Using FloorPlan and TurboCAD to create architectural drawings.

01-0 Introductions and Snapping to the Grid.

• Introducing Jack Zimmer.
• The combination of FloorPlan and TurboCAD is ideal for small architectural firms and contractors that need to get out drawings quickly and affordably.
• Drawing walls with a 6 or 8 inch width.
• The quickest way is clicking and then dragging the shape of the building.
• Using the grid snap to 1/8 of an inch increments.
• Using the wheel mouse to zoom in.
• New features of version 10 with occurred.
• Adjusting the grid for metric users.
• Minimum current distance is.02 cm or 1/8 inch.

01-1 Visualizing in 3-D.

• Easy for contractor to draw for a client.
• Easy to visualize in 3-D to verify conceptual design.
• Using WebEx to show customers, what is happening in the building layout.
• Immediately visualize a full 3D concept of the plan.
• Switching between 3-D and Plan views.
• Easy to drag walls and see results in 3-D view.

01-2 Floor Location Settings.

• Important part of floor plan is the location settings.
• Use the settings to plan how you will build the House.
• Define different walls in the location settings with different types and other settings.
• Location settings relate to walls that are still to be drawn as opposed to walls that have already been drawn.
• Technique for drawing a shorter wall such as an entry door.
• Using the insert object icon to insert doors and windows.
• Creating a specific floor location setting for the new wall.
• Copying or tracing of the floors.
• Turning on on/off snap to grid options.
• Best not to mix wall heights.

01-3 Tools Palette and Window Properties.

• Using the Tools Palette on the left-hand side.
• Palette is used to create the new walls and other objects.
• Can use the palette to select objects in the drawing.
• Inserting windows into the drawing.
• Using the auto-insert option versus the insert object icon.
• Using the change type option to switch between different types of doors and windows.
• Using the Selector a tool to select objects.
• Using the Nudge tools to move walls (and its peculiarities).
• Nudge sometimes works sometimes doesn't.
• Snapping to grid is a feasible alternative.
• Precisely positioning a door or window on a wall.
• Change Window type via right click.
• Changing the size of a window once it's already in the drawing via the properties dialog.
• Adjust the number of horizontal or vertical panes of a window.
• Renaming a window.
• Changes made in the drawing effect that object whereas changes made in the palette are global.
• Creating new symbols.
• Right click to add new by default.
• BMO files similar to 3DS files.
• Saving views.

01-4 Displaying Room Size and Overall Square Footage.

• Saving named views.
• FloorPlan automatically creates floors and ceilings.
• Displaying the room area and name.
• Displaying the square footage of a room or house.
• Using the display filter to show hide parts of the drawing.
• Creating different versions of the same drawing to keep files size small.
• Drawings are located in the Program Files/IMSI/FloorPlan folder.
• Viewing the drawing from the side to create elevations.
• Using the Floor Location settings as layers.

01-5 Joining Walls.

• Viewing the drawing in perspective.
• Left right and isometric views.
• Restoring views.
• Selecting and dragging walls.
• Significance of the blue nodes.
• Selecting the end of wall and dragging it to join another wall.
• Issues with joining lines and moving walls.
• Deleting a floor, must first delete all objects on the layer.
• Deleting and replacing walls that are causing trouble.
• Switching views to force a redraw.
• Selecting and deleting a wall.
• Getting frustrated with software.

02-0 Symbols with collision detection.

• Inserted symbols snap to the wall.
• Changing the snap edge via the properties dialog.
• Symbol automatically rotates and aligns to the wall.
• Zooming with the scroll button on the mouse or with the keyboard.
• Inserting shower and other bathroom fittings.
• Changing the color of a symbol.
• Changing the properties via the palette.
• Can only edit the same type of object on the multiple basis.
• Creates a new group of the separate symbols.
• Tab key allows you to avoid wall snapping.

02-1Creating a Second Floor.

• Quickly adding doors and windows.
• Creating a second-floor by copying the ground floor.
• Creating an extra foot for the floor joists.
• Deleting walls on the second-floor.
• Create interior walls.
• Design Intent.
• Walls of different heights.
• Selecting multiple objects of the same time.
• Creating the second-floor by tracing rather than copying.
• Undo multiple operations.
• Ctrl+A to Select All.
• Shift key is not working to unselect objects.
• Deleting Walls.
• If Wall is not working then delete it and redraw.

02-2 Stairs Tool and Invisible walls.

