What Is Meant by "Origin" When Creating a Floor Plan?
Hi all,
I am hoping to use SH3D to plan out some pretty basic rearrangements and redecorations of my apartment, and maybe help family out with the same.
Unfortunately, where we live does not require blueprints to be kept on file with the government for more than ten years, and all of our homes/apartments are more than ten years old. This means I'm having to get a bit creative.
In the case of my apartment, I have a very small (640x480) image of the floor plan from the complex's website that I am trying to use as a layout, as discussed in the tutorial here: https://www.sweethome3d.com/userGuide.jsp
However, I do not understand what is meant by "define the origin." In my head, the "origin" should be approximately the center of the apartment, but it looks like other folks are using the top left corner of their living space.
What exactly is the "origin," and does it really matter?
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Re: What Is Meant by "Origin" When Creating a Floor Plan?
Like you already determined, it's a matter of interpretation. I assume you want to use your image to set as a background image to make it easier to draw your walls. The origin you set when adding the background image is the top-left corner of the image. That said, it's not really easy and certainly not very accurate when you draw walls according to the background image. Use it as a guideline but don't use the background image as the exact measurements of your apartment. You are better of by measuring your walls and use those numbers to first create the outside walls and then fill in the interior walls. When you have the outside walls (4 in a rectangle?) you can select them and move them so the center of your apartment is at 0,0. You are probably faster and certainly more accurate if you do it this way. I rarely use a background image but when I do I often place it away from the work area around 0,0 so I can use the image for reference, not to place the walls. When you place walls remember that the coordinates used for walls are in the center of the ends. If you are using the inside room measurements you will have to take the wall thickness into account and move them accordingly.
Re: What Is Meant by "Origin" When Creating a Floor Plan?
Thank you, that's hugely helpful. I'm actually struggling to get the exterior dimensions because I have furniture or appliances in every corner of every room and I'm doing everything one-handed with one small tape measure.
I have the INTERIOR dimensions of the walls, doors, etc, and figured I could just estimate the exteriors, but presumably due to human error everything is ending up just slightly off (ie, "well, I know this wall is 83cm, but it doesn't line up with this other wall unless I say it's 80.25cm") when I do it this way.
This is the layout of the apartment:
Mine is mirrored, so I have an image of just the floor plan (rather than that 3D Rendering) flipped horizontally. I assume, then, that I would put the "origin" in the corner of the "living room" area?
I guess I will need an extra set of hands to help me get an accurate measurement of the exterior walls and then fill everything in from there, based on the guide you linked - is that better than doing it my way, of taking all the "interior" measurements and then extrapolating the exterior dimensions, or does it not really matter?
Netherlands
Joined: Apr 8, 2022
Post Count: 1497
Status:
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Re: What Is Meant by "Origin" When Creating a Floor Plan?
I have the INTERIOR dimensions of the walls, doors, etc, and figured I could just estimate the exteriors, but presumably due to human error everything is ending up just slightly off (ie, "well, I know this wall is 83cm, but it doesn't line up with this other wall unless I say it's 80.25cm") when I do it this way.
The misalignment is probably because you have the wrong wall thickness. And there are probably different wall thicknesses between the different walls. That will take some calculating. For interior decorating it is only important that each room matches the inside dimensions. Then you can change wall thicknesses if rooms don't align since changing the wall thickness decreases the inside and you have to move a wall on one side to get back to the correct inside measurement. Try to figure out what the wall thickness is of the interior non-load baring walls. These are usually all the same. Probably something like 10-15cm depending if it's poured concrete or stones with plaster. Don't be surprised if some things still don't line up, a house is never perfectly aligned. Sometimes there are differences of cm's instead of mm's between wall lengths on opposite sides of a room. Perhaps you already found some when taking the measurements.
I guess I will need an extra set of hands to help me get an accurate measurement of the exterior walls and then fill everything in from there, based on the guide you linked - is that better than doing it my way, of taking all the "interior" measurements and then extrapolating the exterior dimensions, or does it not really matter?
The exterior measurements are of little use, you are going to redecorate the interior so the important thing is to get the interior dimensions correct. Maybe just part of the exterior where the balcony is.
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