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New member introduction and overview question


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#1 Caleb Thompson

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Posted 06 February 2017 - 12:38 PM

Hi All,

 

First I'd like to introduce myself, Caleb Thompson, a former lurker of this forum. I'm a small project contractor in Upstate New York. I do remodeling, deck building, small building construction, and a lot of plain handyman work. I also get asked on occasion to do design work and project management, though only for close customers as I don't advertise for it. (I live in a very small rural community so wearing many hats is inevitable.)

 

I have to admit, I've owned Softplan for a few years and never really put the time in to conquer the learning curve. I have been through the training videos once and fiddled with a few projects but I'm not fluent enough to be fast and I'm not coming in with any professional drawing training.

 

My question, from that perspective, is how to get a general understanding of Softplan and construction drawing? I see a lot of good specifics on the forum and in the videos and manual but I haven't come across a good overview of the whole process.

 

Even advice on how to get along in the forums would be welcome – how to get help without spamming the forums?

 

Thanks in advance.

 

-Caleb

 

 



#2 Keith Almond

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Posted 06 February 2017 - 01:17 PM

Even advice on how to get along in the forums would be welcome – how to get help without spamming the forums? ...

 

Welcome Caleb.

 

Just as any question you need too. There's always someone prepared to give an answer.


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Keith

There are 10 types of people in this world ....... Those who understand binary, and those who don't.

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#3 Fred Russell

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Posted 06 February 2017 - 04:48 PM

My advise is from my experience, I approached the program with the understanding that it is object oriented, meaning when you draw a wall, it is a wall standing up and when you plug a window in, it is a window,etc and everything has the ability to edit different stuff, like raise the window up the wall. the wall can be taller. A lot of stuff is just plain experience, like learning when you draw a wall that attachs to another wall it usually (probably always) takes the height of the first wall that it will hook to.  There is a lot of logical stuff about the program.

 

Part of the learning curve is knowing where to go to get tools and selections, so the more you use the program the easier that gets, but seems this forum is great for giving a quik answers where to find stuff, etc..

 

My advise to myself when I was learning ( OK I'm still learning), was to not try to learn too much too quik.      Like I think it was not important for me to learn building options layers and layers.

I probably took too long to understand "cleanup" , when to turn it off, or on, altho, it didn't affect my process that much.    Using basic stuff (tools & Selections) gives you the ability to draw a plan

 

Multi drawings was a a pain for me to work with and then Softplan put the Plansets out there I think 2014? and that seemed real logical to me.

 

But I think you need a purpose when you start, like a project to motivate you.  My first project was a 3000 sf house that I built as a spec. so I had this drive to get the plan drawn.

 

Roof was a little stuggle at first until Softplan techs told me to use "adjust to the roof and it's edges and all. the mode profiles helps a lot to see if you have walls the right height, but once you get using 3D, I find I go there a lot to see walls and problems.

 

2016 sure made everything easier as 2018 will

 

I'd say posting this site is great even for us people experienced , as I know when I see a question i'm not readily familiar with I go to the program and figure it out, and that helps me get better

 

Can't wait for 2018, going to be wild


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#4 Keith Almond

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Posted 07 February 2017 - 07:21 AM

... when you draw a wall that attachs to another wall it usually (probably always) takes the height of the first wall that it will hook to ...

 

Not strictly correct, but close ... if you start a wall in a blank space, it is drawn at the height it's defined, regardless of what it joins TO. If you start it on another wall, it takes the height of the wall it's drawn FROM.


Keith

There are 10 types of people in this world ....... Those who understand binary, and those who don't.

Softplan user since version 5.5.2.5

www.homehardwarekingston.ca

#5 Jim Crook

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Posted 07 February 2017 - 09:25 AM

While there are many many considerations and commands for me the real basics are;  ( as an example for a two storey bldg with a basement/foundation

 

1) Sketch the walls of the main floor roughly at first, then dimension them to suit, then add the Reference "Circle" to one corner of the building.  Save this as the Main Floor

    In many cases but not always at this stage all you require is the exterior walls.

2) Now save the drawing above again but save it as Basement or whatever you will call it. Thenuse the Change Walls to convert the framed walls to blocks/conc. or  ICF.

     Now you should have two drawings Main & Basement.

3) If there is a 2nd floor reopen the Main Floor Drawing and save it as 2nd Floor.  Now you have three drawings.  

4) Drag & drop all three of these drawings in the "Model" ( under the Navigation Window on the upper left side of the screen ).  Make sure the drawings are stacked in the

    Model like the would be built i.e. Basement on the bottom, Main in the middle and 2nd Floor on top.  This will allow the 3D Model to generate correctly when you generate one.

4) It is important to understand that the Reference Circle you placed on one corner of the building in the Main Floor copied over with each new copy of the drawing you made.

    This Reference circle is what tells Softplan to make each of the drawings line up ( stack ) overtop of each other in the correct location both horizontally and vertically when

     generating a 2D or 3D Elevation ( rendering ) or drawing. The Reference Circle was one of the things I didn;t get a good grasp on when I started and once I kind of understood

     what it did things started to come together and make more sense.

5) You place the roof on the upper most floor using either Auto-Roof, Trace Roof or Add Roof.  One of the Key things to remember with roofs is that those "lollipops" are there to

     show you what wall or beam that protion of the roof is referencing, so for a square of rectangule bldg there should be 4 lollipops ( one of each wall referencing the four side or

     gable ends of a roof ).   Often times roof problems have to do with these lollipops not referencing the correct wall.

