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Sweet Home 3D 7.2
Hi,
Sweet Home 3D 7.2 is on its way and comes with some important improvements among which: - a new modification dialog box to edit dimensions - creation of elevation dimensions - the ability to directly handle items in the 3D view - magnetism on shelf units
Interested? Here are the details, after a disclaimer: If you use Pan3dView plug-in developed by Daniels118, be sure to update it if you want to continue to use it with Sweet Home 3D 7.2.
- Editing dimensions and elevation dimensions: The new Plan > Modify dimensions menu item or a double click on a dimension now displays a modification dialog box to let you enter directly its coordinates.
When you modify two or more dimensions with this pane, the Distance between end points field won't be shown because it's often too complicated to handle such modifications. This pane lets you change the coordinates, the font size and the color of the dimensions, as well as choose if dimensions should be visible in the 3D view. When a dimension is visible in the 3D view, it's possible to change its elevation and the text of its length is always written in the correct direction whatever the current point of view. This pane proposes also to choose whether a dimension should be a Plan dimension or an Elevation dimension, i.e. a dimension starting and ending at the same X / Y coordinates but spreading vertically between two elevations along a given distance, as shown in the following image for the selected dimension 180.
An elevation dimension is displayed in the plan with the following symbol showing two circles (something like an arrow seen from top) and an extension line.
When selected, an elevation dimension shows its height and 4 indicators to set the elevation of its start point, its height, the offset of the extension lines and its angle around elevation axis. You may create elevation dimensions directly with Dimensions creation tool if you press the Ctrl key (alt/option key under macOS) while clicking at the first point of the dimension in the plan. In that case, the Dimension pane will be shown after the click with Elevation dimension and Visible in 3D view selected options and a default distance between end points equal to home wall height. Just adjust the values and confirm your choice to create the elevation dimension accordingly.
Dimensions visible in the 3D view will be rendered in the photo creation tool too, but only at the two lower quality levels. It wouldn't be impossible to handle them at the higher quality levels, put I think it's not interesting and dimensions shadows might just add confusion.
- Handling items in the 3D view: The new Selection and editing in 3D view option was added in the preferences pane.
When this option is enabled, you'll be able to: • select objets in the 3D view with a simple click (Shift + click to toggle its selection). Selected objects are surrounded by a half transparent blue line and the front face of selected furniture shows crossed lines. • modify an object by double clicking on it • use the items of Edit menu when the 3D view has focus • move selected furniture in the 3D view with a drag and drop, where magnetism (toggled with Alt key / command key under macOS), alignment along X / Y axes (Shift key after you started to move the mouse), duplication (Ctrl key / option key under macOS after you started to move the mouse) works like in the plan. Moved furniture remain at the same elevation, and their x / y coordinates are updated according to the current view angle, while vertical mouse moves are converted to moves along the depth. Only furniture can move because I feel that there are too many circumstances where you wouldn't be able to navigate in the 3D view if other selected items like walls or rooms could be moved too. • elevate the selected piece of furniture or furniture group by pressing the Ctrl key / option key under macOS before you start to move it • drag and drop an item of the catalog in the 3D view to add it to the plan. Objects dropped on a wall appear along that wall or in the wall for doors and windows. An object dropped on an other piece will be elevated at the elevation defined by the dropOnTopElevation property if defined, and an object dropped on a shelf unit defining a shelfElevations or shelfBoxes property (see below) will appear at the elevation of the shelf where the object was dropped and at the middle of the shelf unit depth. It would be probably nice to have some feedback when you drop an object from the catalog in the 3D view, for example by showing the contour of its bounds where it will actually appear. Maybe for an other version... meanwhile keep in mind that the piece of furniture on which you want to drop a catalog item must be under the mouse cursor to be taken into account. The following clip shows on it works.
- Magnetism on shelf units: Sweet Home 3D proposes the two new properties shelfElevations and shelfBoxes to define the locations of shelves in a shelf unit. If either of properties is defined for a piece of furniture, magnetism on its shelves will be applied on the objects placed on them when you change their elevation, like the card game in the previous clip. • shelfElevations property is defined with a list of numbers in cm from the lowest to the highest elevation, like the bedside table, the bookcase, the glass door cabinet and bunk beds found in the default furniture catalog. • shelfBoxes property lists the coordinates of the boxes where objects can be placed, each box being defined by 6 values matching the (x, y, z) coordinates in cm of the left, front, bottom lower point and the right, back, top upper opposite point of the box. When you move an object placed on a shelf unit defining shelfBoxes# property, it's magnetized within the limits of each box of the shelf unit. Keep in mind that when defining these coordinates, axis directions and origin of the describe box are as in the following image. If you have 4 boxes, you'll have to enter 24 values in the shelfBoxes property field. To help you recognize groups of 6 values, you may add spaces between values. If you wan't to be able to place objects on the top of the shelf unit, the bottom of the last shelf box should match the top of the shelf unit. For example, the filled book case shown in above clip and available in the default furniture catalog defines the following shelfBoxes property value: 2.3 1.4 5.4 53.2 33.8 33.5 21.8 1.4 34.8 82.7 33.8 63.4 38.3 1.4 64.7 68 33.8 87.7 2.3 1.4 89 26.3 33.8 114 52.2 1.4 89 82.7 33.8 114 40.9 1.4 115.3 82.7 33.8 134.7 19.3 1.4 136 29.3 33.8 176.6 68.8 1.4 136 82.7 33.8 176.6 0 0 180 85 35 250 When the card game is moved to the right on the third shelf in the clip, you'll see that it's magnetized to the left border of the box defined by the coordinates (38.3 1.4 64.7) and (68 33.8 87.7). This is helpful to fill a bookcase more quickly, but depends also on how patient you'll be to define all these shelf boxes in the 3D models you'll create. Anyway, you always have the choice to define shelfElevations easier property instead. If you want to try with more shelf units or furniture containing shelves, I already defined the shelfElevations or shelfBoxes property of the 44 ones found in the Contributors library that you may try with the Beta version 1.9.1 of furniture libraries.
