Faq

What is DigiCad 3D Used For?

DigiCad 3D's Dynamic Attachment Feature

How to eliminate perspective distortion from a building photo

• Import a photo
• Set scale and unit of measure
• Set the four origin attach points on the photo. The bottom-left point first, the top-left point second, after the top-right and the bottom-right. The Attach points are represented with red markers on the screen.
• Open the Destination Attach points dialog from the Trasnfrom menu
• Insert the real coordinates correspondent to the Destination Attach points. The reference system isn't important, it's sufficient that all the coordinates are in the same reference system (ex. the left corner of the building and the ground line). The Destination Attach points are represented with blue markers on the screen.
• Select the picture
• Choose Transform Picture from the Transform menu
• Choose resolution, number of colors and Opaque or Transparent option
• Click the Ok button

Is it possible to eliminate perspective distortion from a photo without any measured point?

How DigiCad 3D's Attach Functions from files Work

In the case of a dam, what is the best way to consider the hydraulic pressure on the upstream face?

Do you use a water bed which is above the ground surface (will this then compute the hydraulic load on the upstream face?) or do you use a trapezoidal load to represent the water?

It is possible to use two different methods depending on the result wanted.

First case:

We have a dam with water on one side (let's suppose on the right side). We want to verify the dam from right to left.

The best method is to consider a water stratum. A water stratum has 0 porosity, O cohesion coefficient, 0 Fi and 0 weight.

The water bed is on the top of this stratum.

The slide surfaces must continue inside the "water stratum" until the surface.

In this case Geo-Tec B considers the weight and the pressure of the water bed correctly.

In this case it isn't possible to apply the first method and it's necessary to consider the water as a triangular or trapezzoidal load on the terrain (to consider the effect of the water on the terrain surface) plus the water bed (to consider the effect of the pressure of the water inside the terrain).

There is a special case to simulate a quick emptying of a lake. It's possible to simulate this case deleting the loads on the surfaces and maintaining the water bed on the top level. This because some time is needed for the water inside of the terrain to come out and in the meantime the internal pressure of the water corresponds to the top level of the water bed.

How does grahic import work in Nonio C? Nonio C imports graphic images in several formats. The PICT import command uses QuickTime and can import all the graphic formats handled by the installed QuickTime Other methods to import an image in Nonio C are Copy and Past and Drag & Drop.

How does DXF import work in Nonio C? Nonio C imports single points,  polygons (in DXF Polyline), faces, which it inserts as points to eventually be united by breaklines. It does not import other elements, such as lines, text, circles, etc. The primary use of DXF importation in Nonio C is to import contour lines from maps and complete 3D models. If you want to import a drawing for other purposes (such as to serve as the base document for a survey project), it's better to import the document first to another program, for example DigiCad 3D, then to Nonio C using Copy and Paste or Drag and Drop.

How can imported images be used? Imported immages can be used for a number of objectives, among which some are listed below: - Digitalization of a map with contour lines - Superimposing a design on the survey - Superimposing a survey drawing on an aerial photo - Use of a design as a guide for infill or excavation - Comparison of the terrain model with the map - Comparison of the terrain model with map of property lines

How does Nonio C calculates the terrain model? Nonio C constructs a mathematical surface connecting points with line segments to construct triangles. The generation of triangles is also regulated by the maximum distance for triangulation entered in the Preferences dialog box, which requires the program to search for and construct triangles only among points falling between the set distance. For any number of points, there are several possibile ways in which they may be joined by triangulation. If the general guidelines given above are followed and a reasonable maximum distance for triangulation set, the generated model should represent closely the actual terrain conditions. When there are certain discontinuities in the surface, a more detailed modeling process is required. In these situations, connections can be somewhat ambiguous, even for a simple case involving only four points. If automatic triangulation is used in situations like the one above, it can cause erratic results. Nonio C offers the user the ability to impose breaklines (representing lines of discontinuity, such as ditches, ridges, or streets) from which the triangulation can then be completed automatically. The user can locally correct the automatic triangulation and Nonio C recalculate the modified model immediately and automatically.

Are there different types of wall construction, e.g. cavity walls, stud walls etc? You can change the materials of the wall faces, but not the internal structure. To draw very complex walls, it is faster to use Domus.Cad tools. An example of cavity walls follows below. Here is a room with the external part of the cavity wall. With the bucket tool, automatically fill the room with a polygon Select the polygon and execute the command Expand/Reduce polygon from the Process menu or from the palette #2. Insert the distance between the internal and external parts of the cavity wall. Choose the command Wall on Polygon generation from the palette #3 This is the result Delete the polygon Add windows and doors Add some other parts to complete the room The result is below.

