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Welcome to MyVirtualHome, the easiest way to build a virtual home; it is also supported by numerous manufacturers so that you can preview their products directly in your own home.

You will not be building and decorating with just any old brick, window, benchtop or paint, you will be placing an accurate representation of a real product available for purchase from manufacturers and suppliers in your area.

Designing, decorating and furnishing a house has never been this easy. Experiment with colour schemes before you have bought a single drop of paint. Renovate your kitchen and show your tradesman exactly what you want.

See It First!

Use MyVirtualHome to not only save you time and money, but allow expanded creative choice when designing your personal living space.

Overview

What is MyVirtualHome?

MyVirtualHome (MVH) is a visualisation tool specifically designed to be the simplest, quickest and most visually accurate way to design and build a home on your own PC. Houses are quickly built by placing together pre-made rooms to produce a basic layout. Furniture, fixtures, colours and other elements can then be customised to suit.

MyVirtualHome is also a communication tool. As you select products, you can review the products details and reference manufacturers, retailers and post-sales services of that product which are local to you. Your virtual homes can be shared with other MyVirtualHome users, which include industry accredited builders, designer, decorators, services suppliers and tradesmen. This makes it an ideal collaboration tool for working with your real home.

Within MVH you can build homes, refurbish bathrooms and redecorate bedrooms. You can put in a basement, add a second (or third, or fourth, or fifth ... ) level to your home. Drop in a pool, add a sunken garden.

Prerequisites

You are expected to be familiar with basic Windows terminology, for example dragging the mouse and right-clicking.

You do not require any 3D design experience.

Minimum Specification

OS Windows XP (SP2), Windows Vista or Windows 7

CPU Pentium 4 450MHz Must support the SSE instruction set

System memory 1Gb RAM

Video card 3-D capable video graphics card with support for either OpenGL (version 1.2) or DirectX 9.0c (October 2006 or later)

Disk 1Gb free space for installation

Internet Connection 5kb dial-up connection

MVH must be able to connect to the internet to run.

Recommended Specification

OS Windows Vista (64-bit) or Windows 7 (64-bit)

CPU Any Quad-Core CPU

System memory 4Gb RAM

Video card NVIDIA Series 200 or ATI 4000 Series with 1Gb RAM

Disk 1Gb free space for installation

Internet Connection Broadband internet connection

Conventions

Ctrl+Alt+Del Keys to press. The example means to press the Ctrl, Alt and Del keys all at once and then let them all go.

1st option > 2nd option > 3rd option

Select the 1st option, which reveals the 2nd option for selection. In a similar fashion, select the 2nd option to reveal the 3rd option, and finally select the 3rd option to complete the instruction.

For example:

Select Start > Programs > Accessories > Notepad.

Select Start, then from the revealed menu select Programs, then

the option Accessories and finally the option Notepad.

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Table of Contents

Overview ...................................................................................................2 What is MyVirtualHome? .............................................................................. 2 Prerequisites ................................................................................................... 3 Conventions .................................................................................................... 3

Getting Started ........................................................................................ 9

Starting and Exiting MyVirtualHome ...........................................................9 Starting MyVirtualHome ............................................................................... 9 The MVH Launcher ......................................................................................... 9

MVH Updates .......................................................................................... 10 Launcher Options .................................................................................... 10

Exiting MyVirtualHome ............................................................................... 10 Your MyVirtualHome Profile .................................................................... 11

MyChannels .................................................................................................. 12 MyDetails ...................................................................................................... 12 MyBusiness ................................................................................................... 13

The Screen ............................................................................................... 13 Your First Home ....................................................................................... 15

Load the Home ............................................................................................. 15 Walk around the home ................................................................................. 15 Explore the Camera Modes .......................................................................... 15 Paint a Wall ................................................................................................... 16

Build a Home ........................................................................................... 18 Decorate your Home .................................................................................... 19

The User Interface ................................................................................. 21

Hiding the Interface ................................................................................. 21 Current User and MVH Build Number ....................................................... 21 Help ........................................................................................................ 21 Menu Bar ................................................................................................ 21 Tool bar ................................................................................................... 21 Camera Controls ...................................................................................... 22

Zoom ........................................................................................................ 22 Camera Modes ............................................................................................. 23 Rotate \ Tilt the Camera ............................................................................... 23

