FAQ Domus Cad

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.

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.

Why does a light inserted in one room illuminate the adjacent rooms as well?

Shadows are not an available option for Interactive rendering, therefore the elements themselves (such as walls and floor slabs) are merely shaded according to their relationship to the light source and do not have the ability to cast shadows on other objects, making it seem as if the light passes through them. It is not possible, for example, to create a completely dark room, even if it has no doors or windows. Use OpenGl and Rayshade renderers for casting shadows.

What purpose does ambient light serve?

Ambient light's primary purpose is to lighten the shaded areas. Without ambient light, all shaded areas would be completely black. A lack of ambient light creates a greatly contrasting image, while a predominance of ambient light creates an image with little contrast. Another purpose is to create a certain atmosphere by changing the ambient light's color.

How do you print the 3D view?

The easiest way is to transfer the view to an unused layer and page it using the normal DomusCad procedure, after which it can be printed.

Is it possible to make a QuickTime film from the 3D view?

It is not possible to make a QuickTime film from inside Domus.Cad, but it can be done using other programs, such as Snapz Pro and Screenium, it is possible to film everything from the 3D View window.

How can I create people, animals, etc. in a 3D view ? You can either create 3D models (quite complicated), import a 3D model in DWG, DXF and 3DS formats or insert the images people or animals into the 3D view. For example:

• create a 3D view and place it on a free layer
• import the image into DomusCad (e.g. using Cut and Paste).
• Draw a polygon on the image around the part of the photo to be cut. Use PictRot to extract the internal part and set white part transparent.
• rescale the image if necessary, to the same scale as the photo

How to insert a rendering in a photo? The first step towards inserting a rendering in a picture is to place the Domus.Cad camera in the same position as the real life camera. Place the observed point in Domus.Cad on the point corresponding to the center of the photo. Set the camera angle parameter the same as the lens of the camera. Set the Domus.Cad light direction parallel to the direction of the light in the picture. The sun light generation tool can help you. Set the 3D view background color to white. After that you should obtain a 3D view that is consistent with the photo perspective. Save the image on a free layer. Select the image and with the PictRot module of the Plug In menu change the image to make the white color transparent. Select the image and group it in an object. Place the object on the top of the photo. Resize the object, with the mouse, so that it is perfectly superimposed on the photo.

Is it possible to paste a 3D perspective onto a photo of landscape, in order to show the project's integration into its environment? There are several interesting dxf and dwg models that you can import in Domus.Cad. To superimpose a Domus.Cad rendering onto a photo in Domus.Cad follow the steps below:

• Import the photo in Domus.Cad
• Generate the rendering with a white background
• Save the rendering to a free layer
• Select the rendering image and choose the PictRot command from the Modules menu
• Set 0 rotation, million of colors, 72 dpi and white transparent. Confirm
• Now you can move the rendering onto the photo because the background is transparent.

I would like to add texture to a 3D perspective, but when I "paste" a fill to the floor, it is visible only in 2D. In the 3D view you can use photorealistic textures. Go to the Colors parameters, associate a texture to a color, activate the texture check box on the color parameters dialog and on the 3D view (far right button).

How to add a texture to the texture list? In your Domus,Cad folder you should have a DOMUS-Cad Texture folder. On Windows the Texture folder is inside the Domus.Cad Data folder, on Macintosh there is an alias on the Domus.Cad folder Any image added to this folder will be accessible via the internal texture menu in the Materials Windows of Domus.Cad. If , on a Mac, the texture folder alias doesn't work, you can access the Texture folder directly inside the Domus.Cad Package. To do that, follow the steps below: - Ctrl click on the Domus.Cad icon and on the pop up menu choose the Show Package content command - Open the Content folder - Open the MacOs folder - Open Domus-Cad Data folder - Open the Domus-Cad Texture folder - Drag your Texture to the Domus-Cad Textures folder

How to use specular color and coefficient? All materials have a diffuse color and a specular color, which can be different. If so, the color of the material changes depending on the position of the light. The specular coefficient changes the aspect of the material, giving it a more plastic or metallic appearance. With RayShade an high specular coefficient generates a mirror effect.

