"You have seen many things, but have paid no attention; your ears are open, but you hear nothing." " [Isaiah 42:20, NIV] [Don't take it personally!!]
I. | Stairs -
free-standing stair units are displayed with tools on the floor and deck tabs. These are fundamentally different from the deck steps, which are necessarily attached to a deck edge and are invoked by a deck option, not a tool. Stir units can be straight or curved. Invariably, curved units have steps that vary in width along the stairs width, so they fit the stairs basic curve with smoothly shaped segments. Straight stairs always have evenly shaped (rectangular steps, and change direction at landings. The difference in the two is which tool you use, straight or curved. A stair unit will build stairs until it exhausts either of two resources it uses - the drawn length of the stairs, or the specified height. The stairs are drawn using the given step rise and tread (actually, these are computed to be approximately the distances specified, but meanwhile keeping the number of steps an unrounded integer; no half-steps here!). The stair option include a skirt, which is not a wall, but rather a single sheet of color down each side. Since it is not a real wall it cannot accommodate doors, for instance. The skirt will take only color, not texture, unless the Punch! version is 10.0 or greater.. |
II. | Fences - Punch! gives a standard series of four fence styles, called privacy, picket, ranch and rail. I suppose it depends on where you come from, but the ranch and rail fences look like simple variations on the picket theme, so all four fence styles are simply variations on a single theme. Until you get to the Custom Fence Designer in version 8, these and using 3D object fence sections are the only options. Fences are 2D objects - in Punch!, they have no depth. This is considered to be a trivial item - even the custom fences in the new designer are that way (their spans are - the posts are indeed 3D). Therefore, painting one side automatically paints the other as well. If this is troublesome, use 3D object sections. A fence gate is simply a section of fence (between two handles) that is designated to be the gate. It automatically has a higher height than the rest of the fence. Fences do not glom like walls do. You cannot close a fence loop - the best you can do is co-locate the ends so they appear closed. |
III. | Excavations - The excavation tool is the only tool which can cut holes in the terrain surface, except for the actions of a closed exterior wallset (see The Ten Commandments of Walls). When you use the tool to draw a straight-line segment on the terrain, it is closed (that is, the beginning and end are connected with a line) and then the enclosed shape is cut out of the terrain. The same shape is replicated on a horizontal sheet that has the same shape; this "bottom of the hole" piece is texturable. It fits the hole perfectly in plan view, but not necessarily vertically - the removed terrain may have vertical variation that the bottom does not encompass. The brown color you see through the cracks between them is the inside of the world cube, simulating the dirt which would normally line such a hole. The excavation floor has a height that can be set; it is measured vertically, plus or minus, from the point on the terrain where the excavation was started. |
IV. | Edging - No, there is only the one edging style. You can texture the pegs as a group, but that's the only latitude you have. 'nuff said. |
V. | Fill - All Punch! objects specify a fixed point in space only at the handles of the objects. This is exemplified best by the fill areas. The handles are all around the edges of the fill area, and the height of a fill surface is extrapolated from these fixed edge points. These can either be set all to a single value (by setting the piece's elevation) or they can all be set to about three inches higher than the terrain at each point, using the float on elevation setting. If a terrain bump pokes it's way up in the middle of a fill, it may show through the fill. The only way to overcome that is to split a fill into two pieces, with the dividing line running through the bump, and then adding handles to either piece placed on the top of the peak. The fill will then climb the peak when float on terrain is invoked. By the way, as explained in The Ten Commandments of Terrain, the float on terrain happens at the time you set the option. If the terrain is shifted afterwards, you will need to set the fill to a single elevation and then again choose float in order to re-evaluate the elevations for the fill. |
VI. | Paths - Paths work just like fill, except the handles run up the center of the path rather than around the edges. The height of any place on a path is the same elevation is the point along the centerline which runs a perpendicular to the given point. Again, terrain bumps along the edges can poke through a path, and the only way to avoid them is to make the path run along the highest points, and to place a centerline point on all the places where changes in slope are noted. However, putting too may points close together causes paths to become kinky because of curvature. This can be fixed with the Curved To Fit MicroTool. |
