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Usage

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Ian Karanja edited this page Dec 16, 2020 · 13 revisions

Tips and Suggestions

Building Tools is designed to augment a user's workflow by reducing monotonous tasks. This means that users are encouraged to pursue their own creative freedom when using the tools. Few constraints have been placed on how and when to use the tools. It is completely possible to use only the window tool in a project if that is the part of your workflow you need help with. Some other tips include:-

  • You can make your own floorplans. Just make sure they are flat and filled with faces.
  • You can perform normal editing operations like extruding and beveling when using the tools.
  • You are free to pick and use the tool(s) you need and not worry about all the rest.

Layout

Building tools provides a set of tools that allow users to progressively add details to building models. The tools are arranged from top to bottom with the bottom-most tools adding higher amounts of detail and also being more destructive.

The tools layout as of version 1.0.5 is:

Tool Layout

Context

Notice how some tools are greyed out from the image above. This is usually an indicator that the current blender context is incorrect. Tools work in either Object Mode or Edit Mode with most tools working in Edit Mode. In particular, only the Create Floorplan tool works in Object Mode as of version 1.0.5.

After switching to Edit Mode, we can see that the other tools are now active.

Tools that work in Edit Mode also usually require some type of selection context. For example, the window tool requires a selection of one or more faces on which to build the windows. Details on the appropriate selection context for each tool will be provided in the corresponding tool wiki.

Properties

All tools have been designed to integrate nicely within Blender. They behave in a similar fashion to other internal tools you may find in Blender. This means for instance that when using tools, you should expect to access properties for the active tool at the bottom left panel.

Properties have descriptive names and if in doubt, hovering over a property provides a lengthier description of what it does.

Some properties are used across multiple tools for general operations such as positioning, sizing, arraying etc. You can expect to find the Size and Offset properties on a majority of the tools.

For more details consult the tool wikis below:

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