"What we have here, is a failure to communicate." --Captain, Road Prison Gang 36 (Strother Martin), "Cool Hand Luke"
Punch! has a basic problem. The software they produce (in fact, all software) is designed to model the real world. When they want to describe something that they are modeling, what do they call it? If they call it the same thing that it models, they're liable to confuse the listener. If the invent a new name, they have to explain it, and risk alienating the user who wants an easy learning curve. For example, Punch! wants to add a floor to their model. Do they call it a "floor model", or just a "floor"? The result is a lot of terms that Punch! uses in their software that are similar to their real world prototypes, but don't quite measure up to the way those same terms have been used traditionally. Here I've compiled a compendium of these, and hope to explain them so peoiple can detect the difference.
Where I use an Italicized term in a Punch! definition, it refers to the common definition of the term, emphasizing the relationship between the two. Emboldenment is used to emphasize terms and synonyms for easy scanning.
| Term Synonyms |
Real Life Usage | Punch! Usage |
|---|---|---|
| attachment | [In real life...] An object that requires physical contact with something else to function properly. | [In Punch!...] A class of Punch! objects that are attached to walls, decks or roofs. The class includes doors, windows, decksteps, skylights, floodlights, wall switches and plugs, sinks, tubs and showers, the baseboard heater and others. All are pre-drawn object assemblies (except windows, doors, skylights and decksteps) and may only be attached to any wall or deck. |
| autofloor | [In Punch!...] a floor that is automatically generated at the foot of an exterior wallset to fill in the interior. The autofloor can be turned off, and it's thickness set if it is on. The thickness of the autofloor adds that much to the height of an exterior wall so the wall can cover the floor's edges. An autofloor's elevation is that of it'e exterior walls, and as in most Punch! objects, is the distance between the zero plane and the wall's/floor's bottom. | |
| autofoundation | [In Punch!...] A pair of dashed red lines indicating a foundation footer which appears automatically around an exterior wall on the Foundation Plan. Since footers are of no use unless they are buried, it is not visible in 3D, and so its only manifestation is those two red lines. It is frustrating because there is no other way to get the red lines around walls (for, say, an interior, load-bearing wall), except to go to the Details tab and draw them manually. | |
| basement wall | (see foundation) | |
| ceiling height | [In real life...] The distance from the floor to the ceiling in a room of a house. | [In Punch!...] the distance from one floor to another. Due to the fact that floors had zero thickness in early version of Punch!, this measurement (which differs from the real-life definition by the actual thickness of the floor) is still used in Punch! today. See The Ten Commandments of the Vertical for more information. |
| crawlway | [In real life...] The space between the ground and the bottom of the lowest floor in a house. This space can be considered to be a basement for Punch! purposes, by simply texturing the crawlway floor with dirt. Doing this uses up a floor of Punch!'s three, but it simplifies the creation of the foundation walls. | |
| custom | [In real life...] An item that is made to order, unique. | [In Punch!...] An extension of some objects whereby their structure can be changed in detail so they closely follow some idea. Punch! AS400 has custom plants, textures, windows, doors, trim and fences. These custom items are opposed by Punch! supplied standard items. Their use involves a PowerTool wizard to create them, and an organizer to manipulate and organize them. |
| elevation ("working elevation") | The default elevation acquired by newly created objects. It is a per-floor value, computed from the ceiling heights. It may be temporarily set to another value for a series of objects to be created at a different default elevation. but it is reset every time floors are changed or Punch! is restarted. | |
| exterior wall | [In real life...] A wall which is dedicated to existing in the out-of-doors on one side, usually treated to handle the abuse that implies. These are usually (but not always!) structural, weight-bearing members of the building (as opposed to being merely cosmetic or partitioning walls). | [In Punch!...] A wall which has several capabilities that other, interior walls do not. Exterior walls are designed to be created in closed loops (i.e., the walls are individually glommed end-to-end so that they form a closed loop). They generate an autofloor which has a single thickness and elevation, and is visible in the floor plan as a very pale color. They cause a hole to be created in the terrain so that grass is eliminated within the building. They determine the foundation footer lines drawn on the foundation plans (in fact, the foundation tool in the foundation tab *is* the exterior wall tool). They (as well as other tools) define a space within which an area measurement may be computed. They are recognized and used by specific PowerTools (namely, the Roof Wizard, HighRise and the ceiling/soffit builder). Other walls are all classed as interior, including retaining walls on the landscape tab. |
| floor[1] | [In real life...] A horizontal surface inside a house meant to be walked on. | [In Punch!...] A polygonal prism shape with horizontal faces designed to be used as a floor and/or a ceiling, or where ever else a flat surface is required. |
| floor[2] level, plan |
[In real life...] A layer of a building, internally homogenous (that is, it doesn't much change vertically). | [In Punch!...] A set of plans which describe the various aspects of a given floor. |
| floor[3] | [In Punch!...] A particular plan from a floor plan set (see floor[2], the one on which walls, stairs, windows, doors and miscellaneous objects are presented. As opposed to the foundation plan, the electrical plan, etc. | |
| footer | (see foundation) | |
| foundation footer, foundation/basement wall |
[In real life...] The part of a building that anchors it to the earth and supports the weight of the rest of the building. By necessity the foundation has to be embedded in the ground, and so is usually constructed to resist the weather conditions and the rot that this usually causes. Parts of the foundation include foundation footers, foundation/basement walls, and other accoutrements like beams, piers, slabs and so on. Generally only the basement walls and the floor dlab are visible when the building is complete. Foundations have to be engineered even more so than the rest of a building, as they are critical for supporting that building. | [In Punch!...] One of the plans in a planset, which describes the foundation parts of a building. In Punch! these are rather weak, as Punch! does not support the engineering work needed to competently design a real foundation, but since the average homeowner need not worry about this engineering, only the basement walls are really important, and this tab can be simply ignored. |
