Hi - I'm a complete novice so bear with me!
1. Dimensions
When I create a new building and complete the exterior walls (e.g. as a rectangle) in plan view, the (brown) walls are surrounded by a double blue outline, which adds 12cm at each end to the external dimension (i.e. 24cm in total). This sometimes doesn't happen!
At the moment I'm using a custom wall exterior wall element - a 22.5cm brick wall based on the standard 15cm wall, but the effect happens (usually) with the standard elements too.
Is this normal, or is it an option which I can turn off? It makes editing the dimensions very complicated, and I don't really understand what it's for, assuming it's not a glitch.
2. Levels - multiple
My reason for getting design software is that I'm going to remodel my two-storey Victorian house. Like a lot of older houses in the UK, it has been altered and extended over the last 140 years. It is also built on a variably sloping plot.
The upshot is that I have several floor, ceiling and roof levels, and the finished design will link up to yet another set of levels!!
This will mean at least 3 levels on the ground floor, and either 2 or 3 on the second floor (there are currently 2, with the older section stepping up 30cm to the newer half.
There are also currently seven (yes SEVEN!) separate roof levels, though I hope to simplify this to 4.
The question is, can TurboFloorplan deal with this , given it seems to want each floor (or location) and ceiling to be at the same level? Is this functionality built in, or are there any clever workarounds you bright people out there know about. Or should I look to a different product?
Thanks for your indulgence
charliet
Hi Charliet,
Welcome to the TFP forum. Given that you are not working on a simple house ,you may find you are asking lots of questions but there are lots of people here willing to help, so don't worry about that.
The blue line that you sometimes get is probably the exterior face of the wall. If you right click the wall and select Properties, you will see on the Appearace tab that there are settings for the left and right interior walls, exterior wall and also the 2D appearance of the frame and the exterior veneer. The latter defaults to blue on the the plan. You can go to the line Style and change it to whatever you want. (see the image)
However, if your place is solid stone, then you should probably be using Foundation Walls which are 'solid' (no frame and veneer) although these settings are still there should you want to change things later. Whatever you set the wall thickness to is what it will be on the plan if you use the Foundation Wall.
TFP is certainly capable of doing what you want as far as floors go - it does not care how many levels there are but that really is your first job. Go to Settings/Building Locations and set your floor levels. Note that the ground floor is already 300mm off the ground (to allow for floor thickness) so make all these settings according to your circumstances and allow for floor thicknesses. Plan it carefully as you have so many levels. The 2D plan looks after the length and width but the Locations look after the height! You will need a minimum of one Locations for each floor level and name them clearly, as you will have to make sure you are on the correct Location when you insert things.
Bear in mind too that although things come together in 3D the Locations are totally independent. To get an 'Exterior' face on a wall it must be a closed rectangle (it then knows that the outside of the rectangle is the Exterior) and the wall will adopt the exterior appearance. If your levels join to another part of the house without as wall as such (split level in one room) then you must use an "invisible wall" in effect to make the room a complete rectangle to get the exterior surface where needed. This is done using the Room Divider tool (5th button on the 'Building' toobar).
It would be go to also to go to Settings/Program Settings and work through the defaults to make sure you know how the program works and what you can change if you want to.
Hopefully that will get you started on the right track, but just ask as questions arise.
All the best with it.
Allan
Thanks Allan, I think I get it!
So I set different locations for each different level, and as long as I draw them in the right place in plan view, the vertical alignment will sort itself out (I'll soon find out!)?
(Technically, do the locations in a project apply to the whole project, or is the scope limited to an individual building within a project)?
What about attic rooms/loft spaces? Do they have any special requirements (there's no reference to either in the help or pdf, though I did find out how to insert a dormer), and can you work with that space as though it were a normal room (decoration, textures, fittings etc)?
the tip re the walls works fine - is it documented anywhere what the dimensions of the veneers for different walls are, and are they customizable?
sorry to be so demanding, but you shouldn't be so helpful!!
Regards
charliet
Charliet,
Yes you set a Location for each floor level and set the wall height accordingly on each level. You sometimes have to use one or more additinal locations for the roof if is is unusual. I think I would treat the dormer as a another location (invisible walls), especially if you want to do some elaborate decoration.
I am not quite sure what you mean by "(Technically, do the locations in a project apply to the whole project, or is the scope limited to an individual building within a project)?". A project is one model that you give a name to "My House.bld". If you put two buildings in the one project then the locations will apply to both, but they will not apply to future projects (eg "My Second House.bld"), unless you set it as a template, in which case the set of locations will apply to that project also and all future ones.
