Room Arranger, version 10
This program is intended for designing room interiors. It allows you to place furniture, items and other objects. You can additionally move and rotate objects, change their colors and dimensions. But you can also plan your entire flat, house or a new garden.
This file serves as a help for the program and we recommend you to print it and eventually read it. Pressing F1 anywhere in the program will show this help focused on the appropriate chapter.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
- Guide
- Dialog windows overview
INSTALL AND UNINSTALL
The program is distributed with an installation program. Select the directory to install in. You can launch the program from the Start menu. If you already have an older version, you don't need not uninstall it (keeps registration) and the new version should be installed in the same directory.
In order to uninstall the program you must select the corresponding item in Start-Settings-Control panel-Add/Remove Programs.
GETTING STARTED, CREATING THE ROOM 
At first, you should look at the example. Open it
using the menu command Project
At the beginning, you should define the dimensions and the shape of the room.
By default, the New Project Wizard pop-ups.
If you are new to Room Arranger, start designing only one room. In the next
step you will select the shape of the room and write the lengths of main walls.
You can additionally change everything in the window Project
All numbers in the program are in centimeters, but you can change it and, when planning airfield or the layout of new houses, the units can be metric or imperial. If you would like to change the unit and you have already started to design your room, you can convert the entire room including all objects in it to a different unit. You may also change the calibration of one pixel in 100% zoom (e.g. for inches it should be set to 2 and for centimetres to 1).
Whenever you see this button, you can open (press C key) a calculator for basic calculations.
It can be also used to convert numbers in yards-feet-inches system.
See Project Properties window.
Walls
If you don't have a rectangular room or if you want to draw the plan of
the entire floor, click the Edit walls button in the dialog window
mentioned above. Next window will appear in which you can adjust current walls
or add new. Choose the wall in the listing (new wall as a last blank record),
fill in the coordinates and press Save to confirm changes for every wall.
Alignment of the wall stands for the position of the wall in respect to the
coordinates - it can be above them, going through them or bellow them.
See Room Walls window.
Measurement 
The project dimensions are displayed on the status bar. You can find
there also the mouse position relative to the upper left corner
of the project and used zoom factor (see menu View).
You can measure the distances in the project using the mouse after pressing
button on the toolbar or hitting M key. Holding Shift during Measurement
measures line with rotation in 45 degrees multiples. If you don't wish to
create the measurement line object after the end of the measuring, fix the second point
of the line with the right mouse button.
Windows and doors are the first objects to be added to the room. You should place them very precisely.
ADDING OBJECTS 
Objects are added to the project by dragging the object from the library window to the main window.
Try to find required object in the object libraries. If there is an object only with different size,
you can change it afterwards. Otherwise you should choose from the Basic objects.
See Library window.
If you place the mouse cursor over the object in the project and wait a moment, a brief info about it will appear. And using a right-click, you can select one of the following commands from the pop-up menu:
- Properties - edit the object properties
- Follow the Link - show associated file or webpage
- Duplicate Object - create a copy of the object
- Remove Object - delete the object
- Objects with Same Color - selects all objects with the same fill color as the color of selected object
- Lock / Unlock - prevent object from moving
- Group / Ungroup - create complex object from the selection (see next chapter)
- Place to Layer - move object to the different layer (see chapter about layers)
- Bring to Front ...
- Send to Back - these functions are good for placing the objects on the top of another object (for example put TV on the cupboard, push a chest under the table,...). In that case, you must sort them with these two commands. These commands do not affect z-position.
- Rotate 90 Degrees Right ...
- Rotate 90 Degrees Left ...
- Rotate 180 Degrees - quickly change the rotation
Tips: You can create a "Mirror Effect" by creating two grey objects that overlap by one pixel on the same surface (e.g. Overlap two similar rectangles and move one of them 1 pixel). This creates an interference pattern in the 3D view which gives the effect of a mirror.
See Also Object Properties and Label Properties windows.
Menu command Objects
See Object Listing window.
OBJECT SELECTION, CREATING NEW COMPLEX OBJECTS 
If you click on the object, it becomes selected and small rectangle corners
are drawn around it.
Then you can use keyboard shortcuts to
manipulate with the object. Pressing one of the arrow keys will move the
object one unit in the given direction, holding Ctrl moves the object 1 pixel
at a time, holding Shift increases 5x the speed of the movement. This can
be useful for precise object placement.
