Several years ago, I tried an older version of Floor Plan. I did not get the instant results that I wanted so I just walked away from it. I got TurboFloorPlanPro-12 in a TurboCad upgrade bundle. This time I stayed with it long enough to get hooked and to buy TFP Pro16. TurboFloorPlanPro-16 permits me to make back-and-forth import/export file operations to initiate the TFP-16 3-dimensional model of the house from my drawings. I have imported the plan drawings to facilitate setting up the TFP file. I have exported from TFP to overlay check in TurboCad.
A couple of weeks ago I read with great interest just about all of the forum entries. I didn't find answers to several of my problems/questions. I plan to enter several posts to address each of them separately if I can't find my own solutions.
I have had problems with a gambrel roof, chimney, front entry steps and the wrought iron step railings, front entry door appearance and threshold, the garage door, cellar entry bulkhead (metal enclosure doors) and wood trim around the entry and garage doors.
Our gambrel roof presented a challenge to enter in TFP. Thanks to Jack Zimmer's tutorial, I was finally able to find a combination of roof techniques that match our roof dimensions.
The main issue is how to arrive at something that cannot be lifted directly from the catalog. I have been doing 2-Dimensional CAD for twenty plus years (GenricCAD, some AutoCad, some Microstation, and TurboCad) but not 3-dimensional CAD. I am starting up the learning curve here. I have almost all the dimensions data from my scale drawings. I just haven't found the cookbook to create my own house-specific objects when I don't find an acceptable substitutes for them in the catalog or online. I unsuccessfully tried a couple of times but I am missing something.
Why am I hung-up on matching details? This is another step in a long march that started a long time ago. In 1975 we wanted to expand our two-bedroom Cape Cod style house. Problems were a peak lower than most capes and no provisions for stairs to a second level. We found out that this made a conventional cape expansion difficult/impractical. We measured the house dimensions and I manually drafted plan and elevation views. We then made scaled cardboard mock-ups of expansion alternatives. Nothing worked within the original roofline. Thus, we added a complete second story to our house. After the expansion I updated the scaled plan and elevation drawings. Then after I obtained my first version of "Generic Cad" , I made CAD versions of the drawings which have ended-up in TurboCad. I continue to refer to and use these 2D-drawings. We are hoping to do a major kitchen re-model that will require some additional expansion. Now TFP-16 offers a way to get the benefits of the models and more. If and when we are complete, I want the TFP-16 file to be a sort of trophy for the project.
Welcome to TFP forum.
Sounds like you have an interesting project....but should be quite do-able in 3D and most if not all in TFP.
Best for you to start a new topic item for each problem separately so it is easily tracked and not confusing from mixed Q and A.
So start with your first most pressing issue and we'll try to help. Best also to explain in words and picture examples...even if a sketch or an arrow pointing to a TFP image that is wrong or you need help. Pictures are worth 1000 words here.
For 3D models the web is a great resource and be sure to check out Google's SketchUp free app and the warehouse.
TFP can be used in ingenious ways to make your own models if catalog does not have what you want. And you can add these items to the catalog for future use or just leave them in the drawing file.
Your experience in visualizing 3D from 2 views will help you a lot in TFP as most of the design work is done in 2D and TFP then reveals it in 3D...then rendering a final image turns it into "reality" pictures. There are "tricks" to use; searching this forum for answers will help along with asking direct, specific questions on how to use TFP to resolve an issue.
Hi Roger,
If you have not seen them already, the PDF in the following two posts will be the most useful to you:
1. Adding new shapes that can be used to put together all sorts of things: http://forums.turbofloorplan.com/index.php/topic,315.0.html (http://forums.turbofloorplan.com/index.php/topic,315.0.html)
2. Using the Floor, walls ceiling and Members etc to make other things: http://forums.turbofloorplan.com/index.php/topic,1130.0.html (http://forums.turbofloorplan.com/index.php/topic,1130.0.html)
With these techniques you can make almost anything and all without using other programs. The light fitting below, just as an example, was made entirely in TFP out of the Shapes mentioned above and the Floor tool! It just indicates the posibilities.
Have fun - and ask when you get stuck! :D
Allan