VII. | Pools - Natural pools can be done with a fill region set to a particular fixed elevation, naturally poking above low spots in the terrain and textured with one of the water textures. If you want to force the shape of a pool, you can cheat by making the fill float on the terrain, but don't get too close to it. Artificial pools can be done just like a natural pool - the surface hides the fact that there is nothing actually excavated below the surface. If you need to create a pool with a sunken surface, or one that is empty, you will need to create a pool object that can be sunken into the ground, and then the excavation tool used to cut the grass in the pool. Set the excavation floor below the pool's bottom unless you want to use it as a lowered water surface. In version 10.0 Punch! now has a Pool Designer PowerTool which creates pools of any shape or size, with semi-transparent water surfaces and lots of associated objects. |
VIII. | Beams and Columns - Punch! does not have any beam or column tools (there is a "beam stiffener" tool in the foundation tab, but it leaves no 3D part in the design), so these are usually done with 3D objects. The Framer PowerTool (in version 6.0 and forward) has an excellent beam and column facility, but, unfortunately, it cannot return these objects back to Punch!, so they don't show up there. So, for now, you need to place a 3D object wherever you have planned beams of columns in the framer, manually. This applies also to the ductwork used in HVAC. There is a duct tool, but it has no matching 3D entity. |
IX. | Decks - Deck options can be used to extend decksteps and posts so they support a raised platform deck. Simply set the height of the deck to include everything from the top surface of the deck down to the base of the footing or steps, and set the elevation to where the posts or step bottom should be. The skirt will extend to cover that whole space, if it is on. Also see Deck Cutouts below. Additional posts in a deck can always be added by simply placing a handle at that point in the deck's edge. There will be a post at each handle, and the span between can be set with the usual options - railing on or off, skirt on or off, railing height and so on. Unfortunately, there is no way to cause the posts to extend upwards to support a roof, for example. Such posts would have to be created in the 3D workshop and placed over the existing railing posts on the deck. Deck steps are another option on deck sides, along with skirts and rails. A set of deck steps is requested from the properties of a deck, and they differ from ordinary stairs in that they are attached permanently to a deck side. Their length (number of steps) is determined, like the skirt length, by the deck height. They may be open or closed, share the skirt option of their parent deck side, and have optional left and right railings. They are selected along the line they share with the deck they are attached to, rather than the centerline like normal stair units. The direction of the flooring on a deck can only be influenced by the texturing, so it can only run parallel and perpendicular to the screen orientation. In the Framer, other options can be had, but again, these are not promoted back to Punch!. |
X. | Shape Conversions - This is one of the neatest features to come along in Punch! in some time. A shape drawn using the tools on the Detail tab can be converted to a compatible Punch! feature effortlessly. The object that has gotten the best focus in this regard has been the spiral stairway. An easy spiral that moves from one floor to another nine feet above can be simple created by using the circle drawing tool and drawing a circle that is the same diameter as the width desired of the finished stairs. When it is done, click on it to expose the circle's properties, and click on the "Convert To..." button. Select "Stairs" from the menu, and...that's all. It's converted to a stairs unit that can be rotated and placed where needed. DOn't try, however, to reverse the stairs - the original spline that supports the circle becomes a horse-shoe sort of shape once the circle's ends are disconnected. Lots of other conversions are possible - for example, the only way to build straight pathways is to draw a segmented line and convert it to a path. Oddly shaped curved fills, walls and deck edges are all supported. |
XI. | Floor/Deck Cutouts - Punch! doesn't internally make a floor cutout automatically attached to any particular floor. To make a cutout work properly, then, you need to make sure that the thickness and the elevation of the cutout exactly match the floor it is intended to puncture. Deck cutouts (new in 10.0) are exactly like floor cutouts and follow the same rules. Be aware that there is a bug in this scheme in versions AS3000 (7.0) and before, which cause the cutout to sort of visually float and affect other floors, as when looking down through the floor above the floor with the cutout, for example. Sort of an x-ray eyes for cutouts. In versions after AS3000 that bug is fixed. |