• Stairs and invisible walls.
• Using this stairs tool.
• Once the stairs turn blue it indicates cutting through to the next level.
• Using the camera to view from high above or from within the building.
• Ceiling is open to accommodate the stairs.
• Using invisible walls to remove portions of the ceiling.
• Deleting a ceiling via right clicking.
• Changing the color of the ceiling.
• Selecting and deleting ends of invisible walls.
• Red selection versus blue selection.
• Invisible walls must meet with regular walls to create a gap in the ceiling.

02-3 Invisible Walls.

• Changing the height of the camera.
• Cutting holes in the ceiling with the invisible walls.
• Creating balconies with invisible walls.
• Using invisible walls to create additional roof pieces at different heights.
• Using the display filter to turn off the roof.
• Using different wall heights to invoke different roof effects.

03-0 Overhanging Roof.

• Changing the wall height.
• Selecting objects in 3-D.
• Deleting invisible walls.
• Using save as to save your work.
• Adding an overhanging roof of the entryway.
• Avoid overlapping invisible walls.
• Adding a roof to the invisible layer.
• Changing from a hip to gable roof type.
• Adding columns.
• Adjusting column height.
• Viewing the drawing in different rendered modes.

03-1 Bringing the drawing into TurboCAD.

• Opening TurboCAD.
• Choosing the FloorPlan Print Space Maker.
• Choose cancel when the opening TurboCAD and then choose Print Space Maker.
• Choosing options for sheet size and dimension settings.
• Exporting material lists.
• Open BMF file in the print space maker.
• Adding paper spaces.
• Maximizing the window.
• Checking paper space properties.
• Choosing the paper size and scale.
• Inserting title blocks.
• Duplicating paper spaces.
• Inserting elevation views and positioning them on the paper.
• Dragging back corners to move inserted views.
• Door and window schedules.
• Saving the file and bringing it into TurboCAD.

03-2 Turning on/off layers for working 2D drawing.

• Opening the drawing in TurboCAD.
• Adjusting layers with the Design Director.
• Using Open Layout Template to view different angles.
• Turning off 3-D layers and turning on to the Floor Plan 2-D layout.
• Removing the red center lines by moving them on to their own layer.
• Results of the very clean two dimensional layout, which can be used as a working 2-D drawing.
• Making copies of the drawing to prepare views for paper space.

03-3 Creating Dimensions.

• Creating dimensions in TurboCAD.
• Precisely placing dimensions in the drawing.
• Most contractors have notations on the drawing.
• Dimensions results need to be customized.
• Using Ortho tool with snap to edges creates quick dimensions.
• Dimension properties.
• Dimensions size scale.
• Changing dimensions to be on the line.
• Choosing architecture format for dimensions.
• Turning off zero feat and zero inches.
• Adjusting the extension line length.
• Extended Ortho snap mode.
• Turn off forced text horizontal.
• Dimensioning from the center of a window.
• Dimensioning interior rooms.
• Nearest on graphic snap mode.
• Dimensioning the thickness of the wall.
• Using node edit to position the text of a dimension.

03-4 Changing the sale of the viewport.

• Checking the dimensions that come in from FloorPlan.
• Using make copy to copy areas specifically for electrical or other.
• The advantages of layer technique versus copy technique.
• Changing the scale of the viewport.
• Using front views to generate elevations.
• Naming views in model space and insert them into paper space.
• Turning off non-renderable objects within a viewport.
• Exploding a hidden line rendered viewport.
• Exploding polylines.

03-5 Elevation Views.

• Dimensioning elevation views.
• Using the dimensions scale to reflect true dimension.
• Formula to calculate dimension scale size.
• Measurement tool.
• What you want to be divided by what it is.
• Using the calculator palette.
• Shift key unselects.

03-6 Printing to PDF.

• Saving the drawing.
• Printing to PDF.
• Changing the printer properties.
• Choosing the paper size and resolution to print.
• Using Print to Black only.
• Examples of projects printed to PDF.
• Examples of room dimensions with notations.
• Examples of kitchen layout.
• All 2-D objects imported from FloorPlan.
• Examples of elevation views.
• Adding hatch patterns to show texture.
• Examples of wall detail.
• Adding leaders and notations.
• Drawing the roof truss.

03-7 Creating Working Permits & Deck Design.

• FloorPlan is great at finalizing the design concept with the customer in 3-D after which the working drawing can easily be done in TurboCAD.
• Creating working permits.
• Resizing images.
• The combination of TurboCAD and FloorPlan is a proven affordable solution for small construction companies, architectural firms and even interior designers.
• Examples of Deck design with 2-D drawings and 3-D renderings.
• Thank you.