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FloorPlan 3D Design Suite

Tony Zilles

FloorPlan 3D Design Suite is a collection of applications that includes FloorPlan 3D (with integrated Lightscape rendering engine), Landscape Architect, TurboProject Express and Home Designs Encyclopedia. The suite is a good combination for someone planning some building works, there is no facility to transfer information automatically or even easily between applications.

FloorPlan 3D is a sophisticated version of DreamHouse 3D and some of the shortcomings in DreamHouse 3D are rectified here. FloorPlan 3D allows you to set ceiling heights, window and door head heights. FloorPlan 3D also allows you to transfer your drawing to a real CAD program via a DXF export.

FloorPlan 3D is a more sophisticated version of DreamHouse 3D and allows more flexibility in defining building components.

I liked the photorealistic renderings created with the Lightscape renderer. You can set the sun position for a wide range of locations as well as date and time of day. However, renderings are time-consuming to generate and the more computing power the better.

Landscape Architect is really for landscape visualisation rather than garden design.

You can create a virtual landscape using typical plants and landscape elements in Landscape Architect, a 3D garden design package. The landscape content has a heavy US bias and includes no Australian native plants. Landscape Architect is a little tedious to use. It does not utilise right mouse clicks or Windows shortcuts (like Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V for copy and paste). It also needs significant computing horsepower. Documentation is a PDF file on the CD.

TurboProject Express is a cut down version of IMSI’s TurboProject. It is easy to use and a powerful project management tool, even in the cut-down state. It does GANTT charts, critical paths, resource tracking and reports are easy to generate.

Home Designs Encyclopedia is a multimedia catalogue of home plans from HomeStyles (a printed catalog is also included in the box). The house styles are typically American and while the contents might not provide any immediate solutions, it could stimulate some new ideas.

Rating
Ease-of-use
Functionality
Export/import facility
International units/standards support
Ease of installation
Hardware friendly
Value for money
Scores and opinions given here are personal assessments and not derived by any scientific process. You should base a purchasing decision solely on this information.

 

Minimum Hardware Requirements
CPU	90MHz Pentium
Operating System	Windows 95
RAM	24Mb (32Mb recommended)
Graphics	SVGA
Hard disk space	55Mb for FloorPlan 3D (140Mb for entire Design Suite)
CD-ROM	2x CD-ROM required

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Resource Center Floor Plan 3D Design Suite

 

 

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