United States
Joined: Jul 24, 2022
Post Count: 1
Status:
Offline
Create room from walls
Someone please help me. I love this program, but I am still learning. I have spent hours playing with this problem and searching help and forums, to no avail.
I have often created "rooms" (usually outdoor areas) by first drawing walls with varying shapes and then double clicking inside to create the room.
With odd shapes I often find that there are gaps in the walls that must be connected before the room can be created. I often spend a lot of time searching for these breaks in the walls.
Is there any easy way to identify where the breaks are? I have tried selecting all walls and using the Join Walls function or the Connect Walls plug-in. That does not seem to work--the Join walls menu item is grayed out. Connect walls often results in unusual connections.
I have usually resorted to selecting two walls at a time and trying th Join Walls. Again, often grayed out indicating that the walls are already joined (sometimes when I see that they are not!)
I have now created an area that I have looked at from every point possible and find that there are no gaps, yet when I double click inside the area nothing happens at all. If I double click on the walls it creates a "room" the size of the walls themselves. I have installed the Autodimensioning tool and used it to add "built areas with outlines" (no walls selected) and it also shows a "room" in the walls themselves, but missing three of the walls. I double check these walls and the program indicates that they are all joined.
Netherlands
Joined: Apr 8, 2022
Post Count: 1220
Status:
Offline
Re: Create room from walls
The "Join walls" in the context menu doesn't appear when the two selected walls can't be connected. To solve this you will have to zoom in on each break and align the wall ends until you can join them. Walls that are not joined can be recognized because they show a break when neither is selected (a thin black line). To enable the room creation every break between walls must be fixed so an enclosed area results. This is often a problem with curved walls because it's difficult to align ends. What I usually do is just make one of the walls a little longer so it covers the start of the next wall. That is enough for the room double-click to work. They walls don't have to be joined but they must close the area.
---------------------------------------- Dodecagon.nl 950+ 3D models, manuals, and projects
Netherlands
Joined: Sep 26, 2009
Post Count: 3989
Status:
Offline
Re: Create room from walls
This problem arises when you are drawing your walls using the mouse, and don't make sure walls connect properly when double-clicking for the last point. SH3D clearly shows whether or not walls will connect properly, so the problem is avoidable.
When drawing perpendicular walls SH3D shows "crosshair" lines to align your walls with the side or center of your walls. Look closely and you will see them.
Personally I always draw my walls with a mouse, and then double-click the walls to enter exact X,Y coordinates. This way I never have gaps, and my walls always have the exact desired length.
Netherlands
Joined: Apr 8, 2022
Post Count: 1220
Status:
Offline
Re: Create room from walls
Hans is correct with the mouse handling but from what I understand from your post you are just using the walls to create a room for outdoor areas. "Odd shapes" I presume to be with very low curved walls which afterwards are either removed or remain as a thin low border. A weird fact is that when you curve parts of a wall they sometimes 'break' in the sense that they no longer enclose the area you want to fill with a room. I've done this numerous times when creating curved walking paths through a very large outside area with 0,1 thick walls. Since the walls aren't really used as walls but merely as a border you can cheat and overlap the wall ends to ensure the area is closed.
A trick to find connections that are broken: draw a box of walls around a connection point and double-click for a room inside. If the whole square fills the connection is broken, if the connection is solid only one side will fill. Move the square to the next connection and repeat.
---------------------------------------- Dodecagon.nl 950+ 3D models, manuals, and projects
Croatia
Joined: Jan 14, 2025
Post Count: 24
Status:
Offline
Re: Create room from walls
Uh, wouldn't it be easier to draw in some vector program "room" in any shape and then extrude the whole shape in some 3D software into a 3D model and import it into SH3D. Parts that must have different textures can be separated immediately in advance.