Delete key is for removing the selected object, Alt+Enter shows its properties, Ctrl+R and Ctrl+L rotates the object. You can select other objects with Page Up and Page Down keys. You can also copy object to the clipboard Ctrl+C and then pasting it to another (or the same) project Ctrl+V. If you want to deselect the object, you can click anywhere on the free space in the project or press Esc or Ctrl+D.
In order to select more than one object you have two possibilities. To add or remove single object to/from the selection just click on it using left mouse button while holding Shift. To select objects in a region, you can draw a rectangle around them. To select all objects in the project except for doors and windows, press Ctrl+A.
Then you can change properties to all of these objects together. Furthermore
you can align all selected with commands in menu
Objects
Groups
If you select more than one object, you can create your own complex object out of them using the command in the pop-up menu. This group of objects now behaves like one object and, for example, the rotation works differently from multi-selection. You can save the object to your user library, give your new object with friends or place it on your (or Room Arranger's) web page. However, there is a limitation. You cannot set width and length separately (object keeps its aspect ratio).
Last performed change of position or properties of objects and the project
can be undone by the command Edit
POLYGONS
Aside from predefined shapes and creating new objects via grouping, you can create your own polygonal shapes, which can be useful for modeling working surfaces. To start new polygon, drag it from Library window to the project. The polygon editor starts automatically.
During the initial drawing,
- Click to add new control point
- Click right mouse button to remove the last control point
- Double click to add the last point and finish the polygon
For editing the existing polygon, there are different possibilities:
- Drag the control point to change the shape of the polygon
- Click and drag on the polygon edge to add new control point there
- Right click on the control point to remove the point from the polygon
- Right click on the edge to select between straight or curved segment
- Flip or mirror the polygon using the toolbar buttons
EDITING FROM SIDE 
The default top view is good for basic design of the rooms. But sometimes you need to create precise 3D model of the kitchen or you are just creating new complex object with a lot of objects above another objects. Editing from side shows you the placement of objects along the z axis.
Start by selecting the objects you want to edit from the side, then press the toolbar button and select the view direction. Only objects with rotation 0, 90, 180 or 270 degrees can be edited this way. And you can only move, resize or delete objects in this editing mode, you cannot add new for example.
LAYERS
If you have large amount of objects in the project and some of them are placed on the top of others, you can split them to two (or more) layers. For example, if you have small cabinets under the long table and you want to see them and arrange them, the best thing is to have those cabinets in the separate layer and move this layer under the layer with the table. Another example is to dedicate one layer to the energy or water distribution. The last tricky example: the lowest layer contains carpeting, etc. - basic rectangles one unit high. You can hide it in order to see the grid.
At first, you will have to show layers window (View
Layer order also affects the z-order (not z-position) of the objects in the project. All object from the higher layer are drawn on the top of the objects from the lower layers (change this order using buttons on the Layers window). To see the objects from the lower layer, you can hide higher layers unchecking the checkbox.
Removing the layer will also remove all objects placed in it. It is better to merge layers. If you want to remove only one layer out of three, hide the third one and Merge visible layers. All layer operations are undoable.
USER LIBRARY
There are many objects in the main library, but you would like to add your own objects and remember their definition for later use. The User library is here just for this purpose. You can find it as a first library page when adding new object and you've certainly spotted it on the right side of the Object properties window, which serves for creating of the user library as well.
If you select some predefined object on the right side and press Load button, its properties will be transferred into the object from the project that you are currently modifying.
Similarly, pressing Save button will add (or update) the object to the library. Object is saved with some name, so try to input something reasonable, accurate and general at the same time.
The User library is stored in the file named UserLib.ral in the program directory.
You should not edit it manually. It is much better to use menu command
Objects
- add new objects: fill in something on the left side and insert it using Save button to the library. You can transcribe some real paper catalogue this way.
- edit existing: select the object on the right side, press Load, edit it on the left and press Save.
- delete or rename existing: right-click on the object and select appropriate option.
If you have too many objects in your User library, you can divide it into pages. To add, remove or rename pages in User library, use small buttons in upper left corner of the window (+, -, ab). Then you can select any number of objects and transfer them into the new page (right-click).
Import button can be used to install new objects from files on the disk (downloaded from the web, from your friend, ...) and Export button is for creating such files.
See Object Properties and Additional Object Libraries windows.