To do a rafter, spanning from one wall to another do you suggest a. set up roof/slab parameters and manually draw to desired width (say 50mm), or b. setup up roof/slab parametres, draw a polygon line - process slab off polygon line. the same for columns, walls, roof slabs etc Either method is fine but drawing a polygon first adds another step. Beams and other things can also be created with wall elements but I usually find it easier to use slab elements. I draw them at ref. ht. 0 (maybe even saving them as an object for future use) then place them at the ref. height needed.

The Line Thickness Button seems to not work. Are you pressing the Line Thickness Button long enough? Like several other buttons, it has to be pressed for a short while before the menu of icons appears.  Or perhaps your monitor is not set for millions of colors - in this case, the sub-menu is not visible. To modify the thickness of an element, such as a line or polygon, simply select the element, then choose the desired thickness, using the Line Thickness button. A shortcut is to use the number keys to indicate the desired thickness. Exceptions to the above are Slabs and Walls, whose lines are always Thickness 1, or Thickness 0 if invisible. Wall edge thickness depends on the height of the wall e.g. , a low wall has thin edge lines.

How can I create shadow for objects in 2D or 3D? In DomusCad, cast shadows can only be created using RayShade in 3D. For 2D drawings, use the traditional method of indicating shadows by a hatched or colored polygon. Or try this interesting method : create a 3D view with RayShade, complete with cast shadows. This can then be transferred to a layer which has been rescaled and placed under the technical view. The result is a technical view with colors and shadows. The same can be achieved in plan.

How do you control the depth of the Section view, say at 1:50 so it shows detail to a depth of 1-2m. There is no way to automatically control the depth. Domus.Cad always shows the entire model. If you need to see different details when you change the scale, I suggest you should use different materials to decide which parts of the drawing you want to show or hide depending on that scale. With the parametric selection you can then select elements of a certain material to delete them, change their visibility, or move them to a different layer.

Is it possible not to have walls fuse together? If so, how do you do that? I am thinking of this in terms of making timber beams and rafters with the wall command, but such a way that they don't fuse but remain as separate elements. Set the Attach Maximum Distance at zero in the Wall Parameters Dialog box.

My staircase has suspended treads which rest on two metal beams. I drew the treads, the IPE in 2D and I gave my slab a thickness of 2 meters. Now I want to rotate the beams and align them under the stair treads with a slope of 17 cm / 25 cm or 68 %. How can I do this? Follow the steps below:

• Select the IPE
• Separate it into faces
• Select all the faces (slabs)
• Group the faces into an Object
• Set the origin on a corner of the object
• Select the object
• Execute the command RotObj from the Modules menu and rotate it around the mostappropriate axis (probably X)

The Getting Started Example begins a roof with two rectangles, which are assigned a material but appear semi-transparent in the documentation. I cannot find a way to change the transparency of rectangles; they are not included in the PARAMETERS menu with other elements. Do you have patterned or hatched rectangles in plan? If this is your case, just assign a "No Fill" to the rectangle. You can do it before drawing the rectangles of after. Before: select the rectangle icon and the pen icon. Click on the Fill tool on the attributes palette and choose No Fill. The No Fill option is assigned to all the rectangles, circles, polygons and curves drawn after the choose. After: select the rectangle icon and the arrow icon. Select the rectangle, Click on the Fill tool on the attributes palette and choose No Fill. The fill of the rectangle is removed and it appears transparent.

Please explain how to illuminate the interior of a building. I would like moderate lighting with one illuminated wall, opposite a wall in shadow. Are you using Interactive renderer or Ray Shade? The two renderers work differently. The Interactive renderer doesn't support cast shadows. This means that the light "penetrates" inside the objects and the building, lighting internal objects too. The Ray Shade and OpenGl renderers  support cast shadows. This means that if you have an external light, the internal parts of a building aren't lighted and you must insert some point lights inside. When you insert point lights, pay attention to the Z coordinate. Light coordinates are calculated overall, not by layer, so if you put a light on the second floor, the Z starts from ground level, not from the 2nd floor.

Pictures can't be rotated in Domus.Cad. so I tried saving the picture as an object, then rotating it, but it doesn't work. Any suggestions? P.S. - the scanning software and graphic converter only allow rotation in 90 degree increments. What scanning software are you using? What are the supported exporting formats (PICT, GIF, JPEC, TIFF, ... )?   To rotate the picture, you can use the PictRot module from the Module-PlugIn menu, In Macintosh there are two kinds of pictures: Bit-Map (ex. scanned images) and Vectorial (ex. those exported from a CAD software). If you have vectorial pictures, then it's possible to transform them into Domus.Cad objects and to rotate the objects. Basically each vectorial element of the picture (lines, polygons, texts etc.) is transformed in a correspondent Domus.Cad element. If you try to transform a Bit-Map picture in an object, then the picture disappears.