I'm still in search of a program that will allow me to design a house's floor plans, then export it as a model that can be used in Poser. I've been warned from the various incarnations of CAD with much shuddering and whispers of dark magics involved (laugh), but can't find anything commercially that will export in 3D DXF, 3DS, or OBJ. The "Punch" home design series of programs say they export in DXF, but it's only 2D floorplans, not the actual "structure". Is there such a critter out there that can make Poser homes? They don't need to be perfect: I just want the ability to specify a 20 x 30 room, spiral staircase, or whatever and get the end model.

I've thought about doing this myself. The spiral staircase you'd have to make or get. I've thought about scanning in the floor plans, tracing them in a 3D program and extruding the walls, cutting out the walls and doors, and working from there. Just a thought.

One thing you might try: There's a neat freeware program called WinTopo that turns drawings into DXF files. (From wintopo.com, I think.) From the DXF, you could probably extrude the walls in a program like Anim8or...?

Dr. Geep has done tutorials on building walls, doors, etc. right in Poser that you can put together into nice sets that behave well in Poser and can be textured for details. You can make a 2D floor plan in a drawing program and texture the ground plane or the square prop with it, then use the Top camera (which is orthographic) to position the walls, etc. Cutting holes in things in 3D programs can produce very messy, high polygon count objects that render strangely in Poser and don't take texture maps well. You have to split vertices to get good corners, and if you bring them into Poser 5, they often balloon, if you don't turn smoothing off for the object. If you're a member of PoserWorld, Steve Shanks has all kinds of interiors and exteriors in the "Scenes" section, that are good examples of efficient modeling and texturing. There are a few room building kits for sale, but I don't know about their quality/usefulness. HTH - Elisa/gryffnn

Attached Link: http://www.wings3d.com

FloorPlan3D will export a full 3d dxf model. The models will import into Poser with no problems. Ed

It always tickles me how much we all think alike. What I've tried is a series of the Home Design software, like the Punch! one mentioned above.

The first one I tried was Floorplan 3D. It can export to VRML. I was planning to use 3DWin to convert to one of the formats Poser can use. It initially had trouble with broken VRML, but the most recent path that I tried did produce usable VRML. It does not export textures, only base colors as far as I saw.

The (then) highest end version of Punch! can also export to VRML. It worked out of the box, but only exports uncolored, untextured models.

I just tried it with Floorplan 3d (version 7) and could do build a 20 x 30 room with a spiral stair, but I'd forgotten that it puts the grass in as well. So, I used the grouping tool and removed it. Less than 10 minutes total.

Thanks for the info folks! Geeps' tutorials rock! But I've putzed around with doing that kind of modeling and it leaves me frustrated. I think I'm too impatient. I've even created several different "building blocks" of my own in Anim8or and tried to import them into Poser to get what I want. But both methods are piece-meal type projects. I have a really BIG idea buzzing in my brain that's driving me crazy because everything I've tried so far just isn't "right". Okay, so I bought the "Punch Professional Home Design Suite", which says it will export in DXF and VRML... but to be sure it's what I could use, I looked on the Punch web site where they specified the DXF is 2D export only. It says it'll export VRML too... what's that? Is 3DWin a free program that can convert VRML into either 3DS, OBJ, or DXF that Poser can identify? I don't mind making several steps and/or conversions to get the end result. Heck, I don't even mind taking the Punch product back and going for the Floorplan 3D instead. Any advice on one versus the other, rrkknight3?

Attached Link: http://www.tb-software.com/

3DWin is Thomas Baier's 3D converter program. The free version can convert stuff with just the basic textures, which sounds like what you want. It is only for Windows.

I have little experience with the Punch! program, although it seemed much more powerful than Floorplan 3D. I believe there has been at least one repackaging since I bought Floorplan. Floorplan 3D served me well enough to accomplish my goal: building a series of houses for an animation for my kids.

I also feel that I should ask you, TygerCub, if you've seen the the Room Creator at DAZ. It doesn't have your spiral stair, but I believe there's at least one in one of the freestuff sites. It looks like the kind of package for the impatient type. ;-)

You can do this yourself... ... you just need a modelling program. You could use Bryce, Amapi, max, lightwave... the choice is yours! Set up the UV maps with UVMapper, load the items into Poser and save them as props. H:))

rrkknight3, I haven't seen DAZ's room, but I will check it out. But what I'm really interested in is more than a room... I want an entire house, top to bottom, as one complete unit, completely furnished, etc... It may ultimately be impractical, but ideas that really bug the hell out of me are rarely practical and never easy to complete... thus the frustration level. (LOL) Hogwarden, I truly care nothing about the texture aspect of the modeling program because I do intend to import the final obj into UVMapperPro. Thanks again for all the advice.

I modeled all of the rooms and the exterior of two houses (my own and my mother-in-laws) as well as some extra rooms for the basements and attics (monsters, you know.) It took about three weekends of steady work.

Those home modelers let you build the roof, stairs, windows, and doors fairly easily.

Best of luck!

talk to the folks over at SAM's 3d. They use CAD for theer buildings and whatnot to good result.

Thanks Lyrra! Actually, SAM3D was one of the first people I think
about when I think Poser "houses". In an earlier thread (on another
subject), that was where I was warned against going to CAD.
Something about dealing with the parent company being an experience
to avoid. >shrug

TurboCAD Designer and Floorplan3D used together work well. TurboCAD can import the FP file and export a .3ds file.

I made Room Creator (the room at DAZ) and I can vouch for the quality, but I don't know how useful it would be to you. It's designed to be a flexible room environment where you can add doors and windows, etc, and move them to different positions around the room. The forthcoming expansion pack has a mezzanine level + 5 staircases, all posable, etc. (I have a spiral staircase made, but it won't be released just yet). But as I say, if you have a specific floor plan in mind, I don't know if RC would do the job. It does have posable walls, but it's not an entire house . . . yet. I'm working on it though. mac

TurboCAD Designer and Floorplan3D are sold together as a package. I could never get the import from Floorplan files to work for me. But it sounds like Connatic did. I've seen the older ones on sale at Staples for approximately $30...

To get a .3ds file from a Floorplan3d file - I am using FP3d7 and TurboCAD Designer8. Open TCAD and in the Tools list activate FloorplanPrintspaceMaker. This opens a window to select the .bmf (Floorplan3d) file. After this imports, go to File/Complete. The object will then open in TCAD and you can save it as a .3ds file.

Thank you! I'll try it as soon as I get back to the machine which has to software on it.

Well, it took longer to get to it than I'd thought. Thank you, Connatic! It works very well. It still doesn't do the textured versions, but it leaves out the ground plane which had to be eliminated before.

I don't know if we've helped TygerCub, though. If that member is still listening, this does look like it would work with just this package. The floors are one dimensional and the textures are all called Material#nn, but it's a far step ahead.

The 2D only export thing is pretty common with those home design packages, yeah. What I'd check first is whether they can save out as 3DS or OBJ at all, even if it's hidden in an export menu, since DXF tends to lose walls and height. Some folks just build the shell from the 2D plan and push walls up themselves, though a spiral staircase that way is a pain. Worth a look at the import options in your 3D app too.

You're responding to posts that are 22 years old. They may be a bit out of date.