View Filter not listing Roof Accessories

[Doug.S]

Your idea to add them as skylights with a darkened glass is an excellent workaround for the time being (although the skylights make openings in the roof as opposed to sitting on the roof). 

You can eliminate the roof 'poke thru to interior' by making the skylight overall thickness less than the roof thickness and adjust height on the roof....voila....works as if it were just attached on the roofing (not showing inside).

A similar trick (in reverse)...if you have an object sized right but is too big in one direction.....place it so it pokes thru the wall and unwanted part is hidden. Of course the next room looks terrible; but for each camera render you can show or not show the object....thus you don't need to create an odd sized object.  Similar....picture on a wall....frame too thick? just turn collision off and set frame into the wall as needed...render will look just fine.
Or if a cabinet is too deep or molding too long...no need to spend time sizing exactly...just hide what you don't want to see.

The moral: walls, floors, ceilings can hide parts of objects.

[wilsodg]

Hi Allan,
A few things.
I decided to have another go and insert the solar panels.  TFP advised that the Element I am trying to insert is hidden and will be turned on for me.  The panels insert, and I get 'Roof Accessories' available in the view filter.  I can turn them on or off at will.  I turned them off, then saved and quit TFP.  When I go back in I no longer see roof accessories in the view filter listing.

I created a new simple house with a roof, and popped some solar panels in it.  Same effect.. if I turn them off and then save it and quit, on re-opening the entry has gone from the view filter.  In fact, when I quit the program even without being turned off, then they don't show up again.  To get solar panels to appear in view filter again, you have to delete them all, save and close the file, then re-open and try to insert them again.

The pool view did not introduce the issue, and is there because the floor level of this is 2feet below the house.

Re the new panels in the supplied BIM file.  I downloaded this, but when I try to import the BIM file it tells me my version of TFP is less than the one which created the BIM.  I am on TFP 3D Home and landscape pro v16.0.C1.901.  I did install the upgrade from v14, (which went into a different directory so I have v14 and v16 installed).  I subsequently un-installed v14.  Maybe this has done something to my v16 install, so I am now going to re-install.

Perhaps, could you cycle through a simple design, add panel, save/quit, and then re-open?

[wilsodg]

Update,
I have removed and re-installed TFP v16.  I get exactly the same symptoms with the panels and with the BIM file.  Perchance, have you updated your version of TFP.

[Allan Chesney]

I created a new simple house with a roof, and popped some solar panels in it.  Same effect.. if I turn them off and then save it and quit, on re-opening the entry has gone from the view filter.  In fact, when I quit the program even without being turned off, then they don't show up again.  To get solar panels to appear in view filter again, you have to delete them all, save and close the file, then re-open and try to insert them again.

I did the same thing and was able to replicate the issue - Roof Accessories does not appear in the View Filter if you close and re-open the project. This is obviously a bug and it appears that it probably has already been fixed but TFP has not got the update yet.  I say this because Envisioneer, (parent program) has recently had a patch released and it works OK. Normally similar patches for TFP flow on a few months later.  It would appear there is nothing that can be done in the meantime.

Re the new panels in the supplied BIM file.  I downloaded this, but when I try to import the BIM file it tells me my version of TFP is less than the one which created the BIM.  I am on TFP 3D Home and landscape pro v16.0.C1.901.  I did install the upgrade from v14, (which went into a different directory so I have v14 and v16 installed).  I subsequently un-installed v14.  Maybe this has done something to my v16 install, so I am now going to re-install.

Your version of TFP is the same as mine and I was able to import the BIM file OK. Yes you will get an uncompatible message because it came from Envisioneer which as I mentioned had had an update so it a later version. However, when you click the Cancel button the transfer dialog should still open. It will appear blank so you must have just closed it but if you click the + beside the Elements they should expand and show you the Roof Accessories (right panel) - just select them and click the Transfer button.

BIM is an international standard - the only thing that was not compatible was presumably the opening 'container' for the BIM file. It should still work - but it won't solve the Roof Accessories issue though! 

All versions of TFP work independently, so you can have V14, V15 and V16 on the same computer without any interaction, but can only run one at once.

Most of the updates to Envisioneer involved things that are not used in TFP so I am not sure what is happening with a TFP patch - I will see if I can find out.

Allan