I have older versions of floorplan, the last being the version 9, which I found to be more user friendly than the version 14.
How do i export projects from the version 9 to continue. The version 14 has less on kitchen sinks etc and more in other sectors.
I am a professional kitchen cabinet maker.
Hi Lekan,
Welcome to the forum!
The is good news and bad! The bad news is that you can't transfer projects from V9 to V12 or later as the background code is completely different. You could possibly export a project as a DXF (I think V9 allowed that - too long ago to remember now) and use that to trace the plan. I think you could also export a 3DS file - if so, you could export individual cabinets, sinks etc and import them into V14 to use in future projects but that is about as good as it gets.
On the positive side however once you get used to it you will find that V14 is much more capable, flexible and functional than any of the previous versions and you can make almost anything within the program itself if you want. See this post and the PDF tutorial attached: http://forums.turbofloorplan.com/index.php/topic,1130.0.html (http://forums.turbofloorplan.com/index.php/topic,1130.0.html). Being a cabinet maker myself I like to actually build the objects myself, piece by piece, within the program. For quality rendering you can also apply a shine for example to any texture, which you could not do before V12, so if you are using timber textures for example, you can give it the exact amount of shine you want. Within the program you can even design your own fancy mouldings to use for furniture etc if you want. Depends how detailed you want to get, but almost anything is possible.
If you are into kitchens specifically, then you can now import the actual 3D sinks, dishwahers, stoves, range hoods etc etc provided by the manufacturer themselves, as a BIM file. This is an exact 3D representation of the specific object, complete with textures and it goes straight into your catalogue for future use. Not all maufacturers do this yet but many do and the 3DGreenHome website linked from the main menu in TFP, is gradually building up a list of such BIM catalogues (http://www.green3dhome.com/BIMCatalogs.aspx (http://www.green3dhome.com/BIMCatalogs.aspx)). It already lists at least 400 Kitchen objects, including sinks and appliances as well Formica textures, paints, wall overings, windows, doors etc. You can search the web for them too obviously and contact the manufacturers to see if they have 3D files available. Where they are available this is the best way to present things exactly as your client would expect to see them.
In addition to the BIM file there are also thousands of 3DS files around and also V15 (I think V14 also) will import SKP (Google Sketchup) files, and they have a huge 'warehouse' of free objects.
I have just touched on a number of things there that are possible, you may want more details as you start to delve into it but I am sure that once you get used to the new layout etc you will find it much better than V9.
Allan