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******************************************* ROOMER3 Demo Manual ******************************************* This demo version of ROOMER3 works very like the real thing but is not nearly as good. The demo will only print draft resolution graphics on your printer and does not support plotters at all. It will not export data to other CAD packages. This version does not use a math coprocessor even if you have one. Also certain seldom used commands have been disabled in this version. ROOMER3 comes with a 216 page manual and a video, but you don't have your copy yet. The following pages give a thumbnail sketch of how to use ROOMER3. Everything which needs to be said can't be said in this little space, but you will find what follows very useful in exploring ROOMER3. Read the following and watch the ROOMER3 demos, and then I think that you will be able to poke around in this version of ROOMER3 with fair success. What is ROOMER3 --------------- ROOMER3 is a system of computer programs which allow you to: - Create 2D and 3D models of floor plans with your computer. - Furnish these plans or rooms within plans using standard furniture supplied with ROOMER3 or furniture which you create yourself. Over 200 pieces of 3D furniture are included. - Create perspective views of plans, rooms and associated furniture arrangements. - Produce output pages containing scaled plans, furniture arrangements and views. Related areas and dimensions can also be included. - Produce price reports which list and price the furniture used to make an arrangement. (not in demo version) - Export drawings and 3D models to CAD and paint programs, and to word processors. (not in Demo version) ROOMER3 was designed to assist you in quickly producing floor plans, and to help you to determine the best way to furnish offices, residences, computer rooms and parties. ROOMER3 can also be used to design classrooms, libraries, meeting rooms, kitchens, theater sets, stores or indeed almost any interior space. Required Hardware This demo version of ROOMER3 requires that you have a color monitor which supports VGA graphics. If the demos work on your machine then this demo version of ROOMER3 will as well. If you plan to print your results then you should select Setup from the Main Menu and then press Printer to set up for your printer. Setup is also where you can set up for metric units of measure and adjust the screen colors to your liking. If you have a MicroSoft Mouse or equivalent you can use it with this demo version of ROOMER3, but a mouse is not required. Speed and Performance Quite sophisticated results can be obtained on systems running at 4.77 mhz, but for larger projects a faster machine or a math coprocessor will prove of great benefit. The speed with which ROOMER3 performs is directly related to the size of the floor plan or arrangement on which you are working. The performance of the programs is profoundly affected by any speed up in the clock rate of your computer; thus anything which increases the speed of your machine above 4.77 mhz will greatly enhance the utility of ROOMER3 in modeling large or complex rooms. If you have a math coprocessor, an available Math Coprocessor version of ROOMER3 may be of interest to you. This greatly improves the operation of the programs on any type of machine, but most users will find the performance of the standard version quite acceptable. This demo version of ROOMER3 does not use a math coprocessor. Strategy, can to some extent, compensate for a lack of speed. Use the simplest furniture possible where speed is an issue. Installation The demo version of ROOMER3 is installed when the demo disk is installed on your system. Running ROOMER3 To start the demo version of ROOMER3 change to the \R3DEMO directory on your hard disk and enter DE, or enter DEMO to bring up the Demo Menu. From the Demo Menu select "M. More Demos" and then "3. Run ROOMER3" and then follow the instructions printed on the screen.The Main Menu When you start ROOMER3 the Main Menu appears on the screen. The Main Menu allows you to get around within ROOMER3, and to quit back to the Demo Menu. The various programs listed are explained later in this document. Though ROOMER3 consists of many programs doing many different things, all of the programs were written to behave in a similar manner. For instance you can always press the F1 key instead of pressing Help, and you can always press the Esc key instead of pressing eXit or Quit. There are many other points of similarity between the programs and these are explained below. The Arrow Keys The keys on the numeric key-pad are used extensively in ROOMER3 and are referred to as the Arrow Keys or ->keys. The ->keys can be used to select from menus, to move furniture, to change view parameters, and to layout pages of output. The setting of the NumLock key affects how the numeric key-pad behaves. To use the ->keys make sure that NumLock is off. If NumLock is