Plan view

[Anonymous]

How do I put my model into a floor plan view in Formit pro?

[josh.goldstein · Accepted solution]

Hi Emily,

I'm attaching a Screencast showing how to make floor plan views in FormIt for Windows. Here are the steps:

1. Use the Section Plane tool found in the top toolbar or by shortcut SP.
2. Place the Section Plane on a floor surface - in this case, I had an exterior balcony I could use, but you might have to zoom into the building to get the plane to sit on a floor surface.
3. The plane will sit coincident with the floor surface initially, so once it's placed, you might notice the floor turn black because the Section Plane tool is coloring geometry it touches black for a visual cut effect (you can modify these options in Visual Styles). After the plane is placed, it will be selected, and you'll automatically be in the Move tool. You can just click somewhere, move your mouse up, and type something like 4' to get the plane to cut at a more reasonable height for a plan view.
4. Go to Top View, which is accessible via the flyout navigation toolbar on the right of the canvas. Click the top icon, and it will reveal various 2D views. Click Top View. At this point, you can zoom in to whatever level is appropriate for your floor plan.
5. Note that the Section Plane created two Layers for visibility control: Section Indicators, and Section Cut 1. In my example, I turn off the Indicators layer so the cut is still active, but the interactive geometry to move the cut will disappear so it's not obscuring my plan view. Then I rename Section Cut 1 to L1 Plan Cut, so I know which floor it's referring to.
6. Go to Scenes on the right tab bar of the application, and click (+) to create a new Scene. This will remember the camera's exact location, zoom level, and all Layer settings. In my example, I rename the Scene to L1 Floor Plan so I know what it's referring to.
7. In my example, I switch back to 3D view (2nd icon from the top in the navigation menu), and repeat the process for a 2nd floor plan.
8. When it comes time to create a Scene for the 2nd floor plan, instead of hitting Top View, I actually activate the L1 Floor Plan scene - this ensures that I get exactly the same camera location for the 2nd floor plan. 
9. Then, simply toggle the L1 Plan Cut OFF and keep L2 Plan Cut ON, and switch back to Scenes, and create a new Scene for L2 Floor Plan.
10. Now you can toggle back and forth between the two Scenes (L1 and L2 Floor Plans) and the camera will stay where it is, but the associated Section Planes will be enabled, effectively giving you floor plan views.
11. Note that when you switch back to the standard 3D view from one of the floor plan Scenes, you'll probably have the section cuts from the floor plans still active. So, in my Screencast, the last step I show is creating a new Scene for a perspective view, which I'm using to "clear" the Section Plane layers when I return to a 3D perspective camera.

Hope this helps, and let us know if you have any other questions.