The rooms of my building, which have no external lighting, are completely dark. Is there any way of defining natural lighting for the whole interior, valid all through the evolution of the 3D version? Or must I define the light source as I go? Natural lighting is really all about shadows - more light means fewer shadows. It all depends on the type of renderer you are using. For example, the interactive renderer doesn't support cast shadow, so if you use an external light, it lights the interiors too. The RayShade renderer supports cast shadows, so the light doesn't penetrate across the surfaces and doesn't light the interior - you have to put other lights in the building.

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.

I reckon I've got most of these completed except for the 1:10 details. How do I go about extracting details of the model so they can be printed at 1:10, this includes; stone strip footing detail; top plate detail; connection of rafters, to beam, to post detail etc  Just draw them in new layers. If necessary, copy some parts from plants and sections and add details as you want. To have a preview of your drawing, set the video scale to 1:10. Probably a lot of details are very similar on different designs; in this case is convenient to save them as library objects for using them later. You must use always real world measures. On the pagination phase, set the scale to 1:10. On the drawing table you can mix layers with different scale. You can change the natural scale to 1:10, to have a correct reference scale for texts and dimensions. In this case click the OK button on the following two alert windows: Change the dimension of the text according on the new natural scale? And Modify texts (modification is irreversible)?

Wrong scale in importing dxf-dwg files Regarding the wrong scale in importing DWG and DXF file, it depends usually on a wrong unit of measurement. Inside AutoCAD there isn't a unit of measure like in Domus.Cad, but a unit of design. In printing, the user specifies the length of the unit of design, so the unit of measurement corresponding to the unit of design isn't inside the DWG file, but in the designer's head. In importing a file, Domus.Cad asks for the unit of measurement and if you choose a wrong unit of measurement, the resulting drawing is wrong too. If the designer used meters and you import the file with centimeters, each meter is interpreted as a centimeter and the drawing is 100 times smaller. In this case, the text seems very big, but it is because it isn't possible to reduce the text to less than 1 point, so a 1 point text in a 100 times reduced design seems very big.

I am trying to change the parameters of a few walls already in the design, and each time I open the "Walls..." dialog box and make some changes, I get an error message. I selected the walls I wanted to alter and then selected "Walls..." from the Parameters menu. Do you have a Window or Door in the wall? In this case you must select the walls on both sides of the Door or Windows. Another problem can happen if you try to insert measures in fractional inches and feet without setting this unit of measure first.

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 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.

When lengthening a Wall , the program calculates from the center of the wall, even if the start point indicated was the end of the wall. A wall is registered by its axis and this is what the program takes into account, during modifications. If you want to maintain the original direction, choose the option Only Axial Deformation, or press the Shift k

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.

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.

Is there any way of manually inputting the X & Y-coordinates to determine the length of the walls? Is there a box anywhere that the length can be typed into? If you want to draw a wall inserting the length, you can use the polar or relative input. Follow the steps below: - Click with the mouse where you want to start the wall. In Domus.Cad the polar and relative coordinates refer always to the last click made. - Click inside the relative coordinates box - In the relative coordinates dialog window, input the length in the dx or dy field and click Continue. You can continue to insert other elements, each element starts from the previous point. Command-W shows the current insert point - Continue allows you to continue inserting elements without exiting. - Draw inserts an element and exits. - Move moves the insertion point without drawing. If you are using a unit of measure different than fractional inches, you can use the algebraic input. In Domus.Cad you can use any algebraic formula in any numerical field with + - * / () operators. Unfortunately this doesn't work with fractional inches (decimal feet are OK). If you want to use polar coordinates the method is similar. If you want to change the length of a selected element, follow the steps below: - Select the element - Click in one of the coordinates boxes. The editing dialog appears. You can change the length, the angle and move the element. #22 Does the package allow the insertion of windows and doors accurately using coordinates, as for walls? Yes, there are several methods to accurately insert or modify an opening, window or door, in a wall. Double click on the Windows/Doors icon and look at the Windows or Doors parameters dialog window: You can choose several tracing modes. Example:  I want to insert a door of 150 cm starting 60 cm from the corner of the room. In this case I choose the (b+c) Fixed Width+Dist. option and set the fixed distance = 60 cm and the Fixed length = 150 and press OK. Click inside a wall - the program finds the closest corner or end of the wall and places the opening correctly. (Move the mouse around to find the internal part of the wall, marked with a bullet.) In the same way you can modify the position and length of one or more selected windows/doors. Or, you can insert openings using the polar absolute and relative coordinates of the coordinates palette. The absolute coordinates are referenced to a global or local origin that you can place in any point, so it is a good idea to place elements with progressive distances.