Free-look Mode ....................................................................................... 24 Move Camera ............................................................................................... 24 Walkthrough Mode ...................................................................................... 25

Walking & Turning ................................................................................... 25 Walking Through Walls ............................................................................ 25 Resetting the camera .............................................................................. 25

Left Panel ................................................................................................ 25 Breadcrumbs ................................................................................................ 26

Notifications Bar ...................................................................................... 28 Download Progress Bar ............................................................................ 28 Lightmapping Progress Bar ....................................................................... 28 Right Panel .............................................................................................. 28

Info Tab ......................................................................................................... 29 Customise Tab .............................................................................................. 30 Alternatives................................................................................................... 33

Workspace .............................................................................................. 33 Context Menu .......................................................................................... 34

Loading and Saving Homes .................................................................... 35

Starting a New Home ............................................................................... 35 Loading Homes ........................................................................................ 35

Loading a Home from the Catalogue ............................................................ 35 Loading a Locally Saved Home ..................................................................... 36 Loading a Home from HomeShare ............................................................... 36

To load a home that you have saved to HomeShare: ............................. 37 To load someone elses home from HomeShare: ................................... 37

Recovering lost work .................................................................................... 37 Saving Homes .......................................................................................... 37

Saving a Home Locally .................................................................................. 37 Deleting a saved home ................................................................................. 38

Copying Homes ........................................................................................ 38 Copying a Saved Home ................................................................................. 38 Copying a Catalogue or HomeShare Home .................................................. 38

MVH HomeShare ..................................................................................... 39 HomeShare Codes ........................................................................................ 39 HomeShare Links .......................................................................................... 39

Building a Home .................................................................................... 41

Floorplans................................................................................................ 42 Loading a Floorplan ...................................................................................... 42 Resizing a Floorplan ...................................................................................... 42 Rotating a Floorplan ..................................................................................... 43 Locking a Floorplan ....................................................................................... 43 Floorplans & Multi-Level Homes .................................................................. 43 Hiding Floorplans .......................................................................................... 44 Deleting Floorplans ....................................................................................... 44

Placing a North Marker ............................................................................ 44 Rooms and Walls ..................................................................................... 45

Adding Rooms ............................................................................................... 46 Moving Rooms .............................................................................................. 46

Moving rooms between levels in the home ............................................ 47 Rotating Rooms ............................................................................................ 47 Cut, Copy and Paste Rooms .......................................................................... 47

Cut a Room .............................................................................................. 47 Copy a Room ........................................................................................... 48 Paste a Room ........................................................................................... 48

Aligning Rooms ............................................................................................. 48 Aligning Rooms with a Floorplan ............................................................. 48 Aligning Rooms with other Rooms .......................................................... 48

Joining Rooms ............................................................................................... 49 Resizing and Reshaping Rooms .................................................................... 50

Using Nodes ............................................................................................. 50 Using Walls .............................................................................................. 51 Splitting Walls (L Shaped Rooms) .......................................................... 52 Restrictions to Resizing and Reshaping Rooms ....................................... 52

Interior and Exterior Walls ........................................................................... 53 Deleting Walls (Open Plan Spaces) ............................................................... 54 Half-Height Walls .......................................................................................... 54

Multi-Level Homes ................................................................................... 55 Adding a Level ............................................................................................... 56

Adding a Basement ....................................................................................... 56 Removing a Level .......................................................................................... 57 Removing a Basement .................................................................................. 57 Moving Between Levels in the Home ........................................................... 57

Stairs ........................................................................................................ 57 Camera Modes & Level Controls ............................................................. 57

Void Floors .................................................................................................... 58 Doors and Windows ................................................................................. 58

Internal and External Walls ..................................................................... 58 Ceiling Height .......................................................................................... 59

Doors ............................................................................................................ 59 Placing a Door .......................................................................................... 59 Moving a Door ......................................................................................... 60 Replacing a Door ..................................................................................... 60 A Doors Opening Direction ..................................................................... 61 Customising a Door ................................................................................. 61

Windows ....................................................................................................... 61 Placing a Window .................................................................................... 61 Moving a Window ................................................................................... 62 Replacing a Window ................................................................................ 62 Customising a window ............................................................................ 62

