Videos

Our free webinar series, Friday Fundamentals, offer a wide variety of lessons provided by our highly trained support staff to help you imporve your drawing experience.

Click HERE for a full list of our past entries.

Designing a Bay

SoftPlan AutoCAD® SoftPlan Round-trip.

When a .DWG file is created by SoftPlan the drawing data is embedded into the file. When the same file is brought back into SoftPlan the SoftPlan data remains intact. The SoftPlan data and the AutoCAD® data co-exist in the same file. This allows a drawing to be sent to an engineer, modified, and then only the new information be brought back into SoftPlan.

This video shows the AutoCAD to SoftPlan Conversion Wizard offers an unprecedented level of convenience for importing DWG and DXF file formats into SoftPlan.
Import a single drawing, multiple drawings, or an entire project by following a series of easy steps to convert simple lines into walls and other SoftPlan items.
Once you have selected a file to convert, SoftPlan creates a preview tab that automatically updates as you work. You can then choose which AutoCAD layers to import and how to import them, change wall lines into the wall types you want to use, cleanup wall generation issues, and convert imported symbols into SoftPlan symbols and openings.
In minutes, take a “flat” two-dimensional AutoCAD drawing and convert it into a SoftPlan three-dimensional “BIM” drawing complete with walls, doors, windows and symbols.

SoftPlan now lets you integrate your projects into REScheck™ — The Department of Energy’s Building Energy Codes Program. REScheck™ reports are quickly becoming standard in permit requirements and can cost between $200 and $700. Let SoftPlan streamline the permit process by creating the REScheck™ report based on the plans you have already created.

Just a couple clicks of the mouse will give you a full report. It’s quick, and easy. And SoftPlan’s direct integration with REScheck™ will not only save you money but the feedback that you receive from the REScheck™ report will help you achieve a more energy efficient product.

Export a SoftPlan model directly to Google Earth. SoftPlan allows you to export a project’s site information, such as latitude, longitude, and direction of North, to create a Google Earth file. You can then open this file in Google Earth to display a satellite image of the property, create tours and save specified views as jpeg images.
* Google Earth Export is only available to SoftPlan+ subscribers.

SoftPlan imports 3D terrain from Google Maps Site Data directly. This allows quick creation of 3D site plans without having to visit the site or have the site surveyed.
* Google Terrian Import is only available to SoftPlan+ subscribers.

SoftList allows you to automatically generate materials lists, cost estimate reports, and more using information stored in your SoftPlan floor plans.

SoftList eliminates the errors associated with manual calculations and is completely customizable, giving you the flexibility to count materials based on the way you work.

SoftPlan allows you to create custom walkthrough animations by capturing camera movements you make in the 3D model or in one of SoftPlan’s various 3D views.

These walkthroughs are easy to create, easy to modify and easy to distribute.

Create compelling videos for your clients or prospective clients.

SoftPlan automatically adjusts the views so you walk up or down stairs.

Each recorded movement becomes a frame on the timeline, building an animation that can be played back and saved. Add, remove, or modify frames using the timeline’s editing tools and output settings to create detailed walkthrough presentations.

SoftPlan+ subscribers, their customers and trades have access to plans and 3Ds on their iPads or iPhones. 

See a kitchen designed in SoftPlan in this short 4-minute video.

Windows & Doors

Elevations can be automatically painted with textures used on the 3D mode.

This one-click process gives your drawings the finished, professional look of colored construction documents and prevents you from taking time to paint individual sections.

Texture opacity can be edited to show more or less of the paint pattern. Changes made to the 3D model can be easily updated on elevation drawings and vice versa.

SoftPlan’s model paint will put your color printer to use producing better looking, easier-to-understand drawings in less time.

This video shows how elevation tools can be used to isolate the shadows from the 3D model and add them to an otherwise vector drawing.

This feature will be particularly useful for those of you that are required to supply sun study drawings as part of the drawing set.

This is a sample chapter from the SoftPlan remodel training series.  This video shows how to add and manage reflections in a master bath room.

This video will show you how to add your company logo to the standard title blocks.

This video will cover the step by step process of creating a Plan Set as well as how Groups can be managed within those Sets.

This is a sample chapter from the SoftPlan remodel training series.  This video shows how to define a wall for screen porch.

SoftPlan offers several options for automatically shaping the tops of walls. This video demonstrates the difference between the Fit to Roof and Clip to Roof options and how each can be used to form the tops of walls to the gabled roof of a Cape Cod house depending on user preference. Additionally, this video provides a guide for applying a sloped ceiling and using the Fit to Ceiling tool on interior partition walls, as well as a demonstration of the Fit to Stair command.

This is a sample chapter from the SoftPlan remodel training series.  This video shows how to quick and easy it is to draw a pergola.

This video is a sample chapter from the SoftPlan remodel training series.  This video shows how to quickly add lighting to a Kitchen remodel.

ProHOME is energy-smart, connected, healthy and durable. It's small and sensible. Most of all, it’s the industry's most powerful home for educating designers and builders who aspire to create high-performance houses that are exceptional in their quality, comfort and style.

This short tutorial video will walk you through creating an animation path.

This video show how to use SoftPlan home design software to place a prow (ship, chalet) roof.

SoftPlan allows for complete walk-throughs of your projects to help your clients "see" the project!

This video covers the fundamentals of editing dimensions, as well as how and when to use Repeat Edit. Link Floors is also covered where changes made are uniformly applied throughout the project.

SoftPlan Cabinet tools allow for quick and accurate placement of symbols within the layout of an existing cabinet run, including taps, sinks, mirrors, and appliances.

A demonstration on how to use the keyboard to accurately draw a floor plan.

This video covers how to create a new board and batten profile library item and assign it through the Wall Definition. This, in turn, can then be viewed in Elevation as well as 3D.

Using Surface Edit, a texture can be modified, its relief depth enabled, and color swatches applied to change the color.

Designing a stair with a rail half way and a walled the rest of the way. This shows how SoftPlan combines stair sections of different widths into a single cohesive staircase.

Dimensions can be input directly from Leica DISTO measuring devices. This video will step you through how set up your blue tooth options on your hardware, before stepping you through how to measure and have dimensions are automatically input into your drawings.