Hi George,
Sorry - they are not. In fact I could not find any difference at all in any of the Property dialog windows. Still the same tiny upper panel and still a few textures squashed in the lower section. With 5000+ available, to show only 8 on the screen is pathetic really.
There is a new dialog box on the right click in the catalogue tree called an Element Manager. It is like a combination of the tree of elements and the Properties box so you can go from one to the other and edit the properties (see image). That may be useful but we will have to wait and see in TFP V15 interits it of course. My guess is that it will.
So far I have not noticed many changes at all. Occasionally, there is a dotted line across the screen when you start to draw walls, I presume as a guide that you are moving horizonatally or vertically but it is not always there so I am a little mystified by that one. Also on the the status bar is a SNAPTRACK option but I cant see what that does yet - maybe something to do with the dotted line and snaps to it
I have had a quick flip through all the Elements and they all appear the same, names look the same and the ones I looked at were the same. Kitchen cabinets appear to be the same too and the counter top still falls to the floor and becomes narrower if it is selected.
All the options in Program Settings appear the same although you can now add another city by typing in the longitude and latitude. The 3D Real View also has a dropdown list of the cameras, so you can select the same view as in the model without going back to the main screen. That will be useful, so lets hope TFP get it.
Unfortunately the rendering bugs are still there. Interior walls in sunlight still render jet black and sunlight through windows still turns the interior lights off (or almost off). I am very disappointed these have not been fixed as the workarounds and experimenting waste so much time. Maybe they will be fixed in V15? Does not look promising though if Env 6 still has the problem!
There are some changes in the framing options (we may get those) but in the construction drawing side of things there are some major enhancements. No point discussing those here though as TFP does not get those options anyway. Well - it hasn't in the past, maybe we will get a cut down version so plans are easier to print.
So... No resizable dialog boxes unfortunately, no customisable toolbars and still some rendering issues. There may be other new things but I have only just installed it so may not have found them yet. Visually it looks identical.
It will be interesting to see how TFP V15 turns out.
Allan