ADDING LABELS
There is a special object, which can be added to the drawing. It's Label. You can create new label similarly to any other object either from menu or using right mouse button. Unlike object captions, label can stay anywhere in the project. It can also carry more lines of text and, especially, you can select its font, which size is changed according to the zoom level in the project.
See Label Properties window.
SAVING INTO FILE, PRINTING AND EXPORT 
It is strongly recommended to save your drawing into the file from time to time. There are several commands in the Project menu for this purpose. You can open the files also using a double click in Explorer or any other file manager, or dragging the file into the program window.
You can also print your work (Project
See Print window.
Furthermore, you can save the result as an image (Export submenu, don't hesitate to use PNG format, everyone can open it and the image very small) or copy it into the clipboard and subsequently insert it into a text editor (like MS Word), add some comments and then print it. As a default, 100% zoom is always used for printing and export (the most accurate drawing). You can change it in Options.
You can also save and publish your project on the web. The program will
help you generate the web page with the floor plan and the 3D scene.
See Export to Webpage window.
EXPLORE IN 3D 
In order to make any use of 3D view, you should set height and z-position for all objects in their properties. 3D exploration itself is made in a special window. Room Arranger generates several sights (viewpoints) of the project for you. You can go through all of them using keys F4 and F3. The first viewpoint is the start position you choose in the program.
- walking, the basic movement.
Press and hold left mouse button, and drag the mouse forward, to sides or towards you.
Dragging the mouse to sides while right button pressed makes steps to the side,
and mouse wheel rotates the viewing angle up / down. You can also use cursor keys
on your computer keyboard.
- flying. Same controls as in walking,
you can additionally fly upwards or downwards by dragging the mouse forward / backward
while pressing right mouse button.
- examine. Rotate the scene using left button,
move it by right button, zoom in and out with mouse wheel.
- list of viewpoints defined in
Explore in 3D - Setup window. You can also find Add viewpoint
here, that serves you for saving the current view into the list.
- saves the current view into the image file.
- saves the entire virtual tour as a movie into AVI.
You can choose whether to pause movie in viewpoints in the setup.
- lets you interactively toggle the
visibility of floors and layers. Also contains the section to configure sun shadow and screen effects.
- when you make changes in the 2D editor,
click this button to bring the changes into 3D.
- options and rendering quality settings,
and access to windows that can reveil the information helpful when fixing problems.
In case the built-in 3D viewer does not fulfill your needs, you may install any VRML viewer and use instead of our own. Most of VRML viewers is offered for free. 3D navigation may be faster in them, but you may miss some features. You can select it as VRML plugin choice in Room Arranger Explore in 3D - Setup window. We recommend following VRML viewers:
Cortona: www.parallelgraphics.com
BS Contact VRML: www.bitmanagement.de
MULTI-FLOOR PROJECTS
When your task is to design a house or any other multi-floor project, the most direct way how to do it in Room Arranger is to have more floors in one project. Such project can be made by:
- Merging two or more existing projects (check Create new floor there)
- Adding new floor in menu Project
-> Add New Floor or later in menu Floor-> Add New Floor. The program then asks you if you want to copy the same wall setup as in the current floor or not.
You will possibly need to create openings in the upper floors, for stairs enabling people to walk from the lower floors. You can add floor openings in the Wall editor, either rectangular or elliptical (circular). The special care should be taken in Explore 3D setup. It is useful to design a set of viewpoints on each floor, to create a virtual walk-through the whole house and make the navigation much easier for the final presentation.
NEW PROJECT WIZARD
Menu: Project
To use New Project Wizard for creation of new projects, you need to check "Start new projects with wizard" in Options.
- One room
- If you want to design only one room, select this option.
- Apartment
- To design more complicated project, select this option.
- Unit name
- Unit. Wizard will adjust some project properties to fit the unit size (i.e. grid size, zoom 100%)
- Next
- If you've selected One room, the wizard continues with the window described in the next section. Selecting Apartment will enable you to enter total project dimensions along x and y-axis and opens the wall editor.
- Shape
- Select one of the predefined shapes of the room. If your room does not match any of them, try to select the closest one and then add other walls in the wall editor.
- A, B, C, D, E, F
- Dimensions needed to define the size of the room - lengths of the walls.
- Name
- You can enter the name of this room; it is used only in the room editor.
- Floor color
- Color of the floor.
