Space Allocation Method
The Layered space allocation method divides the building area in strips or layers parallel to the orientation of the building. All departments located on an axis of the hexagonal adjacency graph parallel to the building orientation are assigned to a single layer. The algorithm then assigns department areas from left to right in each layer.
The Tiled space allocation method divides the building area into a set of non-overlapping department rectangles. The position of the department rectangles is derived from the hexagonal adjacency graph. The Tiled space allocation method has more flexibility than the Layered space allocation method and will yield on the average layouts with a lower distance score. However, the resulting layout may not have the structure that allows parallel material handling aisles. There is no guarantee that the Tiled space allocation method will yield a lower distance score than the Layered space allocation method for a particular layout project. Because the Tiled method examines many more alternatives than the Layered method, it requires substantially longer computation times. It therefore can be disabled during the execution of all layout algorithm combinations.