on, ROOMER3 will beep, or print digits when you try to use the ->keys. When you are moving a cursor or some object about on the screen with the ->keys you can move diagonally by pressing the 7, 9, 1 and 3 keys on the numeric keypad. Pressing the + key will switch you between coarse and fine movement of the cursor or object. Selecting from Menus You get around in ROOMER3 by using menus. The Main Menu is used to select among the available programs, and each program has a Root Menu from which all of its functions are available. From Root Menu you can execute commands and select other menus. Program menus appear at the top of the screen with their name to the right if space is available. You can select menu items by pressing the first capitalized letter of the desired item. Using a Mouse If you have a mouse you can use it to select from menus, and also in place of the ->keys. If one of the items in the menu is highlighted then the mouse is in menu selection mode and moving it will change which item is highlighted. Pressing the Left Mouse Button will execute the highlighted item, just as though you had pressed the first capitalized letter of its name. Any time you can use the ->keys in the programs you can also use the mouse instead. Pressing the Right Mouse Button will erase the highlight from the menu and allow the mouse to perform the same function as the ->keys. Pressing the Right Mouse Button again will return you to menu selection mode. Pressing the Left Mouse Button is always the same as pressing the Enter Key. Returning to the Root Menu As mentioned above, each of the ROOMER3 programs starts off at a Root Menu. From here you select other menus or commands to make the program work. Any time a menu is displayed on the screen or you are entering a number, you can return to the Root Menu simply by pressing the Middle Mouse Button. If you do not have a three button mouse, then pressing both the Left and Right Mouse Buttons, or pressing Alt-R will have the same effect. If you are in the process of entering a number when you press the Middle Mouse Button, R3 behaves exactly as though you have pressed the Enter Key and then eXit or Ok until you returned to the Root Menu. You will find this feature most useful when entering room dimensions in Make Plan, when Resizing in Furnish, and when drawing curves in Layout Page. Entering Default Values (DON'T START YOUR FILE NAMES WITH THE LETTERS "DE". "DE" DENOTES DEMO FILES) When you are asked to "Enter" something the program expects you to type in a name or a number and then press the Enter Key or Left Mouse Button. Usually the previous or default value is displayed as part of the request. You can enter this value by simply pressing the Enter Key or Left Mouse Button. ROOMER3 will then know to use the default name or value. For instance you may be asked to: Enter a page name: TEST This prompt tells you to type in the name of a specific plan. TEST is the name of the plan most recently worked on. If you press the Enter Key the result will be just the same as if you had typed in the word TEST. If you start to enter a new value but then change your mind, you can press the Esc Key to return to the default value and enter it instead. Generally names should consist of only letters and numbers - no punctuation. Names should be no more than eight characters long. HANKS, TESTER2, 2BY4BY6, W are legal names 6%12, TOOTOOLONG are not legal names Pressing the - key (minus key) while a program is asking for a file name causes the request to be ended, and a menu to reappear. Directory Menu You can enter a file name as described above, or you can press the + key to enter the Directory Menu. When in Directory Mode you can select a file name by letter, or with the mouse. The name you select is returned and the program behaves exactly as though you had typed the file name out on the keyboard and pressed Enter. Selecting Numeric Input When ROOMER3 asks for a number you can input this in a variety of ways: 1. Enter a number using the keyboard. Thus you might type in 10'2", or 11.2m to represent a height. If you make a typing mistake press the Backspace Key to back up and correct it. If you press the NumLock key, then you can also use the numeric keypad for number entry, but be sure to press NumLock again before you attempt to use the Arrow Keys. 2. Press the up and down Arrow Keys to modify the displayed value. Press the + key to speed up or slow down the rate at which the number changes as you press the Arrow Keys. Often the data and images on the screen will be altered as you press the Arrow Keys. Press enter when the desired value is displayed. 3. Move the mouse up or down to change the displayed value. Press the Right Mouse Button, select +, and then press the Left Mouse Button (or just press +) to change the rate at which numbers change when the mouse is moved. Press the Left Mouse Button (or enter) when the desired value is displayed. 