Stairs ....................................................................................................... 63 Furnishings and Electrical ......................................................................... 63

Hide Furniture............................................................................................... 63 Clear Furniture .............................................................................................. 64 Placing Furniture ........................................................................................... 64 Removing Furniture ...................................................................................... 65 Customising Furniture .................................................................................. 65 Replacing Furniture with the Alternatives tab ............................................. 66

To Replace an Item .................................................................................. 66 Rotating Items .............................................................................................. 66 Cut, Copy and Paste Items ............................................................................ 67

Cut an item .............................................................................................. 67 Copy an item............................................................................................ 67 Paste an item ........................................................................................... 67

Decorating with MVH Materials ............................................................... 68 Applying Materials (Paints, Carpets, Tiles etc) ............................................. 68

Applying Materials to Linked Surfaces .................................................... 69 The Roof .................................................................................................. 70

To Show \ Hide the Roof ............................................................................... 70 Rooms without Roofs ................................................................................... 70 The Roof-line ................................................................................................ 70

Layout of the Rooms ............................................................................... 70 Roof Specific Wall Properties .................................................................. 70

Tiles, Shingles or Sheeting? .......................................................................... 71 Changing the roof material via the catalogue ......................................... 71 Changing the roof material via the Customise tab .................................. 71

Outdoors ................................................................................................. 72 Time of Day ................................................................................................... 72

Simple Lighting and the Time of Day ....................................................... 72 Advanced Lighting and Time of Day ........................................................ 73

Location ........................................................................................................ 73 To set the Location of your Home ........................................................... 73

Terrain Options ............................................................................................. 74 To Change the Terrain ............................................................................. 74

Show \ Hide the Terrain Grid................................................................... 74 Show \ Hide the Terrain .......................................................................... 74

Panoramas .................................................................................................... 75 Changing Panoramas ............................................................................... 75 Custom Panoramas ................................................................................. 75 Custom Cube map background ............................................................... 76 Custom Cylindrical map background ....................................................... 77 Custom Spherical map background ......................................................... 77

Fences ........................................................................................................... 78 To Build a Fence ...................................................................................... 78 Moving a Fence ....................................................................................... 78

Paths & Driveways ........................................................................................ 79 To Build a Path or Driveway .................................................................... 79 Moving a Path or Driveway ..................................................................... 79

Pools, Spas & Saunas .................................................................................... 79 Placing a Pool, Spa or Sauna .................................................................... 79 Restrictions on placing Pools ................................................................... 80 Customising a Pool .................................................................................. 80

Gardens ........................................................................................................ 81

Make your Home look its best .............................................................. 82

Lighting ................................................................................................... 82 Lightmapping ........................................................................................... 82

Lightmapping Settings .................................................................................. 83 When to Lightmap ........................................................................................ 83

Actions that will invalidate lightmaps are: .............................................. 84 Actions that do not invalidate lightmaps: ............................................... 84

To Start Lightmapping .................................................................................. 84 To Clear Lightmaps ....................................................................................... 84

Display Settings ....................................................................................... 84 Screen Size .................................................................................................... 85

To adjust the screen size: ........................................................................ 85 Image Settings .............................................................................................. 85 Optimisation ................................................................................................. 86

Tips and Tricks ....................................................................................... 87

Editing with the Eyedropper Tool ............................................................. 87 Why wont my door make a doorway? ..................................................... 88 Painting ................................................................................................... 89

Painting all the walls at once ................................................................... 89

Technical Issues ..................................................................................... 90

Appendices ........................................................................................... 91

1. Menus .............................................................................................. 91 File Menu ...................................................................................................... 91 Edit Menu ..................................................................................................... 91

Editing Locks Sub-menu .......................................................................... 92 Measurements Menu ................................................................................... 92 Options Menu ............................................................................................... 92

Edit Preferences Sub-menu ..................................................................... 93 Visibility Options Sub-menu .................................................................... 95

2. Keyboard Shortcuts .......................................................................... 97 Camera Controls ........................................................................................... 97

Rotating the Camera ............................................................................... 97

Moving the Camera ................................................................................. 97

Getting Started There are a number of general controls and a common toolbar to help you with your home design. This section explores the general functionality of the standard controls.

Starting and Exiting MyVirtualHome

Starting MyVirtualHome

To start the program, double-click the MyVirtualHome program icon on your desktop.