 

This is a simplification as there are many commands, options, ways of doing things etc.   But in my view if you get a good grasp on those fundamentals then you've got a really  good

jump of drawing with Softplan.

 

JimC


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#6 Caleb Thompson

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Posted 10 March 2017 - 02:45 PM

Guys,

Thanks for taking the time to write those overviews - really what I was looking for.  I'm getting along even if at a slower clip than someone coming in with actual drawing training.    

 

I do wish the Softplan team would put more topical training videos on youtube.  It's a great format for accessibility and you can listen at 1.5 or 2 X speed if your mental computer so allows.  The Friday Fundamental Q&A videos are really helpful, though, just need about 30 more.

 

Thanks again.

 

-Caleb



#7 James Holley

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Posted 11 March 2017 - 12:31 PM

Guys,

Thanks for taking the time to write those overviews - really what I was looking for.  I'm getting along even if at a slower clip than someone coming in with actual drawing training.    

 

I do wish the Softplan team would put more topical training videos on youtube.  It's a great format for accessibility and you can listen at 1.5 or 2 X speed if your mental computer so allows.  The Friday Fundamental Q&A videos are really helpful, though, just need about 30 more.

 

Thanks again.

 

-Caleb

Welcome Caleb,

I've been a LONG time user, haven't hit the forums all that much until recent, but I will say, I am almost completely self taught. I learned back in the vs. 4 days when you had two VERY large manuals, and I had one each opened on each slide out on my desk. I wanted to perform a function, I looked it up in the index, went to the instructions, and well, you can guess the rest. It took me 6 weeks to draw my first plan, but as I progressed, I learned tips and tricks, that I was later invited to share at training classes. I took my first actual class over 2 years of having taught myself. One advantage to self teaching is you can develop your own style, then pick up pieces of others, and as well, you tend to not learn others habits that may not benefit you. I beta tested for them for a number of years, and it was a great experience for the development team and as well, myself.

My best advice is the videos/tutorials and the manual. Also, the online help is as good as any manual, especially if you have the advantage of multiple screens. I used my laptop, plugged in the video out to a monitor and used the monitor to have my help opened this way, before I built my current system, which I am in the process of ordering parts to build a power house system upgrade.

 

If you use the resources for training online and with help/tutorials and start with a simple ranch with basement, you will find that you will start to pick up things fairly quickly, and you will be drawing quality plans in no time.
I have in fact trained a dozen or so users in SP, and they seem to pick it up rather quickly for the most part, it does take a little longer to get into the intense plans, details and such but not that long considering.

You have an advantage going in with the fact you have construction knowledge so you know what you are drawing and why, thus you know the parts and pieces. I've trained several with little to know real extensive construction background, but a couple job site visits so they could see the parts and pieces in place in real life, allowed them to take off even more quickly.

 

I'm still learning, every day, as there is so much capabilities, and I find myself using more and more as I progress. I've also used it in functions it really wasn't designed for, but with a little patience, I have created engineering drawings, steel detailing and with building race cars as a part of my several worn hats, I have even designed parts and various items for the cars to be machined once we developed our mock ups from my drawings.

 

I will offer this, I am working most all the time, it is one of my greatest passions, both the design, the building and the career process overall, so if you wis, private message me, we can exchange numbers, and I can talk you through most anything, and as well, I am great at multi-tasking so I can work at the same time.

 

I've created my own wall sets, pertinent to my geographical area, and have kept them and added to and improved them over the years constantly, in fact, I have details, sections and about any kind of drawing created for about any condition you could likely come across, and if not, I just create another. In all I am sure I have several hundred, they are very specific and each reference the code that controls the parts, noted right in the details.

 

If my offer sounds of interest, and you are willing to pursue learning time on your own as well, again, just PM me and we'll exchange contact info and I'll gladly help.

 

As for specific "topical videos", I haven't found a lack of much needed, both from Softplan and some power users like myself. If I wasn't always so busy, I would love to make some videos to upload myself, but just don't have the time as of yet, but it looks like I may be bringing back a former associate soon, to help me with the work load and negate the need to turn work down as much as I've had to recently.

 

I've got commitment from my 3 largest clients already, to not outsource work if I do bring him back, so it is well worth it. At one point, prior to the market crash, I had 5 designers, including myself and we constantly had in excess of 20 plus projects on the books at all times. At that time I had 18 consistent clients, a dozen of them had been with me for well over 12 years. The average house price was $700k and up as well.

 

Those times are gone for now anyway, but I am seeing a huge growth just in the past 13 months, and as well, several of the clients that didn't go under, are coming back to me, so at least one additional designer will be necessary, and if need be, I have a previous assistant from another company I was under contract with for just over 4 years that I could likely bring back as well. She was a AutoCAD user until she came to work with me and now she prefers SP, but still uses ACAD for quick and simple revisions of existing ACAD drawings.

I did show her though, that I can redraw a ACAD drawing in SP, and revise it as required in the same or less time often, than it takes her to revise some of them.

 

Anything at all I can help with, feel free to let me know.

 

Good luck and good day


James L. Holley

SoftPlan user since 1993

 

"To explain the lure of speed you would have to explain human nature; but it is easier understood than explained...Speed is the second oldest animal craving in our nature..." -- T. E. Lawrence

 

 





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