New Version of Turbo FloorPlan

[Voodooman]

Apparently a new version of Envisioneer V5 and a new version of TurboFloorplan available soon.

http://www10.aeccafe.com/goto.php?http://www.cadsoft.com/compare

I would expect TurboFloorplan to be the same as Envisioneer essentials.

 

[Allan Chesney]

Hi,

Envisioneer 5 has been discussed a few times on the Envisioneer Forum citing a least one public advert, so on doubt it s close. A new version of TFP would likely follow given their common heritage.

TFP may pick up more functionality from Env 5 but I suspect not a lot as it is considerably cheaper - they would be unlikelyto undermine the parent product which is obviously for the professional market.

Hopefully a new TFP will fix a few lingering rendering bugs and may include a few of the features we have requested.

Allan

[Voodooman]

Hi Allan

There was a posting on the TurboCad Forum relating to a new version of TurboFloorplan coming soon by Jack Zimmer and this link.

Unusually the topic appears to have been deleted.  The admins of the TC forum are very liberal and usually only delete topics where prices are mentioned, however I cant find the topic today - deleted 

Funny goings on

Peter

[Allan Chesney]

Hi Peter,

Thee was an advert for Env 5 in a building design magazine but it it was presumably released prematurely by accident. Obviously it is not far away and hopefully TFP also.

Allan

[crumbum]

Howdy,

I see that IMSI has a new product out called TurboFloorplan Home and Landscape Pro.  Is this the latest and best for both Home Design and Landscape design?  I see it advertised including training CDs by Jack Zimmer.  I want to make sure this is the product I want to replace my FloorPlan 3D Design Suite v8.  Thanks
Randy

[Allan Chesney]

Hi Randy,

Welcome to the TFP Forum.  Yes TurboFLOORPLAN is the successor to Floorplan3D and the Pro version also does the landscaping - much more extensive the FP3D although quite different. It uses "cut out photos" of plants, (7500 of them!) so they can look very realistic and for the most part work well. You can put your own photos in too. 

I don't know that you could call it "new" though - it is nearly 18 months old now and we are hoping for a new version in the not too distant future.

It will certainly replace V8 for you (I have not touched FP3D since I got this version - it is MUCH MORE flexible). However it will NOT open FP3D files.  The format is completely new, although much of it is very familiar.  You would have to start projects anew to develop them in TFP.  Once you are used to the tools it is very quick to use.

Like FP3D it is designed for 3D visualisation not plan printing, although it does do that better then FP3D did.  If you want technical plan printing you probably would need the much more expensive parent program Envisioneer. 

If V8 did what you needed, then TFP will certainly fill its shoes admirably.

Allan

[taliesin]

I came here looking for solutions to a problem with 3D rendering after upgrading to a new computer.  I used TFP v. 12.00 for about 2 years on a laptop running Windows XP without experiencing any rendering problems.  I recently purchased a new laptop running Microsoft Vista and re-downloaded my TFP onto that new laptop.  (I had originally purchased my TFP at the IMSI Design website via Digital River.)  After downloading the program onto the new laptop, I discovered that the rendering feature does not work.  I also found and downloaded the v. 12.01 upgrade, but that did not result in rendered images either.

(Of course, the link at the IMSI website for the v. 12.01 upgrade is a bad link.  Had I not stumbled into this forum and found the corrected link to the download, I would have not found the upgrade.  That link continues to be broken.  Hardly a confidence-builder in IMSI.)

I've tried all of the other "tricks" discussed here, but they only result in a "TGA" file named, "cstmp.tga" being created in My Pictures folder.  This file is not recognized by any program and I assume it is useless.  This was my best result following a few iniital attempts that only resulted in error messages and TFP closing without saving my work.

I see the consensus solution appears to be that I should wait for an upcoming update or newer version of TFP from IMSIDesign.  Is that my only option?  Are we confident that IMSI has a fix in store?

Otherwise, I enjoy my TFP and find it a great value for the money.

Thanks.

[Allan Chesney]

Hi, Welcome to the Forum.

