The following limits apply to the department data. More detailed information on project data and their limits can be found in the section on the project database description. The department label can be at most seven characters long. The department name can be at most 63 characters. Only letters, digits, and underscores are allowed in the department label. The label must be unique for this department in the project. Only letters, digits, spaces, and underscores are allowed in the department name. The department name can contain a description of the department function. The department area must be smaller than or equal to the building area and be expressed in units compatible with the building dimensions, i.e., if the building dimensions were given in feet then the department areas must be given in square feet. The shape factor is the maximum ratio of length to width or width to length of the department. The maximum value for the shape factor is 99 but more realistic values are less than five. The shape penalty is the rate at which departments that exceed the maximum shape ratio get penalized in the block layout objective function. Any nonnegative value will do, but enter 1,000 for this project.
Setting the layout position to free will later on allow the department to be moved in the layout improvement steps.