My home & first drawing

[the cad man]

Hi to all fellow designers..

I've owned my copy of TFP v16 for about a week now and I've been on a very steep learning curve.  I've started out by trying to draw my own home (as I'm sure most of you do).  This is the result so far of my first attempt.  If any of you can see things that I could change to make it more like the photo, then I look forward to hearing your suggestions and learning from you.

Gaz the CAD man

[Allan Chesney]

Hi Gary,

You have done extremely well for one week's use!!! Obviously you must hve been practising 24hrs a day.

The most obvious difference between the model and the real photo is the absense of the Dutch Gables. You can add the one over the garage simply by selecting the front edge of the roof over the Garage, go to Properties and select Roof Type / Dutch Gable. It will create a second aspect to the roof so you will see listed a Straight and Gable section. Select Straight and increase the Horizontal Distance - this will push the gable section back (and higher obviously). If you know the horizontal distance, from the brickwork to the front edge of the gable, then just type it in.

The other gable appears to be just a decorative addition set into the roof - not a true gable, so I would just create another slightly higher location and use 'Roof by Picking Points' to draw a square of roof. Change the front edge to gable and it should just stick through the main roof.

Use a Box, Custom Member or similar for the finial (when I get home I will post a proper one for you - remind me if I forget!  ) and you can use the Custom Member (Interior Accessories/ Decorative) to create the other gable decorations.

The bottom of the house, especially below the bay window, appears to be floating above the Terrain. Is it? If so you may need to enter a 'floor thickness' (eg 300mm) in the wall's Drop Face setting. This will take the bricks down to the ground. If that makes you red brick band too wide then just increase the base height of the Terrain in Settings.

If you want to get the bricks to look exactly the same then you can use a photo of them or, if you know the brick name/manufacturer, you may get a sample image from their website. You can do the same with the roof tiles. Use the Search for posts on making your own Texture or just ask if you are not sure and want to do this.

You many find changing the background image will help to make it look more realistic as that particular sky is very bright.

Re rendering - what settings did you use? I assume it was Advanced - Overcast? Post the Render and Global dialogs would be best.

If you have done this well in a week it will be interesting to see what you can come up with in a month!!

Allan

[the cad man]

Thanks Allan,

I'm working on trying your suggestions now.  While I've only had this software for a week I have been using TurboCAD since 1979 (version 2) for work and play so I do have some background in using IMSI software.

I use Advanced rendering - overcast (the 'clear'setting was too bright), set for Adelaide at 1 pm.

I tried your guttering idea but couldn't find any guttering in the catalogue, so at the moment it's just a square beam (but that worked really well).

I'll re-post my next attempt soon.  And PS thanks for all the help you offer to newbies like myself.

Gaz

[the cad man]

Okay...

I've added some gables...(and here are my render settings)...

[Jack Zimmer]

Hi Gaz,

Nice work, your making great progress.

Your Raytrace setting should be set to 4 (not one).

As a general rule I do not use Advanced for Exterior Renderings. Some issues in the past, rendering times and ability to doctor final image has made Basic my choice for Exterior and Advanced for Interior.

I normally ignore location setting and concentrate on month and time settings. I understand the north side of a building receives no direct sunlight but if I am interested in showing a customer what the building details look like, I ignore reality and render with sun showing on all sides. So, because Basic renders faster with the Sun and no lights turned on, I use it set to June and most always use early morning hours 7am to 9am to get long shadows.

Once complete I open in Irfan view , decrease Gama setting slightly, increase Contrast slightly and sharpen the image slightly.

If you use Advanced make sure you check lights that are turned On , for instance the wall light between the garage doors is too bright at wall. You can move the light source by adjusting its XYZ settings in properties .

If you add your own background it may have to add a 'blank strip' across the bottom of the image to get it to raise up in the rendering. This is also done in a photo editor.

Attached....

Sample of results when adjusting Gama (.93) and Contrast (12) in Irfan viewer. Any photo editor can be used to adjust. I also sharpen the images very slightly.

Image on left = original on right = adjusted


Jack

[Allan Chesney]

Hi Garry and Jack,

Garry it looks great with the gables and associated trim - don't them make a differance?

Like Jack I always set the Anitalias to 4, use early hours of the day and usually use Basic for exteriors too.

