Pen Weight Tip! You can have multiple pen weight setups. You can save setups by job, by printer. Load them as you see fit. Here is where you make your changes. Notice the save and load tabs.
2012! Lighting Tip Use Horizontal lighting to illuminate you ceilings. Make the pattern to cover the walls outside the room. Set Z to 1". Otherwise you end with a show cast line. Try using 45 degree angle, distance of 10' and brightness of 10 to start with. Set direction to up. Of course you have the color choices as well.
Beginners Tip! Box tool (rectangle, square) edges can't be edited. That is, no deflection (curve) inward or outward. Use line or polygon tool instead. If you want to curve the corners, use curve fillet tool. Chamfer corners, use chamfer tool. You will find that these are very useful tools and can be used in ways you have not thought of yet. Hint! Not just limited to lines or shapes.
Beginners Tip! Define your Floor, Roof parameters 1st before drawing. Yes, you can edit them, but takes a lot of unneeded work because of improper setup or planning. Look at it this way. Would you rather have your ducks all lined up (plan in place, all parameters set) or fly by the seat of your pants. I for one, prefer to have a plan. Speed is not everything, efficiency is. Be organized.
When you create a cross section on SoftPlan the program (since version 14) creates these layers. I do not know about version 13 as I never had that version. Create a cross section then save it. Hold mouse over Info at bottom of this window and it will tell you what layer this particular line/item is on. Go to Options>Layer Setup. Scroll down the list and you will find your layer. These "extra" layers are added by SoftPlan. You will never know they are there if you do not scroll through the list. Not all lines/items are in a different layer. You can verify this by right clicking on the items yourself in your cross sections.
Beginners Tip! Line Weights. Go to System Options>Pen Setup>Configure Print Pens. You will notice 16 pens available. I use Remodeler's Wall definitions. I have existing set up as Yellow on screen, prints black. Red on screen for demo walls and print. Blue on screen and print for new walls. Also notice under Pen Setup, Group Pen...s and Item Group: This area controls a lot of the Pen Weights for what we draw. I suggest printing out the current pen weights. Change the weights as you see fit in configure print pens. The higher the number, the thicker the line. Experiment with the pen weights to suite your taste. Make sure under Options > Visible Items you check show print pen style. This way you can see the results of your line weight choices.