I gennerally think of a loft in the same was as another location. I just ask myself, how high are the vertical walls? If there are no vertical walls as such, then I set them to 1 mm (being in the UK I am assuming you are metric, let me know if not), because the roof gives you the sloping walls. Even though the "wall" is only 1 mm high, you can still insert doors etc as, by default, the wall will extend to the roof, so will only be 1 mm high at the edges but 2400mm (or whatever) at the peak of the roof. (Set the ceiling to Cathedral). If you are using a 1 mm wall for the loft then don't forget to turn off the baseboard - obviously they are more than 1mm high!
Lofts are not listed in the User Guide but you may like to read the section on Catherdral ceilings as they can be used for the loft effect too by setting the "skirt". the following as a quote form the manual:
"In the Ceilings dialog, click the Cathedral option in the Type area.
Click the Skirt Width option, then specify the distance from the edge of the ceiling at which you want the ceiling to start sloping upward. If you want the ceiling to start sloping directly from the outer edges, specify a value of 0."
Lofts done the way I mentioned first will take the decoration the same as anywhere but bear in mind that the sloping walls are actually the ceiling, even if they do go right to the floor. I have not used the 'skirt' method but I would image it will still take the usual decoration. I have not used the dormers either in this version but I think you will find they are a bit limited, hence my suggestion to use a Location/Room to create them. Maybe some other users have played with the dormers and will comment on them.
I have only had a quick look but could not find anything on the veneer dimension. Seems a bit odd actually - I may have missed something here, so hopefully someone else can throw some light on this. If not I will put it in the Feature Requests area as it is confusing the way it is at the moment. I usually use the Foundation walls, as most homes in Western Australia are double brick.
Allan
My suggestion for any person new to TFP is to NOT tackle the complex multi-level multi-roof house first.
Rather do one simple house and learn a few basics for rooms, roof, doors, windows, materials, interior objects etc.
Then do a simple multi-story to learn the "locations" basics
At least skim thru the help file
Then start making your more complex design....and when you hit a snag, try to work out the complexities on another "test" design that deals only with the problem design so it works fast, renders fast, and is not encumbered with other stuff that may seem to cause the problem you are trying to solve.
And of course ask here and post .bld files or small .jpg pics to help explain your 100 words in one pic.
Allan/Doug
Sorry to take so long - holiday!
Both contributions very useful indeed - your interpretation of my query on locations hit the nail on the head, and the cathedral ceiling thing seems a reasonable workaround, Allan, and I'll be interested to hear if anything comes up re the veneer dimensions.
You read me well, Doug: I'll get practising!
Charlie
I'm having good luck with my loft now. I have two locations, Ground Level and Loft. I created room dividers on the Loft level and then deleted the floor I didn't want. I had to extend the walls on the ground level to 9' instead of 8' so it will cover the wall gaps where the floor is missing. I then had to tell the roof to come down to 2' instead of 8' and the Loft walls automatically extend to it. I attached an image.
Now I just have to get that loft floor to extend over the ground floor walls to get rid of that little lip.
You should be able to just drag the floor opening edges, in the plan view, to extrend the floor to cover the wall edges (or move the wall a little - if that is not critical)
Allan
I am replying to this old post because I have a question regarding a suggestion that was given.
I too have an exterior wall that doesn't seem to want to act like one.
Quote from: Allan Chesney on March 15, 2008, 04:19:39 AM
To get an 'Exterior' face on a wall it must be a closed rectangle (it then knows that the outside of the rectangle is the Exterior) and the wall will adopt the exterior appearance. If your levels join to another part of the house without as wall as such (split level in one room) then you must use an "invisible wall" in effect to make the room a complete rectangle to get the exterior surface where needed. This is done using the Room Divider tool (5th button on the 'Building' toobar).
1. I have a simple bump-out that doesn't extend to the roofline. The small section of main wall won't appear as an exterior wall above the bumpout (see pic). I can work-around and apply siding to the left interior side of this section of wall, and it looks good in 3D, but then this wall disappears completely when I render it. I tried using the Room Divider tool every which way, with no success. Seems like I'm missing something easy. Any suggestions?
2. Also take a look at the siding that extends over the floor framing; it's spotty. Some places it looks good, some it looks terrible. Can someone point me in the right direction?
Thanks
Hi, Welcome to the forum.