- Wall color (3D)
- Color of walls used in 3D view.
PROJECT PROPERTIES
Menu: Project
- Width, Height
- Project dimensions. Width is the dimension along the x axis, height along the y axis. If the project contains only one room, change these values.
- Unit name
- Unit. Important when adding objects from the library.
- Space around the project
- Free space around the project, including space occupied by walls. Small button next to Top space will copy the Top value to all other values.
- Edit Walls
- Shows the window for advanced wall adjustment - if your room is not rectangular or you have more rooms in the project.
- Wall thickness
- Default wall thickness. All walls in the project has this thickness, but you can change them separately in Edit Walls.
- Wall height (3D)
- Height of the walls in 3D. If you want to select different heights for each wall, you need to go to wall editor.
- Rooms
- Shows the window for setting floor and wall colors - use when you have more rooms in the project, or you want to select different colors for walls.
- Floor color
- Floor color of all rooms. Go to Rooms window if you want to select different floor colors for each room.
- Wall color (3D)
- Color of all interior walls in 3D. Go to Rooms window if you want to select different colors for each wall.
- Exterior wall color
- Color of all exterior walls, used only in 3D.
- Decimal numbers for object positions
- If unchecked, object position can be only the whole number. For example, if you move with the object in zooms other then 100%, new position will be probably decimal number. You will need to check this option if you use foot as a unit. [default: off]
- Grid
- Properties of the grid that can be displayed under the project, it helps you to conceive of distances.
- Zoom 100%
- Decimal number. One unit will be N pixels long at 100% zoom; i.e. when you set this number to 3, zoom factor 300% will be now 100%.
- Caption font
- Font used for object captions. You can also select the font for priting.
- Ground color
- Base world surface color in 3D. The default is green grass.
- Sky color
- Base sky color in 3D. The default is blue.
ROOM WALLS
Menu: Project
The Wall Editor enables you to modify existing walls or add new ones.
Right click on controls points, walls and floor openings to modify their properties.
- Accept Changes and Close (Ctrl+Enter)
- To save any changes to the walls.
- Reject Changes and Close (Esc)
- To revert to the previous saved version.
- Selection Tool (A)
-
- Drag control points or walls to modify walls.
- Right click on a wall to remove it, add a new control point (split wall)
or change the wall properties.
- Right click on a control point to remove it or change it's properties numerically.
- Drag control points or walls to modify walls.
- New Wall (W)
- Adds a single line new wall with the default properties.
The new wall will snap to existing walls.
- New Wall Polygon (E)
-
Enables you to add a series of control points with walls between them.
Click where you want the first control point and then click for the second and
subsequent points. Double click or right click to end the wall.
- New Floor Opening, New Eliptical Floor Opening
- Add a "hole in the floor" for stairs. A necessity in multi-floor projects.
- Transformations
-
Enables you to convert from metric to imperial measurements. See transformations
- Build on Image with Floor Plan
-
You can load the image (photo of the floor plan) into wall editor, and then draw walls over those in the image.
This can spare a lot of time needed for calculation of precise wall dimensions.
First you have to calibrate the image - tell the program the size of certain wall or line. This will set the proper size of the image in the program. The red dimension line will appear in the project that is used for calibration.
- Show Objects
- You can show or hide other objects you already have in the project. You cannot edit them, though.
ROOMS IN THE PROJECT
Please see Sample Apartment project for rooms definition.
Rooms are automatically determined from the walls. When you create a closed polygon out of walls, the new rooms is created inside of them. Wall thickness is not taken into account, only its start and end points, so connect the walls coordinates properly (Coordinate pickers are recommended). You don't have to split walls in every room corner, intersections are created automatically.
There is also some more information about the project displayed in this window. Namely, it is the Statistics group with the area values of selected room and the whole floor. Another info appears when you place the mouse cursor above a wall in bottom part. Statistics for all walls and rooms can be exported using the dedicated button in this window.
- Rooms
- Select the room from the list.
- Selected Room
- Properties of selected rooms. You can change its name, floor color and wall color for 3D view. See Object properties for details on floor textures.
- Name
- Name of the room.
- Floor color, Texture
- Color or texture of the floor in the selected room.
- Wall color (3D)
- Color of all walls in the selected room. You can choose the color for each wall separately by clicking in the image in the bottom part of this window.
