, fix the geometry before tightening the placement rule.

Informed-space reports

After generation, each informed space gets its own block in Reports → Informed spaces.

Name

The informed-space object name.

Footprint → Total

Plan area of the informed space.

Footprint → Overlap with massing

Shared plan area between the informed space and generated massing.

Footprint → Covered by massing

Percentage of the informed-space plan area overlapped by massing.

Footprint → Massing covered

Percentage of the massing plan area overlapped by that informed space.

Volume → Total

Total informed-space volume.

Volume → Overlap with massing

Shared volume between the informed space and generated massing.

Volume → Occupied by massing

Percentage of informed-space volume occupied by massing.

Volume → Massing occupied

Percentage of massing volume occupied by that informed space.

Interpretation notes

• High overlap can be good or bad depending on the selected placement impact.
• A hard placement rule with poor results often indicates a problem with geometry, grid setup, or unrealistic project targets.
• Review the main Site report before diagnosing informed-space behavior in isolation.

For task-oriented guidance, use How to edit informed spaces and Generate Massing with Informed Spaces.