Floor Plan in 3D

TechTip Contest Winner of the Month of July, 2002

"I came up with this trick when I was searching for a way to show a ground-floorplan in 3D and resurrect only those parts which were of particular interest.
This can be done in the following way:

1. Make a DWG-file of your ground-floorplan
2. Open the DWG-file as an object
3. Check for the 3D information. Choose a non-binary 3D object, if you'd like to adjust some elements of the drawing (Note: this can be somewhat tricky)

The object made will contain the same information in both 2D and 3D - just what we need."

Bert

How to proceed in ArchiCAD 7.0 R3/v3

First of all, you have to adjust the layers in your plan so that you only see the lines that you want to see later in 3D.

Hint: draw a rectangle around the extent of your project - this will come in very handy later when resizing the object to your floor plan!

Then follow these steps:

1. Plot the floor plan into file, using any HP plotter driver (preferably HP 650C). Name this file (e.g. "Residential House.plt").
   Use the settings as shown in the screenshot below:

   

2. Open this PLT [HPGL] file in PlotMaker. (You'll see that all text items have become fills. This is necessary in order to see them later in 3D.) Save it as a DWG file.
   Use the settings as shown in the screenshot below:

   

3. Now open this DWG file in ArchiCAD.
   Use the settings as shown in the screenshot below:

   

4. Save this file as a DWG file. You can also overwrite the previous DWG file saved from PlotMaker. Use the settings as displayed below:

   

5. Open this file as a library part in ArchiCAD, save it as an ArchiCAD object into your project library, and place it onto your floor plan. Be sure to check "Use Symbol Colors" in the Floor Plan / Section representation settings in the Object Settings Dialog box if you want it to be colored.

   

   This object should show the floor plan in its 3D View window as in the screenshot below.

   

6. Now this object is placed on your floor plan. Due to the different scale settings that were used during this process, you will probably have to rescale your object to fit your floor plan.
   Here's where that border drawn in the beginning comes in handy:
   just place the object on one corner of your border then use the arrow tool to rescale it to your floor plan.

   Hint: elevate the floor plan object to the bottom level of your walls in the 3D window to make it look better.

7. This way the lines/hatches/dimensions of your floor plan will show up in your 3D Hidden Line or Shaded Views.
   You can combine it with some parts of the house to appear in 3D. Looks great, doesn't it?

   

Page last updated: Thursday, September 16, 2004