Does Domus.Cad have a command line interface ? Domus.Cad doesn't have a command line interface. Usually CADs with a command line user interface derive from old versions or have a compatible Autocad user Interface. In this case the commands follow the form: verb and object :

Example: To change color set the current color and then execute: Change Color - click on the element Changing a fill or rotating an element etc. are done in the same way.

Example: Select an object (the subject) and after execute any command (the verb) like change color, fill, rotate, scale etc.

When I insert a door or window in a wall, it creates a sized opening. this opening can be made transparent or coloured (in 3D view). To have a window or door frame, you need to create separate slab elements- as you have described to me previously. The door element is in essence a coloured vertical plan of minimum thickness. So does this mean that the insertion of a door or window is this in effect the same as the "punching hole in slab" function (and visa versa)? The window and door tools build a window/door without the frame, practically they make holes in the walls and, in this sense, they are similar to the "punching hole in slab" function. The main difference is that they are base elements and it's easier to handle a window then a hole in a slab. You can move, resize, deform, duplicate, copy-and paste etc. windows and doors while the only operation that you can do with a hole in a slab is changing vertixes. The vertical plane inside the windows is useful to give a first idea of the house. The commands Apply Object and Add Frame allow you to automatically add a window frame to the selected window openings. There are many ways to build doors and windows. Some months ago I showed you as draw a 3D window with slabs. This time I want to show you as to built simple frames with walls and windows. Follow the steps below. Let suppose we need a 170 x 170 cm window frame. - Draw a wall with l = 170 cm and h = 170 cm - Set a window with Sill = 10 and Height = 150 - Trace two windows in the wall   Select and group all in an object. You have the window frame.

When lengthening a Wall , the program calculates from the center of the wall, even if the start point indicated was the end of the wall. A wall is registered by its axis and this is what the program takes into account, during modifications. If you want to maintain the original direction, choose the option Only Axial Deformation, or press the Shift k

How to make a grid for the concrete structure in basement, with all the columns? I have looked and read all but I could not find the key. You can use "walls" for basement, columns and beams. The wall tool is a general tool and the Slab/Floor tool is more general of what the word means. You can create a basement using a slab-floor tool. I'm not sure if it is what you are speaking about, but attached there is a little example of what I mean. The result is

How do you put a window into a gable wall? I have split the wall into two, coinciding with the apex of the gable in order to create the varying wall heights. But I now am unable to create a window across the center of the gable, bridging between the two walls. Is there a better way to do this? The window must go into a wall, so I suggest the following: - Divide the gable wall in three parts - Put the Window into the middle wall - Create two more walls on top of the middle wall. It's better to build the upper walls separately, group them in a object and put the object on top of the central wall - you can't start or end walls in the middle of a window or door. The frontal view is as follows:

Is there any way of manually inputting the X & Y-coordinates to determine the length of the walls? Is there a box anywhere that the length can be typed into? If you want to draw a wall inserting the length, you can use the polar or relative input. Follow the steps below: - Click with the mouse where you want to start the wall. In Domus.Cad the polar and relative coordinates refer always to the last click made. - Click inside the relative coordinates box - In the relative coordinates dialog window, input the length in the dx or dy field and click Continue. You can continue to insert other elements, each element starts from the previous point. Command-W shows the current insert point - Continue allows you to continue inserting elements without exiting. - Draw inserts an element and exits. - Move moves the insertion point without drawing. If you are using a unit of measure different than fractional inches, you can use the algebraic input. In Domus.Cad you can use any algebraic formula in any numerical field with + - * / () operators. Unfortunately this doesn't work with fractional inches (decimal feet are OK). If you want to use polar coordinates the method is similar. If you want to change the length of a selected element, follow the steps below: - Select the element - Click in one of the coordinates boxes. The editing dialog appears. You can change the length, the angle and move the element. #22 Does the package allow the insertion of windows and doors accurately using coordinates, as for walls? Yes, there are several methods to accurately insert or modify an opening, window or door, in a wall. Double click on the Windows/Doors icon and look at the Windows or Doors parameters dialog window: You can choose several tracing modes. Example:  I want to insert a door of 150 cm starting 60 cm from the corner of the room. In this case I choose the (b+c) Fixed Width+Dist. option and set the fixed distance = 60 cm and the Fixed length = 150 and press OK. Click inside a wall - the program finds the closest corner or end of the wall and places the opening correctly. (Move the mouse around to find the internal part of the wall, marked with a bullet.) In the same way you can modify the position and length of one or more selected windows/doors. Or, you can insert openings using the polar absolute and relative coordinates of the coordinates palette. The absolute coordinates are referenced to a global or local origin that you can place in any point, so it is a good idea to place elements with progressive distances.

