Context

The core energy-certification input, straight from the model.

Energy certification calculations require thermal-bridge lengths classified across the 11 linear thermal-bridge typologies (B1-B11). Measuring by hand is slow, prone to omissions, and poorly detected on revisions. Cubica automatically extracts each typology's lengths directly from the BIM geometry — ready for the calculation.

On your side

What we need

Architectural model with complete room compartmentation
Construction build-ups per element (wall, slab, roof, opening)

On our side

What you receive

Linear thermal bridge lengths (m) by linear thermal-bridge typology (B1–B11)
Totals by floor and by façade
Traceability to the source BIM element — every length maps to the model object
Import-ready format for energy-certification software
2D/3D drawing (DXF/DWG) of the flagged thermal bridges — layered and colour-coded by typology (B1–B11), with each element's ID and floor, matching directly to the Excel and the model

The eleven typologies

Where the edges that count are.

The eleven typologies are not alternatives — they all coexist in the same building. They group into three families, and that is how they come out itemised on the sheet.

Bloco isométrico de três pisos com as arestas horizontais de encontro assinaladas a ciano: base, laje intermédia, laje em consola e cobertura — B1–B4 **Horizontal junctions** Façade with ground floor, with floor over outside air, with intermediate floor and with roof. 924 m

Volume isométrico de planta entalhada com as arestas verticais salientes e a aresta reentrante assinaladas a ciano — B5–B6 **Angles between façades** Two façades at a convex angle and at a reentrant angle — the volume's vertical edges. 174 m

Fragmento isométrico de fachada com dois vãos e uma varanda, com padieira, ombreiras, peitoril, caixa de estore e aresta de varanda assinaladas a ciano — B7–B10 **Openings and balconies** Roller-shutter box, lintel and jamb, sill, and the balcony slab meeting the façade. 1 260 m

The eleventh is missing here: B11, the plain façade run — 1,240 m in this sample. It is not a junction edge but the wall between them, which is why it does not appear in the illustrations. The four parts add up to the 3,598 m total.

Sample deliverable

Thermal bridges by typology.

Excerpt from Pontes_Termicas.xlsx — simplified example.

Pontes_Termicas.xlsx

See the exact scope of the measurement ↓

Reference project: residential building · 44 units · 7 floors + basement · 2 145 m² plot.

Item	Unit	Quantity
Thermal-bridge typologies
B1 — Façade with ground slab	m	108
B2 — Façade with slab over exterior	m	46
B3 — Façade with intermediate slab	m	660
B4 — Façade with roof	m	110
B5 — Two façades, salient angle	m	96
B6 — Two façades, reentrant angle	m	78
B7 — Façade with shutter box	m	264
B8 — Façade with lintel/jamb	m	560
B9 — Façade with sill	m	268
B10 — Façade with balcony	m	168
B11 — Standard façade zone	m	1 240
TOTAL thermal bridge length	m	3 598

Every value is auditable back to the source element — filter by floor, by façade, by B1–B11 typology. At each design revision it reprocesses with no manual remeasuring.

Difference

Why not by hand, and why not a generic tool

Better than measuring by hand

Double counting at corners stays, because the calculation expects it.With exterior dimensions the corners enter twice, and certification assumes that redundancy. «Correcting» the duplication — the instinct of anyone measuring by hand — is what produces the wrong number.
Every total states which reference it was measured to.A length measured to one reference and used with a Ψ tabulated for another gives a wrong result without raising any error. The two references are never mixed, and the one used is written next to the totals.
A missing length leaves no trace — only in the certification result.Unlike a concrete volume, a forgotten junction opens no visible gap anywhere. That is why every typology comes out itemised edge by edge, linked to its source element and floor, so you can check it.

What generic tools do not do

The measurement boundary is not in the geometry — it is in the build-up.It ends at the last layer that enters the U-value calculation: on a wall with a ventilated cavity, the cladding is not what governs. An extraction that only looks at geometry measures the wrong face, with no way of knowing it did.
A junction is not an object in your model.No schedule can list it, because there is no object to list: it is the interface condition between two elements. We build it from the geometry, and each one comes out identified with its source element.
The drawing is not an appendix: it is half the deliverable.In certification, what was counted has to be visible, not just summable. You receive the DXF/DWG with every counted edge flagged, layered and colour-coded by typology, with its ID and floor, matching the sheet directly.

We know exactly where our work carries weight. On a rectangular-plan building with no recesses and no balconies, each floor's perimeter resolves most of the typologies with a tape measure over the plan. The difference shows up where there are reentrant angles, balconies and openings — and in the sheet and the drawing still matching edge for edge at the next revision.

Scope

This service belongs to the thermal bridges domain — identification, classification and measurement —, not to the takeoff catalogue for estimating.

Cubica measures every modelled element and returns the 3D/DXF of everything measured, so each quantity can be checked against its geometric origin. The scope of the measurement is, by definition, the content of the model supplied: elements that were never modelled, or modelled incorrectly upstream, cannot be measured by any extraction method — which is why we report in writing the omissions and inconsistencies we find along the way. The service is delivered from the model and documentation supplied, without a site visit.

Thermal Bridges.