Profiles and Members

[wbrothers]

Hello,

TFP seems to be a great program for the price.  3 Questions I can't seem to resolve:

1)  How do you insert profiles into a model from the TFP catalog? (the 3D molding that comes with TFP)
2)  How do you insert individual members into a model, such as beams or TJI's?
3)  Does view manager only save the element display settings you choose for each view?  Can you also save what floor is "active" for each saved view?

Thanks!

-Will

[Allan Chesney]

Hi Will,

Welcome to the Forum.  I am afraid I am not quite clear on some of your questions so if I am off the mark just ask again.

1.  Moldings (baseboard, crown moldings etc) are on the Trim tab on Wall Properties.

2.  Individual members (Interior Accessories / Decorative / Custom Member) are inserted in the same way as anything else so I am guessing you are referring to the framing. That is automatic although you can set the spacing and material and profile but you can't add in a beam as such. Sorry but I don't know what a TJI is - can't say I have heard the expression in Australia but then I am not a builder so it may be used.

3.  Sorry but I have never played with View Manager but I don't think it can be set to a Location. It is not intuitive to me and I have not had the time to try to work it out. I seem to recall Doug referring to it so he may be able to comment on this question.

Allan

[wbrothers]

Hi Allan,

Thanks for you reply - very helpful.

For the molding and members, I'm actually talking about those accessed through the Catalog Manager: (accessed through the menus described below)

File>Catalog>Catalog Manager>Library>Profiles

and

File>Catalog Manager>Elements>Members

Is there any way to insert these items into a model?  I notice for profiles, you can define the actual shapes for molding, but there does not seem to be a way to insert these into a model.  The "trim" tab in the wall menu lists only rectangular extrusions with image maps.

Thanks again for your help!

Regards,

-Will

[Doug.S]

I have played a little and am no expert on any of the questions you asked but I'll offer opinions...but I could be wrong on some of these...

I tried a profile once with no real success...and limited need as well since I can easily generate a .3ds object of any shape using other 3D programs...so no need for me to learn that part of TFP.

Only member I have found and used is a rectangular extrusion that looks like a 2x6x8'.  I think that TFP as a subset of Envisioneer has not included much capability for profiles or members. But look here where Env forum has some profile info that might help...and note that its used very little by the Env users:
http://www.cadsoft1.com/customercare/viewtopic.php?t=5161

Inserting is done the same for all items...the trick is finding the objects in the maze of the catalog. Check the index last pages of the help file for some guide to find some objects.  I don't remember where I found the "member". Mostly the trim is an image rather than a real 3D profile because for 3D viewing its usually not very important. If needed for close-up, I import a self made .3ds object into the interior accessories and place it into position in 2D and then set the height using elevation setting for the object.

I don't know what a TJI is either.

As I recall, view manager is a global setting for the file in use....so no way to have different settings per "location" .  If I want to temp. hide something I usually just change it's height to + or - 20' or similar setting, render as needed, then return the object to its correct position....just move things out of camera view with an easy way to get the object back....or for extreme cases, I'll have a duplicate file for interior and exterior views...with changes simply to get a better render yet still show a realistic result.  A guide here is to make the PC work fast easy and correct by whatever works, not necessarily exactly 3D correct as long as it looks correct and is not misleading....for example remove a wall to get a better camera view...like done for movies or TV shows.

[Allan Chesney]

Hi Will,

Is there any way to insert these items into a model?  I notice for profiles, you can define the actual shapes for molding, but there does not seem to be a way to insert these into a model.  The "trim" tab in the wall menu lists only rectangular extrusions with image maps.

So far the only way to insert them that I have found is to the frames within the wall - I have not found a way to insert them into the trim - yet.  I am guessing there is a way but as with so many things you have to go very deep.  See the image below for the six dialog boxes (10 steps) to inserting a new profile in the wall framing (could hardly fit them all on my widescreen monitor).

You can of course create this profile in the same dialog boxes through the catalog Manager but you still have to go through all of them to eventually insert it.  However, having tried that and used a baseboard profile for a stud (creating my own was possible but too fiddly for the time I had available), it was invisible in 3D view - only the usual baseboard and molding appeared although the regular studs were visible on the other walls. So this one needs some more experimentation - sometime!

Please let us know if you find how to do it, how to make it visible or how to change the Trim to one of the existing profiles for which they were obviously designed.

Allan