4. Enter the default value and use the ESC Key as described on the previous page. Distances can be entered in a variety of formats. If you are using feet & inches then 8.5' = 8 1/2' = 8'6" = 102" = 102 are all equivalent ways of entering the same value. Note that inches are assumed if you enter just a number. If you are using metric units of measure M means meters and C means centimeters and thus 1M = 100C = 100 are equivalent to one another. Centimeters are assumed if you just enter a number. You can switch between metric and imperial units of measure by using the Setup Menu. Error Handling Case is generally unimportant in ROOMER3. Entering BOX is exactly the same as entering box. Pressing H is the same as pressing h. Should you press something which is illegal, the program will beep. Much effort was spent in trying to protect you from obvious errors. For instance, ROOMER3 will warn you of potential problems with unsaved or duplicate files. Whether you heed these warnings or not is up to you. ******************************************* How to Use ROOMER3 ******************************************* Here is a very brief summary of how to use ROOMER3. Measure the Rooms Make a sketch and then measure the rooms with which you wish to work, recording the measurements on the sketch. Start in a corner of the first room and work around the room to the right. Note the dimensions of each wall, window, door, and turn. Measure other rooms starting at the right of a door or window which communicates with a previously measured room. Make the Plan Run the Make Plan program and enter the information recorded above. This generates a plan or room within ROOMER3. When you are satisfied, save the plan so that the other programs can use it. Furnish the Rooms If you plan to create furniture arrangements it is usually easiest to work with a room at a time rather than with an entire floor plan. Run the Furnish program and enter the name of the room you want to furnish. Next load pieces of furniture, resize these to match the measurements of the actual furniture and position them in the room. When your arrangement is complete, save it. Create Views If views are desired then run the View program. This can create both full and camera views of rooms and plans, and related furniture arrangements. Save any views which you want to include in the final output. Layout the Finished Output Run the Layout Page program and load drawings and information produced by the other programs. Edit the drawings, then add area and dimensional information and any other text to the page. Print the final result. Save the page for later use. ******************************************* Short List of Furniture ******************************************* The toughest part of using this demo version of ROOMER3 may be the in selecting what pieces of furniture to load. ROOMER3 comes with a extensive catalog of all of the available pieces and a picture of each. There is no such catalog included with this demo version. Below is a partial list of the pieces of furniture which you can load in the Furnish program. You may have to do a little experimenting to get just the one you want. Basic Pieces HLINE PIC VPLANE RUG HPLANE SPLANE RAMP HEX OCT CIRCLE CLOCK CYL SHADE PEN BOX Home & Office Pieces CHEST CAB FILE DESK DESK2 PC TABLE RTABLE PRINTER BOOK4 BOOK6 TV BED FULLBED TVFL LAMP FLAMP WLAMP PICTURE MIRROR PHONE PRINT LASER PC2 TYPE CALC COMP VDT VDTSTD TABB TABA LAM BINA BINB BINC BOOK FILE5 COPIER TABP FAX Seating CHAIR FCHAIR ACHAIR EASY COUCH CHR CHRA CHRB CHRSW Modular Furniture and Panels PAN75 PAN65 PAN53 PAN42 PAN34 PAN30 PAN5 PFLO DRAW TOP30 TOP26 Curtains CURTL CURTR DRAPE VERTS MINI TIER2 TIES2 BISHOP RUFFLE BOXVAL STRETCH TIEL2 TIEVAL DRAPER DRAPEL JABOTR JABOTL DRAPES VERTL VERTR SWAG VAL People & Animals FLATMAN FLATLADY FLATBOY DINO HORSE Kitchen, Bath & Laundry TUB TOIL FAUCET VAN4 VAN5 VAN6 ISLAND STOVE W1818 W1830 W3618 W3630 CCAB REFRIG2 HOOD WALLOV WCLOCK REFRIGL REFRIGR MICRO CTR CTRUL CTRUR RANGOV BA36 BA18D BA18 DISHW TOWEL CTRC SOF SOFL SOFC SINK DRY WASH Miscellaneous STAIR2 STAIR5 STAIR13 FICUS PLANT ******************************************* Using the Make Plan Program ******************************************* The Make Plan Screen The Make Plan screen is dominated by a top view of the plan which you are creating. A large circle marks the place on the plan where building is currently taking place, and a smaller circle shows what you are building toward - usually this indicates the ending point of a room. At the top of the screen is the menu of the allowed commands and a label which tells you which menu is currently displayed. Most work is done from the Root Menu. At the left of the screen a small 3D picture of the last wall, window or door which you have created is displayed. Below this is information on how far the current building point is from the ending point. This is occasionally useful in estimating the length of part of the plan. Below this is an indicator which shows whether you are building in a