If you cannot find a program icon, the standard install provides an icon in your Start menu. See,

Start > (All) Programs > MyVirtualHome > MyVirtualHome

This will start the MVH Launcher.

If you will be loading MyVirtualHome regularly, the easiest way to manage the starting of the program is to copy the program icon into the Quick Launch area of your Windows Taskbar, see your Windows documentation for more information.

The MVH Launcher

The MVH Launcher fulfils a number of tasks:

presents MVH News to the MVH community

manages MVH Updates

contains basic display options and details concerning how MVH connects to the internet

contains maintenance facilities for your MVH installation

MVH Updates

When the launcher is run, it contacts the MVH Server and checks to see if there is an updated version of MVH available. If there is the launcher downloads and applies the update, ensuring that your copy of MyVirtualHome is always up to date.

Launcher Options

The Launcher Options are initially set during the installation process. These settings may be reviewed and modified as required by clicking the Options button.

The Display settings tab contains settings for which Renderer to use (for the best visual quality we suggest you set this to DirectX9) and display resolution. The Display Resolution should be set as high as your monitor allows.

The Internet settings tab details how MVH connects to the internet and to test MVH's ability to connect using the specified settings.

The Maintenance tab need only be used if you encounter issues launching MVH after applying an MVH Update. In this instance apply each option one at a time from the top down, attempting to run MVH after each change until MVH launches successfully. If issues still present themselves, contact MVH Support in your region.

Exiting MyVirtualHome

To exit MyVirtualHome select the red square with the X ( ) at the top-right of the MyVirtualHome window.

Start MVH

Version details (click to view)

News

Version number

MVH Options

Your MyVirtualHome Profile

To use MVH you must create an MVH User Profile, this profile is used to associate you with your MVH preferences and the home designs that you have saved to the MVH HomeShare server. This allows you to access your MVH content on any PC you use and to protect your shared designs for future reference.

The first time you run MVH you are asked to create an MVH profile.

Fill in the details and click Register for MVH.

If you have registered and have run MVH previously you are considered an existing user and will be presented with a login dialog rather than the registration dialog.

Once you have registered \ logged in you can access your MVH Profile page.

The Profile screen contains three sections, MyChannels, MyDetails and MyBusiness. These sections are accessed by clicking the relevant button.

MyChannels

In MVH, a Channel features a reduced catalogue containing a selection of assets and rooms specific to the purposes of that channel.

E.g. A bathroom renovation channel providing, the assets to plan your new bathroom, instructions for D.I.Y.ers and links to local business that can be of assistance with your renovation job.

Since each channel will contain focused content, you may need to move between channels to access all of the content you require for a specific design project and you designs are never lost while moving between channels..

The Australian Home Building Channel will always contain the complete catalogue of free-to-use assets and is recommended for all general building and design projects.

Some content contributors create their own channel to present their products and services. These channels may also alter the look and fell of MVH by re-colouring the interface with their own corporate colour-scheme.

The MyChannels section lists the channels which have been linked to your MVH User Account. Selecting any of these Channels will present:

details regarding the channel

an option to receive updates from the channel owner about changes within that channel

a Start button to launch the channel

MyDetails

The MyDetails tab can be used to view and update your profile information such as passwords and email addresses.

MyBusiness

The MyBusiness tab provides information regarding associating your business with products available in MVH.

The Screen

When you first start MyVirtualHome, the initial screen looks like the screenshot below.

There is an active dialog (the MVH Help screen) displayed and the rest of the User Interface (UI) has been greyed-out to indicate that it is currently inactive. In these instances the active dialog must be completed or closed before the rest of the UI becomes active.

For now:

close the active dialog by clicking the red X in the top right-hand corner of the dialog

click anywhere on the green \ white grid, this will show the right-hand panel

Greyed-out elements are inactive

Active

dialog

Left Panel

Menu Bar

Tool Bar Help

Camera Controls

Right Panel

Notification Bar Download Progress

Workspace

Lightmapping

Progress

Current User and MVH Build

Number

The screen now contains the workspace surrounded by the various elements which comprise the MVH User Interface (UI). Some UI elements, such as the left and right panels can be collapsed or set to fade out when not in use, in order to maximise the amount of available workspace.