- Other features: • You may recompute the points of the selected room with the new Recompute room points item added to plan contextual menu. If this item doesn't appear, it means that you didn't right click on the selected room or that the point where you right clicked isn't surrounded by a closed set of walls. • 3D updates process will be now deactived when the 3D view is hidden. No need to relaunch the program! • The Description information recently added to furniture can now be displayed in the furniture table with the Furniture > Display column > Description menu item. • The license property was added to furniture libraries and you can view this information with Furniture > Display column > License menu item if it exists (I'll add the property on all the items of the furniture libraries distributed on sweethome3d.com). I could show the license information in the information tool tip of the catalog too, but I'm a little reluctant to make this tool tip grow once more. • It's possible to define additional furniture properties to handle customized user data associated to the objects added to your home. This data may be displayed in the furniture list, modified in the furniture dialog box and/or exported to CSV. For the moment, there's no user interface to define these properties and they must be cited in the System property named "com.eteks.sweethome3d.additionalFurnitureProperties", each property being separated from others with a coma like in "Data, Code, Special" which describes 3 new properties. Setting this System property can be done with the -D Java option in a SweetHome3D.l4j.ini file stored in the same folder as SweetHome3D.exe under Windows, in SweetHome3D.cfg configuration file found in Sweet Home 3D.app folder under macOS or by modifying java command line in Sweet Home 3D script under Linux. The additional properties can also be set from plug-ins using the methods getFurnitureAdditionalProperties / setFurnitureAdditionalProperties added to Home class. The added furniture properties will appear in the Furniture > Sort by and Furniture > Display column menus to let you display them in the furniture list like in the following screenshot, which handles the three columns in SweetHome3D.l4j.ini file with the line:
You will be also able to modify the property values for each piece of furniture thanks to the new Other properties button added at the bottom of the Modify furniture dialog box, when such properties are defined.
As the value of additional properties set in a furniture library will be copied to a new home object when it's added to the plan from version 7.2, you may give the initial value of these properties in a SH3F file. By default, additional properties and their values are exported to CSV files too.
But com.eteks.sweethome3d.additionalFurnitureProperties System property can also describe the type of each property and whether it should be displayable in the furniture list, modifiable in furniture modification pane and exportable to a CSV file. It can also describe the label of the property which should be displayed in the user interface. To use these features, a property must be followed by the following information ( | symbol means or):
the program will handle an additional property named AltCode which can be displayed in the furniture list and exported to CSV, but you won't have the ability to modify it. In the furniture list and in the Furniture > Sort by and Furniture > Display column menus, it will appear as Alt. code.
If com.eteks.sweethome3d.additionalFurnitureProperties System property is equal to:
the program will handle the two additional properties QR and Rebate. QR code will handle an image (type = CONTENT) and Rebate a percentage that you will be able to modify. QR will appear in the user interface as QR Code (note that displayedName must appear as the last information before the coma because it may contain some spaces) but won't be exported to CSV (CSV can include only text).
By default, the type of a furniture property is ANY, i.e. it can handle any type of value. However, when the furniture list is sorted on a property of type ANY, values containing numbers will be sorted in correct order (meaning 100 will appear after 12 in ascending order). As shown in the following screenshot, the Value column of Modify properties dialog box will show: 1. a Modify button with the selected image for a type equal to CONTENT, 2. a check box for BOOLEAN type, 3. and a formatted text for the INTEGER, NUMBER, PRICE, LENGTH, PERCENTAGE and DATE types. Selecting the later types will also force the user to enter the correct information. Additional content values will be saved in the .SH3D file, values of type LENGTH will be saved in centimeter and values of type DATE will be saved in the format yyyy-MM-dd (for example, 2023-05-20).
Finally, this new version handles also correctly objects showing some textures with a transparency in YafaRay renderer, and the 64 bit and ARM versions of Sweet Home 3D installers come with the JOGL update 20230521-v2.5.0-rc. Please, report any issue you encountered if the 3D view doesn't seem to work correctly (or it works better too).