If everthing worked fine before it is presumably Vista or something else on the PC (eg incompatable graphics card) that is causing the issue.  I presume you have done a forum Search on Vista. There has been a bit of discussion about it in the past. I have stayed away from Vista, as there seem to be too many programs falling over with it.  It will be interesting to see how Windows 8 goes (it is out already in beta - Apple's "move away from Vista" campaign must have been making an impact at Microsoft!)

TGA is a recognised image format and they certainly opens Ok in Photoshop and PaintShop Pro. TFP only has a TGA option in the File/Export/2D Image.  It uses JPG or BMP for the rendered output.

A few questions that may give some clues to what is happening:
How does it actually fail? 
Does it fail in Basic and Advanced mode? 
Is the "Render to File" turned on in Settings/Program Settings/Rendering?
Have you looked in the folder mentioned there for a file, or does it not even get to complete at all? (JPG will render just white in V12.0 but was fixed in V12.01).
Does it fail on only one model or repeatedly on all?  Sometimes a corruption (usually a bad wall join) can cause a crash or render failure.  If it repeatedly happens with one mode, post it here so I can try rendering it.

I agree with you it is an enjoyable program to use and cheap for what it does.

Allan

[taliesin]

In response to some of your questions, my experience has been as follows:

I was unfamiliar with TGA file formats.  So, thanks for the information.  I cannot account for why my rendered files are saved as TGA files.  I set the options to save the file in jpg or bmp format and to save the rendered image within a file with a unique name in either the Projects or My Pictures folders.  Regardless, each time, the rendering process results in a "done!" and a white (blank) image in the view window.  The tga file that is created is always present in the appropriate folder, but since I do not have a program that will open the files, the file is useless to me.

The program (TFP) has quit shutting down or giving "unknown error" messages when I attempt to render.  I cannot account for that change in the program's behavior either.  It is as if it was modifying its behavior with each new rendering attempt.  Very frustrating.

In the advanced mode, the final image is rendered in black with light shadows cast from the natural light source in a window, for example.  It reminds of me of a negative of a snapshot taken in the dark with only moonlight coming through the window.

I doubt that the failure to render is due to bad wall joins or other poorly drawn elements.  I believe that my projects are drawn with a fair degree of obsession to detail.  I've even drawn a simple house of four walls and roof and it will not render either.

My Dell laptop is an expensive machine with plenty of memory, the latest video and graphic cards, drivers, etc.  So, it cannot be a hardware issue.  Perhaps the failure to render is due to Vista.   But, that should not be my worry.  A program that is sold to run on a Vista machine should do so without all these gyrations that others on this forum have tried and suggested for others to try.  I do not intend to spend any more time worrying about it.  Instead, I will remain hopeful that IMSI gives us an update or newer version that addresses the concerns that so many of us seem to have experienced.

Thanks for the welcome and the feedback,

[Allan Chesney]

Hi again,

The totally white image could be simply over exposure and the black one from Advanced definitely sounds like under exposure, but without seeing the program settings or the model I cannot say that for sure.   Either way (certainly Advanced) is creating an image of some sort, implying that maybe the settings for rendering are causing the problem.  Again I am guessing but could it be you have it set to "Use current time for rendering" and you are doing it at night? Is "Daylight Enabled"? Have you got lights set to On in the view filter?  Did I understand you correctly that only the TGA file is created -with no BMP or JPG with the name you entered in the folder you chose?

Probably if may be quicker to narrow things down if you post one of the models that won't render on the Forum so I can have a look at it (or email it directly if you prefer). That way I can check if it works on XP or if there is a setting that is causing the Advanced image to be black and the Basic to be white (although I can't think what setting could give such opposite results from the same model with the same settings!).  Obviously if we can find a setting that is the problem we can stop blaming Vista.

Allan

[gav]

Hey all I am a bit over imsi, I know I bought turbofloorplan pro for 100 bucks over envisoneer for 1500 bucks but the term "pro" does seem to be lacking. comparing the products there is slight differances not worthy of 1400 bucks by any means.

This TF'P' pro does almost all I need but the block functions of "env'nr" would be a handy function. The dll gets installed but the app function is just not available.

I downloaded a 48 mb patch for this TFP but it wont install. I even uninstalled all and let TFP use its default directories but to no avail .