When applying a library Window to an opening, why does the program turn the object 90 degrees ? The library Window must be saved horizontal, with the internal part facing up and the external, down. In this way Domus.Cad applies the object correctly, no matter which way the opening is orientated. Simply open your Window on a free layer, turn it and save the layer as Object.

How can I make a parapet wall for the circular ramp of a car park? You can follow 2 methods. 1 - Use the Superrot command. Draw the section of the wall as a polygon at the right distance from the Y-axis, select it and choose the command Superrot. Insert the parameters, including the difference in height between the start and end of the ramp. 2 - Use the angular offset in the Offset parameters. Draw a little wall with the right starting height at both ends. In the offset parameters, input an angular offset and Z offset. Duplicate the wall several times to complete the parapet wall.

How can I insert an arched portico into the facade of my building? And how do I do a barrel-vaulted ceiling? For the portico, the simplest way is to insert arched 'Doors' into the facade. Here's how to do the barrel-vault: - draw an Arch, the section of the barrel-vault - select the Arch - choose Process ->Automatic Generation-> Extrude Slabs on Polygon, or double-click on the equivalent icon in palette no.3 - insert length of vault and confirm - the vault will appear in plan; position it using the mouse then press Return or Space bar.

 Can you please suggest a way of drawing such that you can have a door and then a window above it in a wall ?. When I try, it won't allow the insertion of an upper window once a door ( or window ) has been inserted in that wall. Why is it that sometimes I can't select anything - in a wall, or slab, no matter where I click on it? My first suggestion is to use two walls on top of the other. To do this, change the height of the original wall so that it's just high enough to allow the door to fit. Then add another wall in exactly the same plan location but with a base height that matches the top of the original wall. Then you should be able to add windows to this. My second suggestion is similar, but with different handling of the second wall. That is, shorten the original wall as above, but before adding the second wall, make a new layer, say clerestorey layer, and give it a base elevation that matches the top of the original wall. Now when you add the second wall it is on its own layer which should make it easier to select whichever part of the wall you want to work on. Regarding the second part of your message, about selecting objects - is it because of which tool you have active at the time? For example, if the wall tool is active you can't select anything else than a wall. Also with walls, I think you need to click on the axis, rather than the edges, so try having the option "show wall axes" active. The selection points for the various elements are as follows: Walls, windows and doors: on the axis Polygons, roofs and floors: on the edges Texts: on the base line Pictures: inside the picture rectangles Objects: on the axis, edges or base line of one of the elements of the object

In terms of working with layers and assigning different elements to a layer - ie separate layer for walls, beams, roof slabs, ceilings (assuming a single level building) What do you suggest you set at the reference height for each layer I've been primarily working with walls at level (0000) wall height is say 2900 I set roof ref height at (2900), I've just been working on another project , where I was doing that, but roof's where at different heights, so I made the roof reference height ground level (0000) then made all the roof elements what they need to be (ie pitching off top of wall). Which way do you recommend. You might be taking the separation a bit to far and then it becomes counterproductive trying to manage everything flipping between layers. Separate layers are used primarily for two reasons: 1) to control what you want visible on a layer 2) to separate conceptually different parts of the design (plans, furniture, utilities) We usually separate the roof structure from the floor plan because they're two conceptually different entities, but it depends on what you have to do. If you need to generate garret walls, you need to have the walls and roof on the same layer. So there's really no "best" way. It sounds like you've solved the problem well, doing what worked best for that particular situation. The layer reference heights can all be the same...then you don't have to worry about that anymore and it's just a matter of setting the individual element reference heights.