All these new features come also with the ability to edit any property in the Furniture Library Editor and view dimensions in the SideView plug-in. But that's enough for me today, and I will explain these other things tomorrow.
Hope you'll like this new version
[Note: the final version of Sweet Home 3D 7.2, along with updated furniture libraries were released on 09/22/2023]
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Emmanuel Puybaret, Sweet Home 3D developer
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[Edit 14 times,
last edit by Puybaret at Sep 22, 2023, 6:29:16 PM]
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Re: Sweet Home 3D 7.2
A lot of very interesting additions! After a quick read I can scratch at least two items from my wishlist (3D update suspended when the window is closed and per object license in the furniture libraries). Probably more after a more thorough evaluation.
The custom properties add a very powerful mechanism to Sweet Home 3D, especially since they can be strong typed. Initially not many users will understand it's power but that will become clear in time when plug-ins start making use of additional properties and creating all kinds of smart solutions (wirings plugin: connect a on/off switch to a lamp through custom properties?)
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Re: Sweet Home 3D 7.2
Xmas in August? Impressive work, again!
A few observations. As always - probably I'm doing something wrong, but I can't fail to notice that... (see image below)
DIMENSIONS
The orange, horizontal dimension has the lines displayed at the bottom of the room and the digits at the top of the room. The black, vertical dimension has a similar problem - a large distance between the lines and the digits.
I feel that the Dimensions dialogue is easier to understand if start and end point coordinates are diplayed directly after each other (as in walls, furniture, etc.). The elevation comes directly after the coordinates.
3D VIEW TOGGLE When I shift-click nothing happens?
RECOMPUTE ROOMS (super-super feature!!) I would love to see this option also in the Modify Rooms dialogue.
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Re: Sweet Home 3D 7.2
Thanks for your first feedbacks
The orange, horizontal dimension has the lines displayed at the bottom of the room and the digits at the top of the room.
This dimension seems to be elevated since its left point is at half height of the wall. But texts are too far. Strange... I never encountered this issue. Could you send me you file (or a simplified version) so I can check on my side?
I feel that the Dimensions dialogue is easier to understand if start and end point coordinates are diplayed directly after each other (as in walls, furniture, etc.). The elevation comes directly after the coordinates.
Sorry, but I tend to disagree. Elevation is part of 3D coordinates and it's relative to Start point section in the dialog box.
3D VIEW TOGGLE When I shift-click nothing happens?
It's probably because you didn't remove Pan3dView plug-in, did you?
RECOMPUTE ROOMS (super-super feature!!) I would love to see this option also in the Modify Rooms dialogue.
It's not possible to have this feature in room modification dialog box or in Plan menu because it needs a reference point to work. It's the reason why it didn't appear yet in Sweet Home 3D until... I had the idea to program it in the contextual menu which can use the point where you right click as a reference point.
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Emmanuel Puybaret, Sweet Home 3D developer
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Re: Sweet Home 3D 7.2
And here are the links about Furniture Library Editor 2.0 and SideView plug-in 1.1 which offer features bound to Sweet Home 3D 7.2. Enjoy!
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Emmanuel Puybaret, Sweet Home 3D developer
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Re: Sweet Home 3D 7.2
Thanks Hans for your test file. I found the bug due to the fact that the dimensions you drew belonged to an elevated level. As simple as that! I'm so ashamed that I generated a Beta 2 right away and changed the first post with updated links.
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Emmanuel Puybaret, Sweet Home 3D developer
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Re: Sweet Home 3D 7.2
Emmanuel,
Thank you for your superfast fix. Dimensions work now as they should.
I have one wish regaring Dimensions: always black in 2D, chosen colour only in 3D. Reason: colour and/or contrast needs are very different in 2D and 3D. Background in 2D preview pane is (always) white, in 3D it's very variable and depends on floor or wall colour and the orientation of aerial view or virtual visitor.
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Re: Sweet Home 3D 7.2
Hello,
Tonight, the Beta 3 (see updated links in the first post of this thread) brings the following improvements:
- Support for multi level printing: when you home contains more than a level, a new section Print levels appears in the page setup dialog box to let you choose the levels you want to print during the same printing session.
- Preset deformations: when some modelPresetTransformationsName_xxx and modelPresetTransformations_xxx are defined for a model in a furniture library, they will appear in the Preset shapes drop down list of the Modify deformation dialog box, making it more easier to prepare some postures of mannequins.
- When you import a 3D model, its default category is now User (or its translation in other languages). This will avoid new users to complain about the Bathroom category where they import their first models.
- Dimension lines are excluded from OBJ export. I felt it wasn't necessary, and anyway, the PNG images of the dimension lengths don't seem to be handled correctly in Blender.
Have a nice week-end
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Emmanuel Puybaret, Sweet Home 3D developer
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Re: Sweet Home 3D 7.2
- When you import a 3D model, its default category is now User (or its translation in other languages). This will avoid new users to complain about the Bathroom category where they import their first models.
Can you read minds? That's another one I can scratch of my wishlist! Great work. Thank you!
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