Shed Dormer in 3D Home Arch

Started by Pala, June 06, 2006, 04:03:15 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Pala

Has anyone successfully modeled a shed dormer in 3d Home Arch.  I have to admit, I'm stumped.

Perhaps I'm pushing it too far.

Attached it a Google Sketchup showing the massing I'm going for.

Any suggestions would be apprciated.  

John Raabe

Remember we have the tutorials that were done by Bob Heaney:



http://countryplans.com/3dha/index.html - click on Lessons not in manual, roofs.
None of us are as smart as all of us.


3DHAUser

A bit late, but this should help anyone browsing old threads.  Check out the tutorials mentioned by John, but go specifically to the tutorial under the link "Rooms", and then select the tutorial named "Adding Dormers to our Attic Space".  The last panel on that page should talk about that problem.  The tutorial doesn't solve the problem, but does give advice on how to capture views of the shed dormer with the walls as they are supposed to look.  

Bob Heaney

glenn kangiser


Welcome to the forum, Bob -- great to have a pro here.
"Always work from the general to the specific." J. Raabe

Glenn's Underground Cabin  http://countryplans.com/smf/index.php?topic=151.0

Please put your area in your sig line so we can assist with location specific answers.

John Raabe

Good Old Bob Heaney, himself!!  8-)

Welcome to the forum! (Bob did the very helpful tutorials linked above - that was several years ago.)

Bob:

I don't know if you are still playing around with these lower-cost design programs but I've been working recently with Better Homes and Gardens "Home Designer Suite", I have version 6.0. It successfully imports the old 3DHA ver. 3 files and has some neat new features such as terrain modeling and model slicing. It has been crippled somewhat as it doesn't do the same scaled cross section that 3DHA does.

For many folks it may be a better program and it is being supported.
None of us are as smart as all of us.


3DHAUser

#5
Hi John,

I received a free copy of BHG 6.0 after being a Beta Tester.  I played with it a little but was also dissapointed with some of the features they removed.  None of the other products are as good without scaled cross-sections.  Personally, I like the old cheap views provided by 3DHA v3 better than the Rendered views found in BHG.  By switching over to textures (raster graphics), they removed the more CAD like (vector) based lines that outlined your model.  It seems to make it more difficult for me to visualize what I'm seeing.  I didn't think the quality of ART's raster graphics were as good as Punch!'s. And when you printed out the raster graphics, they seemed even more washed out. They should have stuck to the vector drawings until they were able to get better at producing good raster graphics.  Maybe v7 has better graphics.  And Punch! just never seemed very intuitive to me.

BHG >=6.0 is the true "next version" of our old 3DHA v.1-4.  It was created by the old ART (Advanced Relational Technologies), now renamed to Chief Architect, Inc.  They just started marketing it with Better Homes and Gardens instead of Broderbund.  Broderbund's website doesn't even seem to mention 3D Home Architect.  They advertise FloorPlan 3D, the product they were selling under the name 3DHA v5 and >.

The most dissappointing part about the transformation was the price points.  The old 3DHA always came out at around $40-$50.  The BHG version starts at around $60 for the most stripped down version and moves quickly to $99 and upward toward $450.  Of course, that's for the professional version that includes a lot of features from Chief Architect.  $40 was already high enough since you had to put out the full amount each time you upgraded.  After all, these are generally people that just want to create a drawing/model of a home.  Some may build, but many are just curious.  I know I never expected the building department in my town to accept the drawings for my home addition from 3DHA.  I used those drawings to convey my ideas to the draftsman and the engineer that eventually provided my drawings.

I guess you can tell that I haven't found a better program than the old 3DHA v.3 that you still recommend.  If your users like the graphics found in BHG, then I guess it's a good alternative since it reads the old files.  They might find a used version out on Ebay, but they had better make sure they are buying the "Better Homes and Gardens" version of "Home Designer".  Versions 6 or 7

Had some time so I thought I'd drop in and see what was going on.  Like your new site design. Looks like you have quite a following. This has always been a great website with excellent information and helpful users.  Keep up the good work.

Thanks John, for everything you've done for the building community.  ;)

John Raabe

#6
Boy, would there be a market for an inexpensive program that was a non-crippled update to 3DHA v-3. It would have:
• Elaborated "soffit" like planes that could be rotated, combined and connected so as to make floor levels, roof planes and other structures. (Google Sketch up can do this.)
• Be user supported and open source. (Google Sketch up)
• Have all the window, door, furniture and other editable library objects that 3DHA has.
• Have raster type edges that can be painted with textures if desired. (Sketch up has this, I believe)

In fact, Sketch up could evolve into a pretty good home design environment with better scaling and more specialized object libraries (see HERE for some ideas). It would be best if it had layout pages where object views could be sent for final notes and printing. (The new Sketch up Pro has this.)

In fact, perhaps what is needed is a "front end" to Sketch up that sets up templates for home design and has targeted menus and help tutorials.
None of us are as smart as all of us.

3DHAUser

#7
WOW !!!!!!

I've never used Google SketchUp (GSU) before.  That is one slick program.  That program uses the exact type of modelling I was talking about.  It even lets you choose whether or not you want the vector edges turned on or off.  (Menu - View - Edge Style - Display Edges)  And it's FREE !

Obviously, it is not as easy to learn, understand, or create building models as it is with software dedicated to the task.  3DHA and Home Designer (HD) take care of a lot of the design tasks that GSU does not.  GSU states that it's not a CAD tool right in their web pages. It would be nice to see someone add a front end to this program.  I didn't see were it mentioned anything about "Open Source" though.

The biggest downfall when 3DHA became HD was the change in their graphics engine, resulting in the complete overhaul of the views they provide, was well as the tools used to navigate those views.  HD has terrible graphic choices, difficult to use view tools, and a hard to understand grouping of those tools.  GSU has done exactly the opposite.  They've done all of these things right.

Thanks for mentioning this great program.  You're a one stop wealth of knowledge.  I know I'll be using it for a lot of projects around my house.

John Raabe

#8
Bob:

Yes SketchUp is not true "open source" software in the sense that the underlying code is open to everyone, but the templates and models are freely shared on the warehouse.

BigMish is a member here who has learned to use SketchUp to model some of the framing members so he can better visualize that part of the construction. http://www.countryplans.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1175467336

Maybe we can talk him into doing a little tutorial on what he has learned.  :D

None of us are as smart as all of us.


MountainDon

QuoteMaybe we can talk him into doing a little tutorial on what he has learned.  :D
That would be cool. I bumble around with it.   :-?
Just because something has been done and has not failed, doesn't mean it is good design.

BigMish

Hi, John, Welcome back.

I'd be happy to put something together but I don't think I could surpass the tutorials that Google has made available: http://sketchup.google.com/tutorials.html. However,  if there is a specific problem or task that you all are interested in I could try and put something together. Also, while really just an advanced beginner, I'd be happy to field anyquestions that any forum members may have; I encourage anyone to send me a message if they have any questions and if I notice a post I'll do my best to help out.

MountainDon

I'm going to try to learn more about Sketchup. It sure looks to be a cool tool from what you,ve shown us BigMish. I'll start a new topic here...    http://www.countryplans.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1176074083/0
Just because something has been done and has not failed, doesn't mean it is good design.

BigMish

Right on. Hope I can return even a fraction of the help that you all have provided to me so far.