- Statistics
- Information about the selected room, displayed in selected unit. Room dimensions, walls perimeter and floor area. Total useful area is equal to the total project area (built-up area) with the walls and floor opening subtracted.
- Insert areas to project
- Adds labels with room name and area to the project for every room.
- Export more statistics to clipboard
- All the info displayed as hints in bottom preview window can be exported using this button. The text is placed to clipboard and is suitable for inserting to Excel table.
- Preview
- The border of selected room has red color. You can also select the room by clicking on it in this image.
LIBRARY AND START PAGE
You can add the object to the project by dragging the object to the main window.
- Home (F2)
- Displays shortcuts to most common tasks and the list of all object libraries.
- Search (F3)
- Activates searching for the object within libraries.
- Library selection
- The library is divided into several pages; this is their listing. The first page is User library.
- 3D
- Switches between top views and 3D images of the objects.
OBJECT PROPERTIES
- Type
- Change the shape of the object. It is disabled for complex objects.
- Caption
- Text that appears on the object or the name of the object in the User library.
- Width, Length (Depth), Height
- Dimensions along x, y and z axis.
- Position x, y, z
- Position in the project. This point is marked in the preview as a red cross. If you want to use decimal numbers for object position, you have to enable it in program options.
- Rotation
- Rotation in degrees. You can adjust the rotation using the helper beside it and if you hold Shift key, the rotation will change in 45 degrees multiples.
- Colors
- Various colors. If you uncheck them, appropriate part of the object becomes invisible.
- Style
- Line style, dashed lines can be used for objects on the top of something else.
- Snap to wall
- Object must stay in/at the wall. This is valid for windows and door by now.
- Link
- File or webpage associated to this object. You can select a file with "..." button,
and go to the target using the right most button (or with command in the object
context menu). You can enter relative or absolute path.
Tip: if you select an image file for the Picture (Accessories library object), this image will replace default image in 3D view! However you have to distribute the image file together with the project (we recommend to use a relative path to image file). Note that Cosmo Player does not support JPEG images with EXIF. - ID
- Any identification of the object. Can be catalogue or registration number.
- Price
- Enables you to give a value to the object which will be included in the Object Listing
- User library
- See User library chapter for details.
- More...
- Advanced
-
Enables you to apply a texture to all surfaces of an object which
will be displayed in the 3D view.
The texture image is not tiled (repeated) and you will have to create a texture file the same dimension as the object in pixels if you want to maintain the original image format, otherwise it will be stretched to fit.
Tips: You have to distribute the image file together with the project (we recommend using a relative path to the image file). Note that Cosmo Player does not support JPEG images with EXIF.If you only want a texture image on one side of a flat surface object, create Picture object (or Picture on the floor/ceiling) from Room Arranger Accessories library and select the texture file for the Link property.
Another way is to create a 1cm deep rectangle object with the same dimensions (x,y,z) as the area you wish to cover and apply the texture to that. Position this new object against the surface to be covered (do not overlap or you will get an interference pattern in the 3D view)
3D rotation is available only for rectangles and ellipses now.
Emission If the object is too dark in the 3D view, you can increase its brightness here. [default: 0]
Transparency Transparency of the object in the 3D view. 0% means opaque object, 100% is completely transparent (invisible) object.
3D Shape Thumbnail Definition of the image with the 3D thumbnail of the object. It has sense only for objects in the user library. You need to select the PNG file with thumbnails (there can be more thumbnails in one image) and index inside it. Thumbnails must have size 56x56. If you leave the filename empty, standard library thumbnails file is used. For example, see webselection library, available on the program webpage.
VRML Prototype Manual way how to include 3D objects created in applications like Autocad, 3D Studio, ... The object must be stored in WRL file and must be enclosed in a PROTO node. The size of the 3D model is set below as Width x Lenght x Height in metres. See the program webpage for an example.
LABEL PROPERTIES
- Position
- Position in the project.
- Rotation
- Rotation in degrees. You can adjust the rotation using the helper beside it and if you hold Shift key, the rotation will change in 45 degrees multiples.
- Alignment
- Text alignment.
- Font
- Select label font.
- Colors
- Various colors. If you uncheck them, appropriate part of the object becomes invisible.
- Text
- Text, can have multiple lines.
OBJECT LISTING 
Menu: Objects
Displays the list of all objects in the project, but only from the visible layers. The default columns include the dimensions, location and price (if allocated) of each object. Check Group By Type to group similar objects in the list (this is not the same as grouping objects in the design).