Interface Element Function

Menu Bar Contains the various MVH menus

Tool Bar Contains the most commonly used Tools and Actions

Left Panel Contains the MVH Catalogue and Search; look here to

homes, rooms, furniture, paints, plants etc

Camera Controls Use these to control to move and look around your home

Right Panel Contains details about the selected MVH object and

options to customise that object

Workspace This is the space where you construct and decorate your

homes

Notification Bar Present various alert and information messages concerning

your current actions

Download Progress Charts your progress through downloading objects to place

in your home

Lightmapping Progress Charts the progress of the MVH Lightmapper

Help Access the MVH Help system

Current User and Build Number Details the User currently logged in to MVH and the Build

(version) number of MVH in use

Note: for further details on all Interface elements, their contents and their use, see the section titled The User Interface

Your First Home

The quickest and easiest way to see just what MVH can do is to load a pre-built home from the MVH Catalogue.

Load the Home

To do this:

select the Homes category in the MVH Catalogue

select MyVirtualHome Homes

select Small Tutorial Home Complete

This will load the Tutorial home and place you in the Walkthrough camera mode.

If you installed MVH from a DVD then you can load homes from the catalogue quite quickly. If you downloaded MVH from a website then some homes may take a few minutes to load the first time as some files will need to be downloaded from the MVH Data Server. Any subsequent loads of the home will be much quicker.

Walk around the home

Now that you are inside the home:

Use the camera controls to move about the home (or use arrow keys on your keyboard)

Hold down the right mouse-button and move the mouse to look around the home

practice moving around the home in this manner

Explore the Camera Modes

click the camera mode icons to change the camera mode (or use the spacebar on your keyboard)

experiment with the camera controls to get an idea of how you can move the camera in the various camera modes

When you are familiar with the camera controls and the various camera modes:

return to the Walkthrough camera mode once more

Paint a Wall

click a wall to select it

Clicking on any object will select the object and present information about the object in the Right Panel.

select the Customise tab in the right panel

scroll down to the Materials section in the Customise tab (you can click a section headers to expand\collapse that section)

Note: in MVH, Material is used to describe anything that can be applied to the surface of an object or room. Materials include paint, wallpaper, carpet, tiles, fabrics, polished metal finishes, pavers, bricks and many others.

Camera

Modes

Camera

Controls

You will notice that the wall object contains three editable Material slots; Wall, Cornice and Skirting.

select the Wall slot

The bottom half of the Customise tab now shows selection of categories containing alternative Materials that can be applied to the wall

click to browse the categories and select an alternative material to apply to the wall

The wall is immediately updated with your new selection.

click Back to Customise

experiment with changing Materials on other objects within the home

Note: clicking on the floor will select the entire room.

Build a Home

We will now build the MVH Tutorial Home from scratch.

reset the MVH Catalogue by clicking the Home icon above the catalogue in the left panel

browse the catalogue to the MyVirtualHome Homes category, select Homes > MyVirtualHome Homes

select Small Tutorial Home - Floorplan

This will load the floorplan and place the camera in Plan Mode.

From the catalogue, within the MyVirtualHome Homes category:

select the Living Room (Tutorial Home)

The room is loaded and attached to the mouse pointer.

you will notice an area on the floorplan labelled Living Room

move the room to the correct position and click to place the room into the workspace

To move the room once it is in the workspace:

click the floor of the room and the room will show a blue border to indicate that it has been selected

hold down the left mouse button and drag to move the room

release the mouse button to place the room

When aligning rooms with a floorplan it is a great idea to hide the floor of the rooms so that you can see the floorplan underneath. To do this:

from the Menu Bar select Options > Show\Hide ...

click the Show\Hide Floors button,

then click Close

The floors are now hidden and you can see the floorplan beneath the room.

align the room with the floorplan

select the Kitchen and place it into the scene

drag the kitchen to snap it against the living room

Note: when two (or more) rooms are snapped together, their shared walls become internal

plasterboard walls. This change from External (brick) to internal wall impacts many things in MVH including the way lighting is calculated for the rooms, the availability of doors and windows for the affected walls and the shape of the roof. Sometimes two walls can appear to be snapped when they are not. To indicate this, the nodes of the adjacent walls are coloured red.

continue down the category, selecting and placing the rooms onto the floorplan

Note: if you have Auto-place doors and windows set in your MVH Preferences, then MVH uses some simple logic to place suitable doors and windows in suitable locations throughout your home. This same process may also hide some internal walls, such as when an open kitchen is snapped to a living room. This can be seen in the MVH Small Tutorial Home.