The wall above the 'porch' is probably most easily fixed by selecting the front wall (all sections - 3?) and untick the "Extend walls to roof" then go into the roof for that edge tick the 'show gable' tick box and set it to the same siding. It is off by default but that may fix the problem as it will use the gable surface texture instead of the different wall surfaces. Without seeing the model, I suspect what is happening currently is that the wall at the back of the porch is extending to the roof but it is an interior wall because of the attached 'room' in front of it. The gable option should fix it I think.
Since the wall of the porch is not the same height as the rest of the building it probably should have been on a different location but with the floor height set the same. It would then work independently of the rest of the building. In this situation the back wall of the porch would be done with a room divider. Actually it is possible in this version to use an ordinary wall as the door will cut though both but you must make it thinner or make sure the surfaces are set to the same texture or you will have both textures fighting to show.
The colour differences in the base of the wall is the same point as above - the edge of the floor is 'bleeding' through as they are in the same space. If you set the edge of the floor to the same siding texture it should be OK.
Allan
Allan,
First of all, thanks for the help. This may have been my first post, but I have been reading this forum for a long time. I have read many, many of your helpful suggestions, so thank you for all the time you have spent helping me and others. I gather that the most important thing in using this program is to get into the head of the program (ie think like it thinks). Unfortunately, though, sometimes it is not entirely intuitive.
I applied your suggestions on this house. The 'show gable' worked perfectly. I also put the porch on another location and closed it with the room divider. But this makes the main exterior wall finish (siding) show on the inside of the porch. How can I change the finish material of just that section of wall to 'interior' (drywall)? If I break the wall into sections and set the exterior material of that section to drywall, it looks good on the inside. Is this the "right" way to do this, or am I messing things up by doing this? (e.g. what if the wall only extended partway up the 1st floor wall- how to make the lower half drywall and the upper half siding?)
Also, when I apply the siding material to the edge of the floor system, it displays as a a few shades lighter color than the walls in 3D view, and a few shades darker than the walls upon rendering- very noticeable. The gable end does this sometimes too when I click 'show gable end'. Why would this be taking place?
Thanks again
Now that you have the porch on a separate location you can turn the gable off again and let the walls extend - that should then retain the texture and you will not get a colour shade difference as does sometimes happen with the gable end.
To get rid of the siding on the inside of the porch (from the exterior of the main house) I would suggest the following:
1. Delete the room divider and repace it with a proper wall.
2. Allow this wall to directly overlap the main wall on the ground floor location.
3. Drag this wall just a fraction towards the front door of the porch so they are just slightly out of line.
To do this easily just select this wall and use the arrow keys on the keyboard to move it. You can set the Nudge distance (Settings/Program Settings/Drawing Aids) to 1mm or whatever is smallest in imperial (1/16" maybe) and each press of the arrow will move it by the Nudge distance. This will mean the inside drywall of the porch will show on the inside of the porch and the inside drywall of the main room will show there, without any bleed through of textures on either side (The two exterior surfaces of both are 'inside' the wall by a fraction, so are not seen.
4. Switch back to your ground floor and insert an Opening for the access between the two. If the walls are totally or closely aligned the opening will cut through both even though they are on different locations, so no need to use the Room Divider to make the transparency. Insert the opening narrower than needed and then widen it to whatever you want. It will dissappear if you go a fraction more than the length of the walls inside length, hence the suggestion to insert it small, centre it on the porch wall and widen to the maximum of the porch wall or a fraction less. When it disappears undo the last change. That is assuming the opening is the full width of the porch - if it is narrower then you should not have a problem with it.
There are other ways of doing this but I think this is easiest.
The floor/wall base problem is again because they are in the same space and textures can render slighlty differently on the different elements. The floor is obviously inserted as a Preimeter floor (or was the auto floor). This takes the floor right to the edge of the wall and the 'drop face' texture and floor edge texture mix.
There are a few solutions:
1. Delete the floor and insert a floor "by room". This sits inside the walls and does not go under them, so would not show on the outside.
2. Delete the floor and insert by "Picking Points" and make sure you pick points just inside the outer edge of the wall.
3. If it is a Perimeter floor, then you could also go into the rendered 2D view, turn roof and ceiling off (View Filter) so you can select the floor and just drag the edges in a fraction from the outside walls - you can do this in 3D view but it is harder to move small distances.
When inserting new floors be careful not to insert more than one. It will accept multiple floors in the same space and if this happens you can get texture conflicts again on the surface of the floor. If you suspect there is more than one, just keep deleting until there are none, then insert the one you wanted.
Hope you can follow all that and that it solves your problems.
Regards,
Allan