Computer model from scanned plans
Gene_Davis
| Posted in Tools for Home Building on
Talking about HousePlans.com made me want to ask this q, because a comment I made in that thread concerned the ability of Chief and other power-packages for house design, being able to work from a scanned-in plan.
Here is a pic from a tutorial showing how it’s done in Sketchup.
I know it can be done in Sketchup, and presumed that Chief, Vectorworks, et al, had the feature, too.
What we are talking about here is the act of taking a plan from another source (.jpg, scan, etc.) then importing the pic into the package, drawing the same or modified plan right over it, scaling appropriately, and then using the result to build a house model.
Can users of the big packages confirm?
Replies
With SP, we can take a line drawing - say from a scan or jpeg, and convert lines to walls, or trace over.
But having a floor plan is a long ways from having a 3D model, as you well know.
How tall are the walls?
How many levels are incorporated into the plan?
Where is the structural bearing?
Is there a basement or some other foundation style?
Single level ranch - easy answer to your Q.
Anything else - you have an active imagination to think there is little work involved.
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Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime.
where ...
Excellence is its own reward!
In speaking of an hour of work to make the model, in that other thread about quoting from the info at a HousePlans.com web page, I mean the kind of speed freak modeling that quickly blocks out the house.
A roughed out model with no detail at all, but one that has the appropriate scale to come close to the real thing.
That will give you all your basic quantities (sf walls, sf roof, sf soffit, window counts and sizes, same with doors, concrete slab areas, foundation footages, yadda, yadda, yadda) to which you apply your cost factors, and come up with a reasonably good budget figure.
You are overthinking this. It ain't rocket science.
Sure, I don't know whether the walls are 8, 9, or 10, but I'll guess something that won't be far off. For that southern ranch with wraparound porch, I would guess at 9, and if it were actually 10, the extra lumber and sheetrock would not amount to much.
Basement? That is pretty much answered by the locale and what the buyer has to say about things. Down there it would likely be done as a perimeter footing, short walls, and a whole bunch of interior pads and piers. Just pop in a grid of them at 10x10 spacing, and get on with the floorframe.
Structural bearing? Who needs that at conceptual pricing time?
Gene - this is not conceptual - it is bidding we have been talking about. If you only want ballpark there is no need for any of this.But if you want some sort of accuracy to give it real world meaning, then yes bear types has meaning. If you have wide open spaces or cantilevers it increases the use of engineered wood which - last time i checked - is quite a bit more expensive than solid frame lumber.You want real hardwood floors or cheap sheet vinyl?
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
You know me, the structural frame is the last thing on my mind in creating a house model that has real world meaning.
;-)
And as for my floors, vinyl is final.
I've watched the tutorial about bringing in a picture and creating model from a perspective view in SU. I don't think Chief can do that.
Chief can take in a 2d view and use it and scale it as you described.
You also can drop pictures into the background so your finished renderings can be seen in their real environment.
Edit: The normal import is the plot view from a survey.
Edited 12/30/2007 12:36 am by Jim_Allen