Welcome to the Quick Start Tutorial for our 2D Floorplan Software.

This document is intended to be a quick start guide designed to help you quickly get to grips with the software and let you start creating professional quality 2D site plans and house floor plans in no time. If you have any questions please send an email to sales@developer3d.com.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Instruction Set 1 – 2D Floor Plan Software Drawing

Instruction Set 2 – Canvas Options

Instruction Set 3 – Making Colored Floorplans

Installing the Software and Initial Setup

1. Installing the Software

There are 6 steps in the install process

Install Welcome

Click Next to continue with the install

License Agreement

You must agree to the license agreement before you can install the software

Customer Information

Who the install is intended for, on the PC you are installing the software on

Ready To Install

Click Next to continue with the install

Setup Progress

No need to do anything, just wait until the progress bar reaches the end

Setup Complete

All done, Click Finish to complete and exit the setup program, you may be prompted to re-boot your PC, please do so. Certain files will not be updated until you re-boot the PC.

Once you have completed the set up and re-booted your PC (if required) you can start the software from the icon on the desktop titled 2D Floorplan.

2. Starting the software for the first time

The first time you start the software and each subsequent time the software is run, the application will look for a license Key. If the key is not found the software will declare itself as ‘un-licensed software’. You can use the software 30 times before this key is required.

When you have obtained your key enter the key number in the License Key box on the about page found under >Help>About and Click OK.

3.The menus, toolbars and template window.

There are 5 drop down menus across the top of the page and for a complete rundown of what they are and what you do in them can be found in the ‘Application Menu Map’ Help File.

Many of the buttons found on the toolbar can also be found on the drop down menu.

The Side Bar & Tabbed Side Bar

The tabbed sidebar retracts to the edge when not in use and expands to reveal all the items when required

To show or hide the Tabbed Tool Bars – click on the red open / close arrows on the far left handside of the software.

Drawing Objects

Displays the Walls & Shapes buttons and the scale option selectors and display Data.

Template Objects

Displays The Pre drawn Templates and Objects available for selection

Horizontal wall section (a wall length input box will appear and you must enter the length of the wall)

Vertical wall section (a wall length input box will appear and you must enter the length of the wall)

Multi point wall on line

Single drawn wall or line

A drawn square or rectangle shape

A drawn arc or circle quadrant

A drawn circle

Freehand scribble.

There are more default drawing options from the Draw dropdown menu found at the top of the screen.

Object Templates selector & Template Objects Tab

There are a number of default click to insert object templates just click on one from the dropdown menu and the template will load into the template view.

The templates are:

• Standard doors
• Bi-Fold and Sliding Doors
• Misc Doors
• Windows
• Stairs
• General Fixtures
• Kitchen Units
• Kitchen Fixtures
• Fire Equipment
• Security Equipment

All of the objects in the templates were drawn using this software – ie you can create and add your own objects to the template library.

The Status Bar

The status bar can be found at the bottom of the screen,

• The bar displays the current status (if any)
• The currently selected shape
• The currently selected template
• The current screen resolution
• The Auto Backup Status
• The Current Date
• The Current Time

The zoom Slider Bar

Just above the Status bar is the Zoom slider bar

• Sliding this bar to the left will reduce the overall size of the drawing (Zoom Out)
• Sliding this bar to the right will increase the overall size of the drawing (Zoom In)

If you are using the Tablet Edition then the Zoom Slider bar is located on the Drawing Objects Tab

The Drawing Canvas

The Drawing canvas is the designated area where you will create your drawings. The page can be scrolled to the left & right also Up & Down. The page will also display the default Guide lines usually set 1 meter apart as per the scale) and will also display the canvas grid.

There is a popup menu associated with the drawing canvas and this is detailed in the Canvas POP UP Map

Scale & Coordinates

2D Floorplans – use a simple scale method, there are 6 scale options to choose from

• 1:1
• 1:10
• 1:50
• 1:100
• 1:200
• 1:300

The default is 1:50 that is the drawing is 50 times smaller than real size in most cases in building design and plans you would probably use 1:50,100 & 200 and would commonly use the scale for the following project types

• 1:50 would be most commonly used for drawing single rooms or kitchen layout
• 1:100 would be used for a entire floor plan layout of one of the levels within a building
• 1:200 would be used for more than one floor on the drawing at the same time or plan of a large site with grounds and landscaping

Selecting a scale from the dropdown selection box will cause changes to the guide line grid on the page.