I understand the north side of a building receives no direct sunlight

Sorry Jack .......not for Garry and I!  The North get the sun full blast, day in and day out all year long (except for a few odd days in June - our dullest time of the year!). Interestingly we also get sun on the South side in summer mornings and evenings.

Keep up the good work Garry - it is looking really good.

Allan

[Kajvin - Robert W]

Hi Garry!
Great work and I like your roof.

/Robert

[the cad man]

Thank you Jack for your input, I'll try your suggestions today, and Allan as always, I appreciate your expertise, and thanx Robert for your compliments...so much to learn, so little little time to cram it all in!  My next dilemma's are the "floating concrete" and the missing wall under the bay window...

Gaz

[Doug.S]

Of course I do things differently and for different reasons...so it is not a question of right or wrong...but what are your goals/purpose of the render.

I pay very close attention to location and sun...at specific times of the year..often as a movie from sunrise to sunset in about 20 seconds...to show shadows and where they are in the scene...with "north" correct.
For example at equinox, and first day of winter and first day of summer..to show range (min/max) and "average" shadows.

I also always do advanced renders to avoid hard shadows and get more realistic compared to a photo. Renders do take longer tho.

Often very important are the materials/textures applied...to represent the desired results and not look like fake plastic...but as realistic as possible.

Tho for initial "drafts" I do basic renders...and save exacting renders for "final" stuff.

[the cad man]

Thanks Doug,

As a newbie to TFP I'm doing this render of my own home just to learn how to use the software.  Eventually I would like to incorporate it into my house designs for clients, so using the sun angle movie is a good idea.  Here is the latest version using the ideas suggested to me so far...I've got a wall under the bay windows now, and I used the basic render... now to fix those pesky gutters!

Jack, how do I "check that lights are turned off"?  Where do I find those settings?

Gaz

[Allan Chesney]

Hi Garry,

You are making great strides with this one - congratulations!  It is looking really good. 

Re the gutters, you will find when you Convert to Members, you can right click in the Members list and Add a new one. In the dialog you will find a set of profiles across the top of the dialog - one of those is Gutter (curved) or Tapered 4 (for a sloping squared type). If you are really concerned with exactness, you can go across to Custom and create your own style but that IS a learning curve.

I notice you have added what looks like a Pad under the house. This can be modified (if appropriate in this case) so that it follows the bay window - just select it and drag the hollow blue box on the outer corners in, so that each side slopes the same as the window. Use the solid box in the middle of the straight edges, to drag the edge in or out.

Allan

[the cad man]

Great, thank you Allan...you explained about the gutters to me before but I had no luck...thanks for the more detailed info.  As soon as I get a spare minute I'll go back in and find the gutter profiles and fix those lights.

Gaz

[Jack Zimmer]

Hi Gaz,

Unfortunetly interior lights when ON and used along with an exterior render with Sun 'ON', send light from interior to exterior with bad results at times. I always turn off interior lights.
Select the light, right click properties, under Lights tab (where you adjust 'bulb' location, Allans jpg) is also where you turn the light off by selecting the 'Eye' icon.

I normally have Exterior lights off too when doing daylight renders but there are exceptions and ways to make the lights less bright, changing source brightness doesn't always work. Just the nature of the rendering program.

One thing to always check is light orientation. Wall lights, lights that easily show Front and Back are no problem. But if you moved the 'bulb' out and away from the 'back' of the fixture, make sure you check which is 'back' of that fixture , especially for Recessed lights and Table Lamps. You want to make sure the bulb you moved out away from a 'wall' is in fact not oriented to move it closer.

You cannot adjust lights like you can in TurboCAD, you have to use what is given and bulb position is a critical method of control.

I will even take a recessed light, elevate it above the ceiling and drop the bulb to - 48" (minus)... so you get light in a room but do not see any fixture.

[Jack Zimmer]

Gaz and all,

Cadsoft is the parent company that makes Envisioneer (with working drawing options ++), TurboFloorplan and HGTV Home Design programs.

This link has many good 'tips' on the use of the program , many of which apply to TFPlan.

  http://www.cadsoft.com/faqs.php   

There are also short 'Tool Tips' available here

  http://www.youtube.com/user/Cadsoftcorp

As said, some do not apply to TFPlan but most do. The programs are compatable, exactly the same in interface layout and rendering.

[the cad man]

Thank you Jack, I appreciate your advice and experience.

Gaz