Operations

The operation of the Exterior Decorator is simple. Once installed, it is invoked from its icon in the PowerTool menu and it presents a paged interface to the user. Select one of the pages by clicking on the page tab. Create the object you need by filling in the object's parameters in the spaces provided. As you do this, simple drawings displayed on the left side of the page show how most of the parameters will interact to produce the object you need. When all the choices are filled in, simply exit the tool with the OK button, and the object will be created and placed in the center of your drawing. Since it is a 3D object, just the same as one produced in the 3D Workshop, it can be moved, stretched in horizontal directions, moved, rotated and placed as it is needed. It may be colored or textured within the Exterior Decorator PowerTool, and it can also be painted (in more detail) in Punch!. Also because it is an object, it can be imported into the 3D Workshop for editing and changes, if that need arises.

Exterior Decorator keeps track of the last object it has built, and when reopened, it will restore you to that object with the last recorded measurements, making creating a duplaicate or a duplicate with one small change very quick and easy. In addition, this object may be set to replace the similar object created in the latest previous use of Exterior Decorator.

The dialog that opens when the PowerTool is invoked contains several features besides the individual object windows and their tabs, At the bottom of the dialog there are the usual Cancel and OK buttons. The Cancel drops whatever object may have been in the works and returns immediately to Punch!; the OK button returns the object that the user was working on. On the left is a small window showing the floor and plan active when Exterior Decorator was called, which is where the object will be placed when OK is pressed.

Also on this row is a checkbox labelled Replace Previous Object. If the previous object created and this object are similar in type, this control will be active and gives the user the opportunity to replace that existing object with the new one, copying the previous object's location and orientation, Rather than the n ormal procedure of placing the new object at the center of the plan and leaving the older object in place.

A line drawing is done on the left half of each page, indicating to some extent how changes in the parameters affect the object being built. At some later date we will substitute a textured 3D view instead of the line drawing. The line view will show color applied to the object, but it cannot show textures.

See Entering Measurements and Angles for more information on measurement display and entering formats.

Arches

The first page builds an arch object. There are many arch types; this tool creates circular arches (that is, ones in which the arch follows a segment of a circle) and a flat "arch" for use as a lintel or other flat piece. This object (shown in a frontal view on the page) is specified by the following controls:

• Points - The arch curve is, like all computerized curves, made up of a number of straight line segments, when these get small and numerous enough, they stop appearing like a broken line and appear to be curves. This control let's the user determine how many points to use to do that. Fewer points make for a faster object to draw, but more points makes the object look better.
• Elevation - The elevation of the object is how high the total object will appear relative to the zero plane in the 3D view in Punch!, just as it is for all Punch! objects. If this control is set to anything besides zero, that will be the elevation of the object when it is returned to Punch!. If it is left at zero, the object will have the automatic elevation normal for an object placed on the floor it is destined for. as determined by the floor's ceiling heights and working elevations. That elevation may be edited in Punch!, of course, like any object's elevation may.
• Chord length - The straight distance between the two lowest corners on the arch. If this is set to zero, the arch disappears, leaving only the keystone, if that has been specified.
• Center rise height - The distance that the center rises from the chord line mentioned in the Chord length above. If this measurement is set to zero, the arch flattens out into a straight bar, usable for flat door lintels and where ever such a shape may be needed.
• Beam Width - the uniform thickness of the arch, always measured perpendicular to the edge at the point of measurement. In the center that will be a vertical measurement; at the ends they will be along the ends, unless the Vertical end option below is used.
• Thickness - in all these figures, the thickness refers to how deep the arch is. In some cases the user may desire a fully thick arch for use in a doorway where depth is visible; in others, only the arch facade is needed, intended to essentially hang on a wall as a decoration without the full involvement that a fully thick arch would require of the builder. The thickness doesn't affect the arch's display on the Exterior Decorator dialog.
• Vertical ends - This option will change the normal perpendicular ends of the arch so they are vertical from the chord corners upward, which has the side effect of shortening the arch somewhat.
• Horizontal ends - Like the vertical ends, the horizontal ends cut off the bottom corner on each end horizontally. These two end conbinations can be used to make the arch fit other details such as walls near a window, or to sit atop a pair of plinths. The horizontal ends can also convert an arch into a shallow "filled arch", an arch with a curved top and a flat bottom.
• Stones? - This checkbox converts the arch from a single, monolithic piece into an arch of many pieces which fit together, which is the tradiyional way in which an arch is constricted. Punch!'s shading methods will pick out the individual stones in such an arch and give it a striking 3D effect. The stones are drawn at the same points in the arch mentioned above under "Points", so that control affects the stones' size and shape.
• Keystone - Arches traditionally were built of stone or brick masonry, of pieces called voussoirs with smaller bottoms than tops (or brick masonry with larger fill at the top than at the bottom) so that the compressive strength of the material would hold the arch in place (see this page for some simple diagrams). Structureally, the keystone at the topmost point of the arch is no more important than any other voussoir in keeping the arch whole, but its central location and highest point have lead to iy oftentimes being more elaborate and decorated than its neighbors. Beyond being functional, though, an arch is very pleasing as an architectural decoration, and, harkening back to its roots is the keystone, a decorative feature that celebrates the highest voussoir in the arch, in its center. The word keystone even defines it's unique shape (part of the seal of the state of Pennsylvania, the Keystone State, for example).
   
  You can add a keystone to your arch with this option. Once the Keystone checkbox is selected, a number of keystone measurements can be entered:
  • Botton drop - the keystone's base will be that much lower than the bottom of the center of the arch.
  • Bottom width - the width of the bottom of the keystone.
  • Top rise - the distance by which the top of the keystone exceeds the top of the arch. Note that if bottom drop and top rise are both zero, the keystone will be the samne height as the arch width measurement.
  • Top width - the width of the top of the keystone.
  • Relief - the distance by which the keystone sticks out in front of the arch front and back surfaces. This control has the minimum value of .1", as having it flush with the arch front can cause coloring problems, and making it negative will make the most of the keystone invisible, embedded within the arch.
  • Handle height and width - A handle can be added to the top of the keystone; traditionally, the handle is a smaller version of the top of the keystone added to the top of the stone as a decoration (and, of course, it originally had a real function). The handle only appears if both the height and width are greater than zero. The sides of the handle are sloped in the same way the sides of the keystone itseklf is sloped, thus defining the handle's bottom, where it attaches to teh keystone.
• Surface Finish - this button opens up an advanced finishing picker that allows for any color or texture within Punch! to be applied to the entire object. Available in this picker are the Punch! "decorator colors" (specific colors selected with the four seasons in mind, plus a "contemporary" selection of colors and a grayscale), a standard color picker for choosing any of the possible 14 million+ true colors, any selection from the Punch! standard texture library, any custom texture, any of the manufacturer paint selections or any color/texture saved in the project palette. Also available are selections from pseudo-textures like wall accessories and fences which can be of use in special cases (particularly with the Sheet tool). Of course, the object may also be colored in Punch!; in that case, various surfaces of the object may be separately colored or textured, while this option in this dialog applies to the whole object.

Other pages of the Exterior Decorator PowerTool also have the Surface Finish button and the Elevation and Thickness edits which all do essentially the same things as they do in the arch.

Exterior Decorator and the contents of this help file are
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