Once all the rooms have been placed:

return to the Show\Hide menu and click Show\Hide Floors again to reveal floors once more

Well done! You successfully built a home in MVH.

Decorate your Home

select the Walkthrough camera mode to view your home from the inside

select an object or surface within your home

You can use the Alternatives tab in the right panel to quickly swap an object with another of a similar type.

You can use the Customise tab in the right panel to modify the configuration and look of any object you select.

modify the furnishings, redecorate and customise the colour scheme as you see fit

The User Interface

Hiding the Interface

When you are simply viewing a home rather than building or decorating you may like to hide the entire UI, this can be done via the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Spacebar.

The UI can then be revealed once more using the same shortcut.

Current User and MVH Build Number

Located in the top right-hand corner of the MVH window are details of the current MVH user and the MVH Build number. These details may be useful in the event that you contact your local MVH Support Department.

Help

The Help icon launches the MVH online Help dialog which contains useful information such as:

a Quick-start Guide

various Tips and Tricks to get the most out of MVH

Keyboard Shortcuts to more efficiently use MVH

Credits, an acknowledgement to those whose time and effort have made the MyVirtualHome project a reality

Menu Bar

The Menus in MVH are similar to all other software applications; they can be opened by clicking the menu name and each hold a number of different options.

Menus in MVH are grouped together in the Menu bar.

Each menu opens a drop-down containing a number of options. These menus are covered in the Menus section.

Tool bar

The Tool bar provides quick access to the most commonly used tools in MVH.

Function Shortcut Use

Ctrl+S Save the current Home

Change the cursor to the Selection tool

Change the cursor to the Interact tool.

Many objects in MVH have actions that can be triggered via the

Interact tool, e.g. doors open and close, fans spin, lights turn

on\off

Select a material or component of the current selected object

Ctrl+Z MVH records your last 20 changes in the MVH History.

Move back 1 step in the history

Ctrl+Y MVH records your last 20 changes in the MVH History.

Move forward 1 step in the MVH history

Show \ hide the roof.

The roof is always shown when in the walkthrough camera

mode

Show the Home Properties in the right panel

The Tool bar also features the MVH Home Level Controls.

Camera Controls

Zoom

Camera zoom functionality only works in the Plan and Isometric camera modes, you cannot

Rotate Camera Highlight indicates active

camera mode

Camera Modes

Move Camera

Zoom

Dropdown

menu

Levels currently in the home,

click to select as active level.

Current Level

Open dropdown menu

Level actions

Basement actions

zoom in the Walkthrough camera mode.

Function Alternatives Use

Mouse-wheel forward

Home key

Zoom in

Mouse-wheel backwards

Insert key

Zoom out

To zoom the camera in on an object to view the object very closely you can use Focus Mode.

To enter Focus mode:

left-click the object to select it

right-click the object to view the context menu

OR

view the Actions section of the Customise tab

select Focus camera on object

To exit Focus mode:

view the context menu

OR

view the Actions section of the Customise tab

select Leave object focus mode

Camera Modes

Icon Mode

Plan Mode use to layout your rooms

Isometric Mode a standard architectural 3D model of your home and contents

Walkthrough Mode a realistic representation of walking through your home.

Note: walls are 'locked' and may not be edited in this mode.

Rotate \ Tilt the Camera

You can rotate the camera using any of the icons in the outer-ring of the camera controls or from their associated keyboard shortcuts, but some rotations are only available from some camera modes.

Note: holding down the right mouse button and using the mouse will allow you to move the workspace in relation to the camera while in the Plan or Isometric camera mode.

Free-look Mode

In the Walkthrough camera mode you can enter a free-look mode in which you can point the camera in any direction. You can access free-look by holding down the right-mouse button. Then simply move your mouse to point the camera in the direction of the movement.

Move Camera

You can move the camera using any of the icons in the inner-ring of the camera controls or from their associated keyboard shortcuts.

Note: remember that holding down the right mouse button and using the mouse will allow you to point the camera in any direction while in the Walkthrough camera mode.