Right click on an object to
- Change its properties including the price
or delete it
- Select objects with the same color
- Lock the object
- Group or Ungroup the object with other objects
- Copy the entire listing to the clipboard and paste it into a text editor or
spreadsheet using the Export Options.
- Add or remove columns from the list
See also: Layers, Object Properties
EXPLORE IN 3D - SETUP 
Menu: View
- List of Viewpoints
-
You can define a path in your project and then let others to go through your virtual apartment
on this predefined way. But if you don't want to, you don't have to bother with it
and have only the initial viewpoint (Start) defined.
- Use Plus toolbar button to add new viewpoint, or add them directly from 3D Viewer.
- Right-click to change viewpoint properties.
- Viewpoint order is adjusted in the list.
- Include top views
- Add also standard viewpoints from the top. [default: on]
- Walls transparency
- Select if you want to see the walls. [default: solid]
- Zoom
- Zoom level of the virtual world. 200% means that 1 cm in the project will be 2 cm in the virtual reality. [default: 100%]
- Look from height
- Distance between the floor and eyes. [default: 160 cm]
PRINT
Menu: Project
- Printer
- Name of the selected printer.
- Setup
- Select the printer, paper orientation, print quality...
- Print method
- Vector method creates drawings in highest possible quality. It allows you to print the project over more pages. Bitmapped method is here only if vector method fails.
- Print over more pages
- If you check this option, you will be able to print one project over more pages (e.g. 3 x 2 A4 papers) in certain scale.
- Maximize to single page
- The drawing will be as large as possible according to the paper size and the presence of additional texts.
- Scale
- Print project in certain scale, i.e. 1:50 means 1 cm on the paper is 50 cm in reality. The highest possible scale for printing on single page is shown next to it.
- Page border
- Free space on the paper. [default: 1.5 cm]
- Center horizontally, vertically
- Position of the output on the page(s).
- Print range
- Select which pages should be printed when printing over more pages. Pages are numbered in rows.
- Print in color
- Print in color or only in gray scale. [default: on]
- Insert crop marks
- Prints marks for easier cutting the page borders when printing over more pages.
- Title
- Check it if you want to print some big caption above the image.
- Draw scale
- Check it if you want to print scale under the image.
- Note 1, Note 2
- Check it if you want to print some additional information using smaller font under the image. The project dimensions are filled to the Note 1 if it is set in Options.
Tip 2: if you use inches, the bitmap image may have too low resolution when printing in 100% zoom. Uncheck the option Export in 100% zoom in program Options, zoom in and print.
See also: Saving Into File, Printing And Export, Options
Print does not work after 30 days when you are still unregistered.
EXPORT TO WEB PAGE
Menu: Project
- Title, Subtitle
- Texts at the top of the page.
- Include 2D image
- Check this if you want to have 2D image (floor plan) on the page.
- Width, Height
- Size of the image, keeps the aspect ratio of the project size (including space around it).
- Label
- The text under the 2D image.
- Include 3D scene
- Check this if you want to have 3D scene on the page. The viewpoints are defined in Explore in 3D setup.
- "No VRML plugin" warning
- As you know, 3D views are created using VRML technology and you need to have some VRML viewer installed on your computer. Something like this can be written on the exported page.
- Width, Height
- Size of the box with 3D scene.
- Label
- The text under the 3D box.
- Page Font and Color
- The font used for texts on the page. All colors are coded as hexadecimal RGB values.
- Output
- Select the target directory. The program will save there up to 4 files - the web page (index.html), the 2D image (Image2D.png), the 3D scene (Image3D.wrl) and the object library (library.wrl). If you want to publish the page anywhere, be sure to copy all those files. And if you will mention there that you used Room Arranger to create the page, it will be great!
- Reset to Defaults
- Fills default values to all controls.
See also: Saving Into File, Printing And Export, Explore in 3D, Explore in 3D - Setup
Export does not work after 30 days when you are still unregistered.
MERGE PROJECTS
Menu: Project
- Current Project - Shift
- Position of current project, drawn with black color in preview.
- Merge With - Browse
- Load the project (the file) you would like to add to current project.
- Merge With - Shift
- Position of loaded project, drawn with red color in preview.
- Create new floor
- Loaded project will be added as the new floor.
