The ‘Edit Evacuation Zone’ dialog contains a tab called ‘Pre-movement’. It includes settings for six key categories of fire evacuation analysis which are contained in British Standards guidelines: Scenario, Alertness, Familiarity, Building Type, Staff training and Alarm type.

Each category contains three options which affect how evacuees respond to the alarm.

Depending on the type and scope of your evacuation analysis, select the appropriate settings from the 'British Standard PD 7974-6' option. The ‘Pre-movement’ tab also enables you to override these categories by selecting Custom from the list labelled Type. You can then enter minimum, mean and maximum values (in seconds) which are used to control the dispersal of evacuees according to probability factors.

For example, a minimum of 30s, mean of 45s and maximum of 60s means that the first evacuees to leave the zone will leave 30 seconds after the alarm; the majority will leave around the 45 second mark and the last few to leave will leave after one minute.