Purpose
Building Closure and Manual Adjustment are one page. After the initial wall draw you press Optimise and land here โ the building is closed to the ICF module and you can fine-tune wall lengths before the geometry hardens. It is a single, deliberate checkpoint to confirm the external wall layout before it becomes the foundation of everything downstream.
What ICF Designer Has Already Done
- Optimised the drawn perimeter and closed the building to the ICF module โ adjusting the longest X-axis wall and the longest Y-axis wall, usually under 101mm each.
- Recorded original, optimised, adjustment, and final length for every wall in the schedule.
- Placed any bastard cuts (red markers) and produced waste/savings and pre/post estimate comparisons where available.
What Decisions Are Still Yours / Why It Matters
Accept the automatic adjustment, or make an exact/non-modular change where a dimension is critical. Choose which same-axis walls to adjust. Decide whether a bastard cut is acceptable where it has fallen.
The software's automatic adjustment keeps the building closed and on-module; forcing an exact dimension can be the right call, but it has a cost โ bastard cuts, vertical joints, extra support, waste, and labour. This page is where you decide whether that trade is worth it, with the numbers in front of you.
What To Check
- The wall schedule first โ it's the numeric record behind the picture.
- Red bastard-cut markers: exact changes can add vertical joints, extra support, waste, and labour.
- That any fine-tuning is done before you carry the layout forward โ this is the last geometry checkpoint before the model hardens.
- The cost overlay is a design estimate for comparing options, not a contractor quote.
Practical Construction Notes
- Pressing Optimise after the draw closes the building and snaps wall lengths to the module โ this page is where you review the result and fine-tune it.
- Auto-close adjusts the largest X-axis wall and largest Y-axis wall โ largest, because the proportional change is smallest there (100mm on a 10m wall matters less than on a 3m wall). Typically under 101mm each.
- A bastard cut is a partial block needed when a wall length can't be built from full modules. It's placed at or near the wall centre (easier to install, less visible) and is always < 101mm.
- Critical: unlike standard staggered block joints, a bastard cut creates a vertical joint running the full height of the wall. That joint needs extra support during the pour โ typically a sheet of plywood each side covering the join โ or it will bow.
- Waste tip: the offcut from one adjusted wall can often be reused on the other adjusted wall.
- Adjust two walls on the same axis (odd 1,3,5 or even 2,4,6) to keep the building closed and square. The second-wall dropdown auto-filters to the same axis.
- Modular adjustment = add/remove whole 203.2mm modules; both selected walls change by the same amount in the same direction and stay on the grid.
- Non-modular (exact) adjustment = any amount; use only when architecturally required, because it forces cut blocks on site.
- Worked example: wall needs 5350mm; 26 blocks ร 203.2mm = 5283mm; the remaining 67mm is the bastard cut, placed at centre.