Draw: an odd room, place labelled furniture?

users
#1

Hi :slight_smile:
Not sure if Draw is the right tool to use.

My workplace is moving soon and i have taken measurements of the oddly shaped big new room at the new place.  My first thought had been to make a 2d paper-'model' and then use smaller bits of paper to represent furniture to test-out different layouts.

Could Draw be used to do this instead, reasonably easily?
Regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

#2

dia might be better

https://live.gnome.org/Dia

#3

Tom Davies wrote:

Hi :slight_smile:
Not sure if Draw is the right tool to use.

My workplace is moving soon and i have taken measurements of the oddly shaped big new room at the new place. My first thought had been to make a 2d paper-'model' and then use smaller bits of paper to represent furniture to test-out different layouts.

Could Draw be used to do this instead, reasonably easily?
Regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

      I would think this is quite possible. First you use the line tool to draw the outline of the room. You might want to indicate where the doors or any windows are in the room. Then create outlines for your furniture. You can drag and drop them wherever you want them.
      I did this to figure out how my son and I were going to share a large bedroom about 4 years ago. My design did not seem possible the way I saw it, but all the furniture fit right where the drawing had them. I have done this since that time to move furniture to new locations. Again, works like a charm.

--Dan

#4

Hi Dan :slight_smile:
Many many thanks for this advice! :)  You may have saved me many many hours of intense frustration tomorrow!  Knowing that someone else has used this successfully is such a relief.

So, the key is the line tool :slight_smile:
Thanks and regards form
Tom :slight_smile:

#5

Well ... I would think the Drawing toolbar will have several tools that could be useful. And as we would say in our documentation group, perhaps some reading in the Getting Started with Draw would help. :slight_smile:

--Dan

Tom Davies wrote:

#6

Hi Tom,

Not sure if Draw is the right tool to use.

My workplace is moving soon and i have taken measurements of the oddly shaped big new room at the new place. My first thought had been to make a 2d paper-'model' and then use smaller bits of paper to represent furniture to test-out different layouts.

Could Draw be used to do this instead, reasonably easily?

As Dan has already said, Draw can be used for this purpose, and it
works, you can even have the dimensions displayed on screen (or at least
you could in previous versions of OOo, haven't checked recently with LO).

If you are looking for a more specialised tool, you could do worse than
check out SweetHome3D, a Java based app that is actually quite good.

Alex

#7

Hi :slight_smile:
Thanks for this idea too! :)  I have downloaded Dia onto one machine so that i can give it a go if i can't handle Draw.  Alex's idea also looks worth exploring but this was the fastest answer and is much appreciated.

Ideally i would like to get Draw to do this so i will start with that.  If people can see increasing good uses for LibreOffice then they might reach for LO more.  It's always good to have a back-up plan and 2 back-up plans makes me feel safe.

Thanks Eric Johansson and Alex Thurgood :slight_smile:
Many regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

#8

Hi Tom,

I do this regularly with Draw for 2D mockups. So, yes. It can be done
quite easily with Draw.

Some tips:

- Make sure to use the right scale by adjusting the page style. Just to
remind you: you can best use a custom size for the whole page a mm or
inches as measures.

- Make good use of layers to switch between different layouts

- Group a set of lines that make up a piece of furniture. That way you
can easily shift them around

- Use the shortcut key to call the appropriate dialog (F4 for me) to
fine-tune dimensions, don't try to do that when drawing. It is more
cumbersome and less accurate.

- Make sure you begin drawing at the (0,0) coordinate. That'll make
things a lot easier.

HTH and have fun with Draw!

P.S. Draw is not the best tool for 3D mockups. You're better off with
SweetHome3D or Google Sketchup (it will run under Wine, if you are using
Linux).

Grx HdV

#9

<http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/Documentation/OOoAuthors_User_Manual/Draw_Guide/House_plan>

#10

Hi :slight_smile:
Thanks Gary! :slight_smile: That helped me smarten things up a lot.
Thanks and regards from
Tom :slight_smile: