V14 - What's New, What's Changed and What Hasn't

Started by Allan Chesney, March 18, 2009, 10:15:16 AM

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Allan Chesney

What's New?

First obvious thing is the new toolbar icons, large and colourful - look nice but reduce screen space.  Also more space is lost as the new Help toolbar cannot be turned off or set to 'Normal' like the others so it pushes then further dpwn the screen. I have resorted to the tabbed view, much slower to use as there is two clicks required frequently but it looses too much space overwise. EDIT - sorry the Help tab can be set to Normal if you scroll one line in the Toolbars list.

Not so obvious is the name.  Was TurboFLOORPLAN. Now it is TURBOFloorPlan3D.

There are a few new tools.

A Surfaces tool - not quite sure how this works yet but but appears you can add different surfaces and slope them. With this you can slope a floor, or a section of it, Add an unusual slope to a roof or slope a ceiling

An Intersect Planes tool - extends and joins Surfaces - a new slope can be blended into the roof. The roof can be exploded too so each surface becomes a separate object so you can have a different tile on each side of the roof if you want.

Animated Tutor that pops up each time you use a tool. A little movie shows you how to use the tool. An icon for it on the Help toolbar turns it on and off.

Related to the Tutor is the Tool Guide in help which has a small animated illustration on how to use the tool - same thing as Tutor I suppose.

A corner Detailing tool for adding quoining, shutters etc.

New Footings tool - click a wall - footing is added.

There is a View Manager tool on the Views toolbar - opens a set of printing views and half a dozen toolbars. This will answer some of the plan print desires of some users but it kept crashing for me saying that Envisioneer 5 had to close! Shows its 'heritage'. The crashing may only be because I did not have a printer connected so will test that out later. (LATER: Works fine on my desktop which has the printer. Enables you to copy plans, elevations, sections, isometric views etc onto proper printing plans - very good!).

EDIT - THIS HAS BEEN REMOVED BY THE PATCH! This functionality and Vector Printing below, was accidentally included in the initial release given to IMSIdesign by the software program development company. It actually belonged to the much more expensive Envisioneer 5. Shortly I will post a tutorial with a way, though not as simple, to do a similar thing, without having to use other software.

There is a Vector Printing and Paper Shadow (?) option - have not investigated yet. See edit above.

Quick 3D View provides the old Floorplan3D elevation and isometric views - good for quickly checking around the model.
Material Paintbrush tool now has a check box to Apply to All Similar surfaces. In other works it will paint all the exterior walls at the same time for example.

Green Design is one of the main menu headings but all three option are just internet links. Not having the internet to that computer I do not know what they do other than what the website says.  Will have to check that out later.

New is a Catalog Search. Just remember a word from the element you are looking for and it will find it. Useful.

Import and Export BIM file - (Building Information?) Maybe the Punch import? Have not investigated this yet. (LATER - can't find it now!)

Right click has a Select All Similar option, so you can select one wall, right click and select all simlar and the Properties box is still available. No more shift/clicking each wall to select them all to change the properties- great!

You can now select a ceiling with framing - if you want something to hold it up!.

There is now an option to add room area, perimeter and volume to the plan.


What's Changed?

The elements panel is different in that you do not have Groups and Elements in separate panels. It is now a Windows type 'tree' view like the old FloorPlan3D. To me it is harder to use and you cannot just click on one and page through to see the images, you have to click on each. I prefer the old way. The Catalog Search is in this panel.  The Materials Panel works like it used to thankfully as paging through textures is very useful.

The Help is a new dialog that sometimes has a toolbar at the top and sometimes doesn't. When it doesn't there is no Index or Search - bug?  You can seach the printable User Guide - it has a word Find at the top. This is a bug.


What Hasn't Changed?

Still simple and quick to use but unfortunately all the bugs from V12 that I can think of are still there, especially in the area of Advanced Rendering.  This is very disappointing.  Although there are workarounds, it is obviously time consuming.  I have not played with the artificial lighting yet so no comment on that. (LATER: Artificial lights appears the same with the same bugs). Navigation tools are all still the same.

V12 files once converted appear to render VERY slow. EDIT - The patch addresses this and some crash issues with V12 files.
New files render quick.

Allan
Allan Chesney,
Kalamunda, Perth, Western Australia
www.alchesdesigns.iinet.net.au

TurboFloorPlan Home and Landscape Pro V16.0.C1.901
Envisioneer Construction Suite V9.1.2.1234
TurboCAD V17 Professional

Nik

"Quick 3D View provides the old Floorplan3D elevation and isometric views - good for quickly checking around the model."

Sounds good !!

D'uh, I did not manage to replace my 'Classic' FP 10, I did not migrate to TFP _12. In fact, I haven't done any serious 3D since FP_10 ran out of work-space and ground to a halt. I'll go check TFP web-site before asking stupid questions about _14 import options...

Steve Clarke

The new TurboFLOORPLAN v14 has introducted a plug-in to allow users of Punch Home and Landscape to import their plans into TurboFLOORPLAN.

There is also still the 'Letter for 3D Home Architect Users' saying 3D Home Architect versions 5
Steve

Allan Chesney

Hi Nik and Steve,

I suspect the FP import is dead. Really the wall tool is SO advanced compared to FP I think it would be really hard to do.

Import is DXF 2D and 3D, 3DS, SKP, Punch PXF Contest and BIM, whatever that is. It appeared  as the only import option on one occasion. It must only appear in some conditions or is an Envisioneer hangover. A few have appeared fleetingly.

Time will tell on doubt.

Allan   
Allan Chesney,
Kalamunda, Perth, Western Australia
www.alchesdesigns.iinet.net.au

TurboFloorPlan Home and Landscape Pro V16.0.C1.901
Envisioneer Construction Suite V9.1.2.1234
TurboCAD V17 Professional

Voodooman

Hi Allan

BIM is Building Information Modeling and relates to pricing, scheduling etc.

i.e. Brickwork $x a sq meter

Its a quite vague term and can mean other stuff to, its supposed to be a bridge between the design and construction of a job.

It can even just be a list of the elements of building, like 360 sq meters roof tiles, 300m rough sawn 3x2.

Usually its todo with estimating the cost so includes quantities and prices of items e.g. 1 sq m of roof tiles = $30 therefore if we have 360sq m on the building we can easily work out the material cost of the roof, likewise to lay 1sq m of tiles costs $x so now you have the cost of the roof etc...


Regards

Peter


Allan Chesney

Thanks Peter for the explanation. I had found out the Building Information part of the acronym but still had on real idea what it was. Makes sense now.

It also helped me to find it again - it is in the File/Catalog menu basically it allows you to export elements or materials from your catalog so another user can import to theirs. Could prove usefull.

Allan
Allan Chesney,
Kalamunda, Perth, Western Australia
www.alchesdesigns.iinet.net.au

TurboFloorPlan Home and Landscape Pro V16.0.C1.901
Envisioneer Construction Suite V9.1.2.1234
TurboCAD V17 Professional

Voodooman

Hi Allan

I have been looking at V14.  Did V12 have worksheets?

I see that you can now draft complete plans but was not aware that this was available before.

Regards


Peter

Allan Chesney

Hi Peter,

No, it was not in V12. Dramatic improvement for those who need the Print side of things. Lifted straight from Envisioneer I suspect.

Sorry about the gibberish in my previous message - predictive text entry on my phone! Obviously I did not read it afterwards! Will go back and fix it - if I can work out what I was trying to say!

Allan
Allan Chesney,
Kalamunda, Perth, Western Australia
www.alchesdesigns.iinet.net.au

TurboFloorPlan Home and Landscape Pro V16.0.C1.901
Envisioneer Construction Suite V9.1.2.1234
TurboCAD V17 Professional

Voodooman

Hi Allan

The 2D drafting features appear to be straight out of Envisioneer 4, in fact the product is Envisioneer 4 which cost $1000!

TFP3D must be the bargain of the century!

I was an Envisioneer user but ran into problems of 3D performance and the lack of 2D Drawing and changed to Arcon.

I am being tempted back to TFP but how do you deal with performance issues?

When I look at the big sample houses, I cant seem to move around them at all even with a Phenom Triple Core, 2gb ram and 512mb vid card?

Regards


Peter

Allan Chesney

Hi Peter,

Your problems moving around do not sound right. I tried opening all the samples on my desktop and laptop and did not have any problem moving around them at all.  Both have hardware acceleration on but the PC's themselves are nothing out of the ordinary.  Both about 3 years old, desktop 3GHZ 1MB RAM 512 video and the laptop 1.6GHZ , 2MB RAM and not sure about the Video - just whatever it came with.  Movement is not quite a smooth as some smaller models of mine but I could not complain as the difference is marginal.  I would imagine that the Office building I did (examples in the Gallery) would be more memory intensive than the samples but had no problem with that either.

As yet I have not experimented much with the plan printing etc other than to see what it does, but I did have some problems with it on the laptop as the printers are not working on it. I have not been able to sort the printer problem out yet but the result is that as soon as I go to the print options (in some other software too) the program, whatever it is, crashes.  In this situation, when TFP crashes, I get an Envisioneer 5 message.  I have even noticed Env 5 in some of the dialog boxes too and help panels, so it seems like a bit of a hybrid.  I know all the rendering issues in TFP are identical to those in Env 5.  Rendering quality appears very similar, maybe identical if using the same model.

Allan

Allan Chesney,
Kalamunda, Perth, Western Australia
www.alchesdesigns.iinet.net.au

TurboFloorPlan Home and Landscape Pro V16.0.C1.901
Envisioneer Construction Suite V9.1.2.1234
TurboCAD V17 Professional

Voodooman

Hi Allan

I turned on the harware acceleration which was off by default and now it works ok.

On my old PC I couldnt use hardware acceleration at all which made TFP unusable.

I also had a requirement to do working drawings.  I did working drawings in Turbocad but it was hard work.

Looks like a bargain that cant be missed!

Regards

Peter

crumbum

Howdy,

Just wanted to weigh in about vs. 14.  I've been using the trial version for a few days now and am happy to report that I have had no problems at all.  I actually enjoy the larger icons and it really hasnt reduced my workable screen size a noticable amount.  I only have a 17" monitor so the larger icons are easier to read.  I didnt have any problems with vs 12 either (other than pilot error whilst learning) but was hoping for expanded printing abilities.

I am curious about the "worksheets" mentioned above - where do I find them?  Can I insert border/title sheets into this program?  Seriously, the only thing I am bummed about with the modern TFP is the lack of the TurboCad Bridge that was in the older programs.  I actually was able to use the combination of old FP and TC on one project before I quit the business for three years.  I suppose one could print out his borders first from any Cad program and then print the Elevations, Plan, Section Views, Kitchen Cabs etc from FP onto those pre-printed borders.  I havent tried any printing yet because my HP DeskJet 1220C printer seems to need a driver for this computer.  Hope to get that going to I can report.

Below is a quick render of a StrawBale house and a bit of Landscaping I did in from scratch in less than two hours yesterday using vs 14.  I pirnted it out to show around at the Colorado Strawbale Association meeting last night.  Trying to drum up a little business.  Typical of Strawbale homes is the simple passive solar floorplan and large (3' minimum) overhangs to protect the walls.   

Randy

Voodooman

Hi

The worksheets - click the view icon and the view manager appears, from the view menu - add work sheet.

For a title block 'insert/CadFile/TitleBlocks' and insert a title block and you have a worksheet.

You will find that the views are not dynamic - i.e. if you change an elevation in a model, the worksheet will not change.  Actually this is a good thing as would you really want an elevation to change without your knowledge or permission?

Regards


Peter

jjocsak

Quote from: Voodooman on March 24, 2009, 06:15:39 PM
Hi Allan

I have been looking at V14.  Did V12 have worksheets?

I see that you can now draft complete plans but was not aware that this was available before.

Regards


Peter

What's different than before in this area?

Jeff

Allan Chesney

Hi Jeff,

Dramatically different.  Clicking View Manager allows you to add a new worksheet for printing your plans in a 'professional' manner.

You are presented with multiple toolbars surrounding a blank sheet of "paper" that has borders and some basic text, plan number etc. Click Insert Model View and a mini view appears of your model with simple selectors for 2D, 3D, Isometic, Elevations and Section view and all the movement tools so you can choose the angle, plan, elevation or part thereof that you want.  You simply select the view and scale you want and Insert each arranging on your worksheet. If you have extensive plans and you need multiple sheets then just create another sheet, Floor plan one, elevations on another, isometric on another, sections on another, cabinet details, roof construction etc, etc, each on their own sheet if you want.

If you want to add text, extra measurements etc or even adjust the plans or add to them you can then just print!  The image indicates the basic part of the process above but as you can see there are many more tools on the toolbars and I have yet to investigate many.

The worksheets are not 'live' in that if you change the model it wont change the sheet. You need to re-insert that view.  Obviously the best thing is to get the model right first or make any minor adjustments on the worksheet itself. Once the model is on the sheets you can 'explode' them so they become separate lines as if done in a CAD program, which really is what this is!

Worth a look if plan printing is important to you.


QuoteBelow is a quick render of a StrawBale house and a bit of Landscaping I did in from scratch in less than two hours yesterday using vs 14.  I pirnted it out to show around at the Colorado Strawbale Association meeting last night.  Trying to drum up a little business.  Typical of Strawbale homes is the simple passive solar floorplan and large (3' minimum) overhangs to protect the walls.   

Hi Randy,
The image looks great and so quick to do!  Now it is just as quick to have virtually professional plans too!!  Hope it helps in 'drumming up business'!
All the best with it!

Allan
Allan Chesney,
Kalamunda, Perth, Western Australia
www.alchesdesigns.iinet.net.au

TurboFloorPlan Home and Landscape Pro V16.0.C1.901
Envisioneer Construction Suite V9.1.2.1234
TurboCAD V17 Professional