How to export a 2D drawing To export a 2D drawing there are 2 methods. The first is the Layers->Export Active Layer -> in DXF/DWG Format. This command exports the current active layer only. The second is the File->Export->Page in DXF/DWG format. This command exports the content of the current drawing table. Before using this command you have to create a drawing table with the View->Paging procedure. It isn't possible to export all the Domus.Cad project, because the internal organization of Domus.Cad is different from AutoCad. In Domus.Cad you have a project with several different things on the same file. Several drawing tables can correspond to this project.

When I import from AutoCad, why can't I see each layer? And when I export to AutoCad, why can't I see the entire project? DomusCad offers a choice of import/export modes, depending on what you want to do. Either : - Layers -> Import DWG-DXF to Active Layer or  - File -> Import -> Import DWG-DXF document (Archive ->Import, for Mac users) The first mode is used for importing, say, a cadastal drawing, to an existing project, for which you have already set up parameters such as layers, colors, etc. The second mode is used when you import an entire project, maintaining its original layers, names, colors, etc., as well as layout and impagination ready for printing. Remember that Domus.Cad organizes projects, not single drawings like AutoCad. The project is 3D and so the layers are one on top of the other.  To export the whole project, use Export ->impaginate DWG-DXF. For more details see Release Notes of version 14.

Sometimes a drawing imported from AutoCad is either very small or very big, or the text is larger than the drawing. Why? Check the units of measurement. DWG and DXF files have no unit of measurement - AutoCad doesn't take this into consideration until time of printing. For example, if an AutoCad drawing in meters is imported in centimeters, the drawing is 100 times smaller and the texts, which cannot be reduced by 100, appear enormous with respect to the drawing. Vice versa, if the original file was in centimeters and it is imported in meters, it will be 100 times bigger. In either case, simply cancel the operation and re-import, changing the unit of measurement.

I would like to know how to import a TIF file into a Domus.Cad document so I can use a survey as a base plan for a drawing. The Macintosh version, thanks to QuickTime, supports more formats than Windows. It takes all formats supported by QuickTime (GIF, JPG, TIF, TGA, Photoshop, BTM, WMF and many others). So Mac users can go to Layers -> Import -> Image on active layer. The Windows version doesn't import TIF format - only DMP, DIB, GIF, JPG, BTM and WMF. So you must convert your TIF to one of those formats before importing to Domus.Cad.

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.

After saving a design ready for printing, how can I re-use a .lay document? You can re-open it with the Open button on the page layout window

Why do I see a blank screen instead of my drawing?! Below are some normal situations where you can see a blank page instead of your drawing: - The layers are disabled in the Layers dialog box - The screen scale is very large (look at the scale in the Window title) - The drawing is outside of the screen (double click on the House icon on the left-bottom corner of the window or execute the Autoscale command to make the drawing content fit the window box)

Is Domus.Cad cross-compatible between Windows and Mac? That is, can I save a file on my Windows laptop and then open that same file on my Mac? Yes, with File -> Export -> Drawing in Macintosh format command.

We have been using AutoCad for 2D and Arcon for 3D, but it would obviously be preferable to have only one program. How does DomusCad differ from other programs, say, Archicad or ArchiDesktop? DomusCad is based on totally different concepts from Architectural Desktop. A DomusCad user tends to think in terms of his 'project', because he uses one software to produce one plan, from which he can then develop a 2D drawing, a 3D model, facades, sections, etc. There are more similarities with ArchiCad ad other BIM programs, which, like DomusCad, is part of the Architectural Parametric 3D CAD group. Some differences are highlighted in the first part of our Getting Started manual but there is one fundamental one between DomusCad and other parametric software: we don't believe in 'parametrising to excess'. We don't believe that every single construction element - every wall or window - should be conceived by inserting parameters. In Europe, much designing is done on old buildings, which have infinite varieties of form, dimension and building type. Translating such a wide variety of data ito a large number of parameters in a dialog window - and having to modify them - would be impractical. Our view is that parameters should control 90% of the situation, leaving the designer to free to do as he wishes for the remaining 10%, so within the same drawing there would be fairly automatic parts, integrated with manual ones.