| handle | (see point) | |
| lot | [In real life...] a space in which a house may be built. It is usually defined by a "metes and bounds" legal description, and a more informal street address. It may be of any shape and size. | [In Punch!...] Punch! uses the term to refer to the rectangular drawing surface on which a user may draw (the white rectangle within a gray border, visible when zoomed all the way out). Generally a user's legal lot is drawn on it using the Property Line tool. The Punch! lot may measure as high as 500' x 500' (1000' x 1000' for version 8 and above), but defaults to 200' x 200'. |
| object entity |
[In Punch!...] Any of the building blocks that a Punch! plan includes, such as a wall, staircase, deck, berm and so on. Most objects have manifestations in both 2D plans view and 3D LiveView, though some (furnace ductwork, foundation footers) show up only on the plans. | |
| object, 3D | [In Punch!...] A class of objects which are built up in the 3D workshop rather than from a tab tool. For axample, there is a tool to create a toilet as a wall attachment, and there is also a 3D object toilet - it is free-standing, as are all 3D objects. | |
| organizer | [In Punch!...] A software technique for manipulating a class of Punch! custom objects. In AS4000, there are organizers for custom plants, custom textures, custom trim, custom doors, custom windows, and custom fences. | |
| point handle |
[In real life...] A location in space | [In Punch!...] A manipulative location on a Punch! object, visible on the plan display and in the 3D workshop display. Manipulation of points resizes and/or selects an object. |
| PowerTool | [In real life...] A tool which harnesses artificial power sources to accomplish building tasks. | [In Punch!...] A software sub-program which performs specific extended operations for Punch!. PowerTools create custom objects, generate different displays of the Punch! model and in general extend Punch!. Some PowerTools are built be Punch!; others are built by other software companies. |
| slab | [In real life...] a layer of concrete poured on the ground to form one kind of basic house foundation. An alternative to a basement or crawlway. Also, the floor of a basement formed by a layer of concrete. | |
| surface | [In real life...] The visible part of an object, existing the three dimensional space. | [In Punch!...] The only reality of solid objects in Punch! (or ony other computer 3D environment) are that solid's surfaces. Therefore all solids are really hollow inside. A single, naked 3D surface does not, of course, model reality; in reality all objects are solid. Nevertheless, Punch! uses such surfaces in a few restricted places, such as photoview objects, stair and deck skirting, wall trim/wainscotting and the like. Even the terrain is a series of 2D surfaces, unless you count the brown cubical "earth" The 3D Workshop may be used to create simple or complex surfaces, as well as solids (or rather, solid-appearing objects!). |
| terrain | (see topography) | |
| topography[1] terrain |
[In real life...] The study of mapping of an area of the earth's surface, vertically as well as horizontally. A topographic map has contours drawn in to specify vertical detail. | [In Punch!...] The result of applying the landscaping tools to a Punch! model; synonymous with "terrain". The terrain is a continuous sheet of texture defining the surface of the ground in a 3D plan. |
| topography[2] berm tool |
[In Punch!...] The particular tools which create berms/depressions in the terrain, as opposed to slope tools and the Topo Designer. | |
| wallset | [In punch...] A wallset is a set of connected walls. Walls tend to attach themselves to other walls, one end of one wall to one (and only one) end of another. Wallsets hold some wall properties (such as interior/exterior status and wall width) in common, so joining two walls will automatically make then havea common thickness (one or the other will change to match). The exterior wallset - the closed, looped set of house walls that define inside and outside the house) is special to Punch! for several reasons; see The Ten Commandments of Walls. | |
| zero plane | [In real life...] The real life "zero plane" is better known as "average sea level". For example, Denver, Colorado has an altitude of 5280', which is to say that the Earth sphere that averages one mile above sea level meets the Earth's surface within Denver (and lots of other places in Colorado, as well as a few other minor states :) ). | [In Punch...] An imaginary plane in the Punch! model from which all elevations are measured. Punch! uses a plane that is much more local than sea level for several reasons. When an empty Punch! plan is started, the zero plane is identical with the grassy surface, but that terrain can be moved away from the zero plane with berms and slopes, and then it becomes an invisible abstraction. |
| Term Synonyms |
Real Life Usage | Windows Usage |
|---|---|---|
| checkbox | [In windows...] A control that can take one of two or three states by simply clicking on it. Gneerally used to make yes (checked) or no (unchecked) decisions. | |
| combo box | [In windows...] A control which allows for direct keyboard input (like an edit box), or selection of any of several pre-determined possible text entries by mouse selectionn or by tyoing the first few characters of the desired value. Distinguished by an edit box with a drop-down menu button at the right end. | |
| control | [In real life...] A means of effecting direction over as process; a manipulator. | [In windows...] Any of a series of means for controlling a software process. Dialogs, radio buttons, buttons, checkboxes, edit boxes and combo boxes are all controls. |
| dialog box, window |
[In Windows...] A window with controls to handle a specific task the application needs done. Dialogs are ususally popped up over other windows as needed. | |
| edit box | [In windows...] A control desiged to allow for text entry through a keyboard. | |
| radio button | [In real life...] One of a series of buttons which act as a unit. When one is depressed, the others are released, so only one may be selected at a time. | [In Windows...] A Windows control that acts like a radio buttons in conjuction with others. It may be programmed to act like a checkbox, though. |
| tab page |
[In real life...] An extension on a page in a notebook so the page can be easily found when the notebook is closed. | [In Windows...] A Windows control designed to look like a notebook tab and to give access to any of several property pages by clicking on the tab. |
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This page last updated on Sun May 14 2006 |