The patch as its unpacking uses temp enviseneer directories then 75% through says I dont have the right patch (the patch does have a TFP icon) . Dont know what the patch does but I'm hoping keyboard options and block options as the product is still refered to as "PRO".
Also the importing of files is really clumbsy and poorly programmed and the import was better with FP3d.

Anyone know if the patch does anything at all ,is it worth persuing? or do i just battle with this amaturish programe labelled misleadingly with "Pro".

Regards Gav

[Allan Chesney]

Hi Gav,

Welcome to the TFP Forum.

I think whether you need Envisioneer or TFP probably depends on what you want to use the program for.  TFP replaces FP3D in its ability to create a building in 3D, walk around it and generate photorealistic images. Its walkaround abilities, flexibility, and rendering speed leave FP3D for dead and I have not used FP3D once since I switched to TFP as it does nearly everthing much better. Like FP3D it does not do a great deal with plans, as far as being able to use them to submit to councils - Envisioneer does that.  Whether that is worth another $1300 (I thought it was about half that) depends on whether you are a builder or not and whether you can aford to use other programs to make those plans, such as TurboCAD or AutoCAD (BIG BUCKS!).

The term PRO is not a comparison with Envisioneer (CADsoft product) but with TFP Home and Interiors and TFP Landscape and Deck, (IMSI products). Theoretically we do not know that it is related to Envisioneer, as that is programmed and sold by CADsoft while TFP is owned and sold by IMSI, so in that sense the two cannot be compared.  It is also related to 3D Architect and maybe others too. True they do use some of the same elements, probably most, and the names underneath may say Envisioneer in some cases but this is the same with many things today - just look at cars and appliances!!

To be honest, even though I used FP3D for longer than I care to remember (from v3), I cannot recall now how the import worked.  I certainly do not have any problem with TFP in that regard. There are so many ways to do it, as there are with almost everthing.  Probably just a case of what you get used to.

What does the patch do?  It certainly does not add blocks, but fixes a few things, mainly to do with rendering (render as a JPG now works, a cloudy and overcast option were added to help balance interior and exterior lighting and a problem was fixed that caused TFP to crash for some when doing Advanced (Radiosity) rendering.  If you do photrealistic renderings, then the patch is significant.  If you don't, then it may not be worth the effort.

Allan

[crumbum]

Howdy,

I wanted to report that I find TurboFloorplan Pro works great.  I am jumping from FloorPlan 3D v.8 into the latest version and it works easily and very much like the old FP 3D.  I went ahead and bought the training CDs to get up and running quicker and I was pleasantly surprised at how similar the new program is to the old.  What used to be "tricks" and work arounds are now done by regular tools. 

My only issue is that I decided to buy the training CDs after talking to the salesman who pretty much assured me that these included the training on exporting to TurboCad for printing purposes doing Section Views, Kitchen Cab details, etc.   It doesnt.  I am referring to the topic covered under "TurboFloorplan to TurboCad" by Jack Zimmer.  I posted questions there but I never recieved any replys.  Jack's post under that subject was Nov 8, 2007 when he was excited to be offering "soon" a training CD on just that very subject.  A year later someone else asked if the training CD was ready yet and he received no reply.  Does anyone know anything about this yet?  Thanks

[Allan Chesney]

For some time now Jack has been more involved with Envisioneer so only gets to visit here occasionaly. Why dont you ask the question on the Envisioneer Forum, he is there every day, or emai him directly from this Forum? I am sure he would not mind.

Allan

[Jack Zimmer]

Use of TFplan and Turbocad videos were put on hold, family matters took precident.

In addition I had planned on training videos later last year but with so much talk of improvements in the next release I decided to wait until the new versions are released before going through the effort of creating the videos and finding them outdated.

I know talk is cheap, but I do plan on coming out with a variety of videos shortly after the new release. I had hoped IMSI would reinstate the Floor Plan Bridge but so far no news of that happening. So the videos will involve a bit more effort on your part to bring them into TCAD, but testing so far has been succesfull.

Wish me luck as I'm still trying to keep my parents as heathy and comfortable as I possible can. As my Dad always said, I doesn't pay to get old :-)

Jack

http://www.aeccadpro.com/

feel free to drop me an email if you have any questions    jkzimm at charter.net