clockwise or a counterclockwise fashion. At the lower left of the screen is a Directional Rosette which shows the direction in which building is currently proceeding. Strategy Press Make Plan in the Main Menu to start the program. The Make Plan program is used to create a room or plan for use with the other programs in ROOMER3. Rooms and plans consist primarily of walls, doors, windows and turns, along with associated baseboard, trim and molding dimensions. Start by making a rough sketch of the desired plan, and then add the measurements of the walls, windows, doors, trim, etc. This sketch will be the basis for creating the plan within ROOMER3. Usually you will build rooms in a clockwise fashion but by pressing the ^ or F5 keys you can switch to building in a counterclockwise fashion. Most of your time in the Make Plan program will be spent within the Wall, wIndow and Door commands. These create the parts of the plan. Each of these commands has its own menu which facilitates the entry of data. From any of these menus you can also enter the Set Menu which allows attributes of the plan such as wall thickness, wall height and baseboard height to be changed. As each part of the plan is completed press Ok or : or the Middle Mouse Button to return to the Root Menu and continue with the next part of the plan. The Wall * and Wall # commands are useful in completing rooms precisely. Use Turn to change the direction in which building is taking place, and Chgloc to change the building location and ending points. Use Edit or Undo to fix any errors and Print to print your plan on the printer. Zoom allows you to zoom in on a particular part of the plan and Measure allows you to measure distances. Outside will automatically build the outside walls of a room or plan. When complete, Save your plan and Quit back to the Main Menu. ******************************************* Using the Furnish Program ******************************************* The Furnish Screen The Furnish screen is dominated by a floor plan which shows the Current Piece of furniture in one color or blinking, and the other pieces in another color or white. At the top of the screen is the list of allowed commands. Furnish has too many commands in its Root Menu to display them all at one time. Additional commands can be displayed by pressing Other. These other commands are available from the Root Menu by pressing command letters. At the bottom left of the screen the icon, name and orientation of the Current Piece is displayed. Above the icon is information on whether you are shifting the Current Piece or rotating it, and the unit of movement. Above this is Size or Distance information on the Current Piece and the % Full. Size information is displayed when a piece is first Loaded and during Resizing, and consists of the width, height and depth of the Current Piece. In addition a floor height and a top height are shown. Floor height is the distance from the bottom of the Current Piece to the floor. Top height is the distance from the top of this piece to the floor. Distance information is normally displayed while a piece is being moved. This consists of the Right-Left and Up-Down distance that the Current Piece has been moved since the Distance information was last Zeroed. Distance information is useful for doing measured moves within the room. The floor height is also listed here. The % Full indicates how full the plan is. The View program can only generate 3D renderings of plans which are less than 100% full. Strategy Press Furnish in the Main Menu to start the program. The Furnish program is used to furnish rooms and plans. Over 200 pieces of stock furniture come with ROOMER3. You can create your own furniture by combining existing pieces or by converting drawings to furniture. When Furnish starts it asks for the name of the plan to be furnished and then draws it on the screen. You can load a 3D model of a plan by prefacing the plan name with an *. This normally is not needed, but is useful for placing curtains, wall cabinets and other pieces which must be arranged vertically against the walls of a room. With a plan on the screen, Load existing arrangements, or single pieces of furniture to create a new room arrangement. The most recently Loaded, Chosen or Duplicated piece is called the Current Piece. This can be made to Blink if you wish. Use Resize to change the size of the Current Piece, or the Arrow Keys or mouse to move or rotate it. Use Move to move the Current Piece until it bumps into something. The Current Piece can be Jumped on top of or Turned to the same orientation as the previous current piece. Precise positioning can be obtained by using a Zoom to enlarge part of the floor plan, and by zEroing and making use of the Distance information. Mouse users may find the Unidir command useful. Use View to view the arrangement from the side. When complete, Save the arrangement and Quit the Furnish program. An arrangement can be Killed in its entirety, or a single