• 1:1 Each square on the Guide Line Grid = 1 CM
• 1:10 Each square on the Guide Line Grid = 1 CM
• 1:50 Each square on the Guide Line Grid = 1 Meter
• 1:100 Each square on the Guide Line Grid = 1 Meter
• 1:200 Each square on the Guide Line Grid = 1 Meter
• 1:300 Each square on the Guide Line Grid = 2 Meters

(Guide lines can be shown or hidden by right clicking on the canvas and selecting ‘Show Guide Lines’ also your drawn objects walls etc. can be ‘Snapped To’ the guide lines by right by right clicking on the canvas and selecting ‘Snap To Guide Lines’)

So if your scale is set to 1:100 and you select a Vertical Wall section at 2000 then the wall would be 2 meters long and would span two grid boxes.

Under the scale selection box there are 6 coordinate & size readouts

• H Position
• V Position
• H Line Length
• V Line Length
• Object Width
• Object Height

H Position & V Position directly relate to where the mouse is on the canvas in relation to the top, left corner of the page and the values are shown in mm

H Line Length & V Line Length display the length of the line/Wall you are drawing. If you are not drawing an object then the values will represent the H Position & V Position and directly relate to where the mouse is on the canvas in relation to the last clicked point on the page the values are shown in mm

Object Width & Object Height, Click an object on the canvas and the dimensions of the object against the current scale will be displayed.

The scale also affects the default line/Wall thickness

You can zoom the canvas in or out from 10% to 100% (default) to 1000%

To do this put your mouse on the slider bar under Canvas Zoom and drag to the left to zoom out or drag to the right to zoom in. there is also zoom option from the View>Page drop down menu at the top of the screen.

Drawing Objects

There are eight default drawing objects you can draw on the canvas

Horizontal wall section (a wall length input box will appear and you must enter the length of the wall)

Vertical wall section (a wall length input box will appear and you must enter the length of the wall)

Multi point wall or line

Single drawn wall or line

A drawn square or rectangle shape

A drawn arc or circle quadrant

A drawn circle

Freehand scribble.

The thickness of the wall to be drawn is determined by the wall width selector and you choose this by selecting the option from the drop down box above the drawing objects buttons.

You can also select the colour of the wall or object to be drawn by clicking the Button to the right of ‘Wall Colour’ a colour selector will appear, you just choose the colour you want by clicking on it and clicking OK. The colour of the button will change to your selection and this will determine the colour of the wall

When drawing Vertical & Horizontal wall sections & an input box with a numeric keypad will be displayed and you must enter the length of the wall to be added. The new wall section will appear in the top left corner of the canvas and you just drag them to where you want them. This makes it easy to quickly create a plan without using the mouse to re-size the walls

(You can make the wall sections stick to the guide lines or canvas grid, see right click menu)

For all the other drawing objects, you use the mouse to draw them on to the canvas by clicking the button then clicking the start location and dragging to where you want to end the object, you do this for all other objects except for the multi point line/wall

When using the multi point line/wall you select the button and then left mouse click and release where you want the line to start then just move the mouse to the next point along the wall and left click once (you will notice the line follows the mouse), you do this as many times as you require and when complete just double click and the line will end. The line will now re-size its thickness to the wall width selection.

Template Objects

Simple site plans keeps a set of default template objects. Objects you can use in your drawing, things like doors, windows, stairs & Kitchen units to select a template just click one of the following options from the dropdown selection box above the green template window.

The selections are:

• Standard Doors
• Bi-Fold and Sliding Doors
• Misc. Doors
• Windows
• Stairs
• General Fixtures
• Kitchen Units
• Kitchen Fixtures
• Fire Equipment
• Security Equipment

The size of the objects are determined by the scale selected.

If you cannot see all the objects from the template or if they are to small to see you can zoom the template window, put your mouse on the slider bar under template selector box and drag to the left to zoom out or drag to the right to zoom in.

You will find that certain templates look different at different scales; this is due to the re-sizing of the objects.

To insert a template drawing just select the template you wish to use from the drop down and click on it, the default template for your chosen object type will appear then locate the object you wish to import on to the canvas and click on it. The newly selected object will appear on the canvas

You may have to zoom and or scroll the window to locate the newly inserted object.

You can create your own template objects, anything from a stair case to a conservatory and these can be copied to the User Templates.

Free Online 3D Visualization Software

For most people the ability to “see” or to “visualize” colors, materials, textures and even something simpler like furniture placement in a room is near impossible.

When it come to larger scale home design projects or even just kitchen remodeling we often end up gathered around the table armed with blueprints, brochures, color swatches and material sample off cuts trying to visualise what its all going to look like when the job is done – this color with this, that carpet with this trim – its pretty confusing and after a while nothing seems to make much sense at all !

How many times have you seen people moving furniture around in a room to “see” what it would look like ? 3D Visualization Softwareis intended to let the user make a 3D computer model of their design ideas an explore color, materials and yes even furniture placement all before the hard work begins.

Download a copy of our 3D Visualisation Software and bring out the Interior Designer or Home Architect in you.

Watch this brief promotional video showcasing our amazing Visualisation Software.

Click here to view the embedded video.