XII. | Wall Accessories - Wall accessories were added to AS4000. This is a combination of a tool to create a texturable surface attached to a wall and a set of textures (curtains, blinds and shutters) which can be used on those surfaces to create the effect of the accessories. Unfortunately, the tool was not present in other version 8 packages, because it was deemed as AS4000 upgrade item. The textures, however, were sent out to all version 8 users. How to use them without the tool? It turns out to be easy, if not as simple as with the tool. Go into the 3D Workshop, and activate the back grid (giving it the finer grid lines). These lines are 3" apart. Use the 2D rectangle tool to draw a rectangle right on the grid. The critical part is making the rectangle's height correct to fit the window plus overhang top and bottom. Return the rectangle to Punch! by closing the 3D; the rectangle, colored blue, will be in the center of the plan, looking like a line (the rectangle seen from vertically). Move it to just in front of the window to be curtained. Note that you can stretch and orient the rectangle at will, and elevate it so it covers the window. Now go to Objects->Accessories Library, click on the word Accessories at the top of the column and select the category. Select the effect, and drag it over and drop it on the blue rectangle. And there you have it. The rectangle can be Copy/Pasted as well. |
XIII. | Lighting - In version 4.0 Pro there are four fixtures - a light bulb, a recessed ceiling "can" light fixture, a heat/vent/light fixture and an exterior floodlight. The latter is a bit special because it is a wall attachment, and because it was the only light that had a 3D representation. All of them nad 2D symbols, though. The lights in Pro did not turn on - they sre permanently off. In AS18 the same four lights existd, but now they can be turned on, and they each have a dimmer control. When on they display a bright white surface and they cast cones on nearby walls. The floodlight is an exception - it throws a circle on the surface it is aimed at, but will not cast a shadow. Each of the four now has a realistic 3D object in LiveView (the light bulb is not a naked bulb but rather a simple glass ceiling fixture). The cone cast on the wall seems to persist unrealistically far in front of the wall, but does expand and diffuse with distance. The next improvements come in AS3000-7. There are now twelve kinds of lights: the bulb/ceiling light, the recessed can, the upwards shining floor light, the vent/light, a heat/vent/light, a sidewalk "tiki" light, an upward and a downward shining track spot, a radial glow, and upwards and downwards directed glows, as well as the perennial exterior floodlightw. All but the glows have 3D representations. All show glows and brightened portions of their 3D depiction when on (the track lights only when turned toward the viewpoint), and all cast appropriate cones on nearby walls when the right button is pressed). There are new controls. Each light has an on/off switch, a dimmer, a cone radius, and a drop-off control. (the bulb has only the on/off and dimmer controls). The radius and drop-off controls affect the cones on the walls. To see the cones, first of all the ambient brightness setting in the general lighting control has to be on the dim side, and the sun brightness should also be turned down, else it acts as another source. The wall effects only show when the Shadow button (tellow light bulb with shadow icon) is pressed. The Apply buttons on any of the lights' properties does the same thing as the shadow button does - renders the scene with light and shadow effects. Like the Shadow and rendering quality controls, any subsequent action that changes LiveView will erase the light cones. The three glows have an additional "Ambience" checkbox, which seems to raise the brightness of the wall they shine against a smidgen - adds a small ambient (overall) effect. The down glow appears to be buggy - it doesn't glow downwards properly. The general glow actually glows up and down, like a wall light with a shade on. However, the cones now cast shadows. In AS3000-10, one small additional change is added. Another checbox, labelled "Glow", allows the glow to be turned off separately form the cones. Before this version, lights turned off when one left the room, but in version 10 they appear to remain on. This might not be a probelm except that glows seem to penetrate walls, and thus can be seen rooms and floors away when they are on. The downglow problem is fixed as well. |
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This page last updated on Wed Dec 26 2007 |