piece can be killed from within Choose. Arrangements can be Printed from within Furnish. For best performance never run two pieces together, or put a piece through a wall. The View Program will work best if all pieces are at least 1/10" apart. ******************************************* Using the View Program ******************************************* The View Screen The View program displays a view which has been created with the program, or the plan and furniture arrangement for which views are being generated, and associated view generation information. In the latter case, lines radiate from the current Eye location, marked by a circle, to indicate that portion of the plan about the View Point, marked by a square, which will be included in the view. To the left of the screen a height diagram indicates the heights of the Eye and View Point above the floor. The bottom of this diagram is the floor and the top is the highest point in the plan or arrangement - usually the ceiling of the plan. At the top of the screen is a menu of the available commands. Strategy Press View in the Main Menu to start the program. The View program is used to create views of the plans and furnishings created with the Make Plan and Furnish programs. When the View program starts it asks for the name of the plan which is to be viewed. Usually you will enter a plan name at this point, but you can also enter the name of a view (ie. TEST.VEW) to reestablish old settings in the program. Next the program asks for the arrangement name. Enter NONE or - to view the empty plan, or enter the name of the desired furniture arrangement. A top view of the plan and its furnishings is nowdrawn on the screen. Change the parameters of the view to be produced, and then generate the view with the View command. View also sets the type of view to be produced. Save views for later printing or inclusion in pages of output, or Print views immediately. Previously saved views can be Loaded again for review. Help is available and explains the various commands. When you are through you can Kill the plan and arrangement and load others, or Quit back to the Main Menu. ******************************************* Using the Layout Page Program ******************************************* The Layout Page Screen The Layout Page screen is dominated by a representation of the page which shows the Current Part in one color, and the other parts of the page in another. At the bottom left of the screen the name of the Current Part is displayed. Above this Distance information indicates how far this part has moved since the Distance information was last zerOed. Above this is one of the words Move, Scale or Rotate. This indicates what will happen to the Current Part when the Arrow Keys or mouse are used. At the top left the size of the Current Part is displayed in inches or centimeters and if the part is text its letter height is also displayed. At the top of the screen is the menu of available commands. Strategy Press Layout in the Main Menu to start the program. The Layout Page program is used to layout and print finished pages of output. When the Layout Page program starts it asks for the name of the page you wish to work with. You can enter the name of an existing page, or start a NEW one. For new pages you must specify the format, vertical or horizontal, and the size. The page is then drawn on the screen. Pages consist of parts, where a part can be a floor plan, arrangement or view created by the other ROOMER3 programs, or text or a drawing created by the Layout Page program. Load parts saved with the other ROOMER3 programs onto the page. Use the Arrow Keys or mouse to position and set the size of each part, only the border of the Current Part is displayed as you move and scale it. Press Full to see the entire part. Add Text and Rotate text or parts as needed. Zoom in on part of the page to do detail work such as Drawing or Editing lines or text in the Current Part. Use zerO and the Distance information to precisely position parts. Add Area information to floor plans and set their scalewith Xscale. Use Choose to change the Current Part, to remove unwanted parts and to set the pen for plotting. When the page is complete Save it, Print it and Quit back to the Main Menu. Help is available. ******************************************* Twirl and Report Programs ******************************************* The Twirl program is used to check the 3D pieces of furniture which you build for correctness. To try out twirl do this: Run the Furnish program and specify the HANKS room. Load a DINO Press As1 and enter DINO to save the DINO piece by itself Quit out of Furnish and the press Twirl from the Main Menu Press Enter to twirl the DINO. Press + Pause and the -> keys to control the animation. Press Quit when you are done. The Report program prepares reports and price lists of the furnishings you use in your design projects. The Report program is not included with this demo version of ROOMER3.