- 10 small buttons at the bottom
- These buttons will set the shift of
both current and loaded project as marked on them. The first 5 buttons set
x coordinate, while remaining 5 buttons work only with y coordinate.
Note: wall thickness is not taken into account in these actions. Please adjust relevant coordinates in order to overlap connecting walls.
TRANSFORMATIONS
Menu: Project
- Convert Units - From, To
- If you select both units (from/to) and press Do it button, the entire drawing will be converted to result unit. It means that not only the unit name will be changed (see Project Properties) but also all numbers (dimensions and positions of all objects and walls) will be multiplied by certain coefficient.
- Shift - x, y
- Given numbers will be added to positions of all objects and walls.
- Flip
- Flip will mirror the project vertically (up/down), Mirror horizontally (left/right).
- Scale
- Dimensions and positions of all objects and walls will be multiplied by given number.
- Rotation
- The entire project will be rotated including all objects in it.
The number has to be 90 degrees multiple.
Note: you will probably have to reposition the windows.
OPTIONS
Menu: Configure
- Default unit name
- Unit used for new projects. [default: cm]
- Start program with the last opened project
- If checked, the program will automatically open the most recent project you worked on. Else the blank room is created on startup. [default: on]
- Auto-size window to fit
- Change the main window size according to the size of the project and zoom factor. [default: on]
- Open files in best fit
- Start with the zoom in which the whole project can be shown. [default: on]
- Can move objects without selection
- If unchecked, first you have to click on the object in order to select it, then release the mouse button and then you can move it. [default: on]
- Show layer name in object quick info
- You can see the layer name in which the object belongs in the window that will appear if you fix the cursor on it. [default: on]
- Show caption for new objects from user library
- Set if new objects from user library should be created with the caption. [default: off]
- Start new projects with wizard
- Determines whether to show New Project Wizard or just Project Properties for new projects. [default: on]
- Use integrated calculator
- Calculator button automatically appears next to edit controls. [default: on]
- Antosave
- Use automatic project backuping and recovery in case of program crash. [default: on, 5 minutes]
- Check for new version
- Let Room Arranger to check the existence of new program versions. [default: on, 14 days]
- Export always in 100% zoom
- Use 100% zoom when Saving as an image and printing. This image can be very large and maybe won't fit in the computer memory. In that case uncheck this option. [default: on]
- Add text with project dimensions
- Draw text with project dimensions on the bottom left part on the image file or into the Note 1 when printing. [default: on]
- Default object colors
- Initial colors of the new object. And the default type of line ends for measurement line. Also the default caption font can be set here [default: Tahoma 8pt and Tahoma 12pt for printing]
ADDITIONAL OBJECT LIBRARIES
Menu: Configure
You can share your user libraries with other people in your company or you can give it to anybody else over the world. Export is one option, but you can also provide the complete library.
To create this library, just copy your current User library file UserLib.ral (usually in C:\Program files\Room Arranger\UserLib.ral) to the new file with RAL extension (for example C:\Lib\BJ's Objects.ral), which is to be distributed. This new file contains all objects and library pages in your user library.
If you received new library in form of RAL file, you have two options. You can either copy it to the Room Arranger install directory (for example C:\Program files\Room Arranger\BJ's Objects.ral). In this case it will be loaded automatically after new start of Room Arranger. Or, if you want to leave the library in other directory (shared with other people in you local network), you have to specify it in the Additional Object Libraries window.
To edit the library, you have to exit Room Arranger and rename the library file to UserLib.ral (and possibly backup the old one) and start Room Arranger again.
- +
- Adds new external object library file.
- -
- Removes selected file.
- Arrow buttons
- Change the order of the libraries.
IMPORT OBJECT LISTING
Menu: Project
This command can be used for quick creation of large set of objects to the project or user library. The idea is to prepare the table with dimensions, names and other information in the Excel, save it to TXT file and import it in Room Arranger.
- Source
- Source file, TXT or CSV, ideally with values separated by Tab.
- Separator
- Separator used in the source file. Tab is considered as a separator by default.
- Column Headings
- Check if the first line on the file contains column captions. This line has to be skipped before importing.
- Unit name
- Unit of the values stored in the source file.
- Assign attributes
- List box is filled with the values from the first line of the source file. You have to select the meaning for each value (column) using the combo-box control on the right. Select -ignore- to skip this column.
- Output to
- Select if you want to store imported objects to the current project or to User library.