Move Forwards

Move Right Move Left

Move Backwards

Isometric and Walkthrough Modes

Tilt up

Tilt Down

Rotate Left Rotate Right

Plan Mode

Rotate

Anti-clockwise

Rotate

Clockwise

Walkthrough Mode

MVHs Walkthrough camera mode is great way to appreciate and to showcase your home designs.

It is also the ideal camera mode for fine tuning the placement of furniture and applying materials such as paint, tiles and carpet.

The Walkthrough mode, as the name suggests, allows you to walk through your home.

Walking & Turning

You can use the (up arrow) and (down arrow) keys while holding down the Right Mouse Button to move the camera and change the direction that the camera is facing at the same time.

Press and hold the Right Mouse Button.

Press and hold the (up arrow) key to move forward.

Move the mouse to the left or right to change direction while moving.

This method of moving is very useful and quickly becomes a natural way to navigate your home.

Walking Through Walls

Be default, the camera cannot move through a wall when in walkthrough mode.

In some situations you may wish to be able to move freely throughout your home without this restriction; to do so hold down the Shift key while moving.

Likewise, closed doors will block your path. These too can be bypassed by holding down the Shift key while moving or by opening the door.

Doors may be opened by a number of methods, including:

Double-clicking the door

Right-click to activate the doors context menu and then select Open Door

Left click the door to select it then select Open Door from the Actions section of the Customise tab

Select the Interact tool from the Tool Bar, then click the door to open it.

Resetting the camera

If at any time you become los, the Backspace key on your keyboard will reset the camera position. If you are still lost, then press the Spacebar to change to a different camera mode.

Left Panel

The User Interface (UI) panel on the left of the MVH window contains the MVH catalogues; the Homes, Rooms, Fixtures, Furniture and Materials (paints, carpets fabrics etc.) which can be used to build and decorate your home.

Whenever you want to place a room or object into your home, you will find it in the left-panel.

Feature Use

Expand \ Collapse Click to expand and collapse the tab

Category Reset Click to set the catalogue back to the root categories

Fade Panel Click to toggle the Panel Fade feature. When active, the panel will

fade out when the mouse leaves the panel and fade in when you

mouse over the panel.

Tabs Click to change tabs

Browse browse and select objects from the catalogue

Build Help a quick guide through the basic steps of building a home in MVH

Search search the MVH Catalogue for objects to place, or search the MVH Directory for the businesses in your area associated with those products

Catalogue Click to browse categories.

Click a Home, Room or product to select it

Breadcrumbs Describes your current location within the catalogue and can be used

to jump between categories.

See the Breadcrumbs section for details.

Breadcrumbs

The MVH Catalogues contain many thousands of products, including entire furnished homes

Expand \ Collapse Fade Panel

Category Reset

Expand \ Collapse

Tabs

Catalogue

Breadcrumbs

and everything to put into a home from a bathroom to a single piece of cutlery, photo-frame or door handle.

These objects are sorted into categories and placed into catalogues; the breadcrumbs feature in the left-panel is used to indicate your current location within a catalogue.

The Reset Catalogue icon will return you to the root (start) level of any catalogue you are viewing.

Your current category is always the right-most entry in the breadcrumb trail, and the contents of this category are displayed below the breadcrumbs.

Parent categories describe the path from the root of the catalogue, to your currently selected category. A maximum of three (3) parent categories are displayed at any time and these categories are links back to that category.

click on a parent category to navigate back to that category

In the example below, we have:

selected the Furniture and Electrical category

from within that, selected the Furniture category

from within that selected the Bedding category

and finally, from within that selected the Single Beds category

The contents of the Single Beds category are displayed.

Reset Catalogue

Parent Categories Current Category

Category

Contents

Notifications Bar

The notifications bar displays confirmation and information messages relating to your current actions.

Download Progress Bar

Charts the progress of downloading files for the rooms and objects that you place in your home.

Lightmapping Progress Bar

This bar charts the progress of lightmapping each room and outdoor area within your home.

Lightmapping can be set to occur automatically from within the MVH Preferences, but can always be triggered manually by clicking the Start button next to the progress bar.

Once Lightmapping has begun:

the Start button becomes a Clear button which removes all lightmaps when clicked.

mouse over the progress bar to reveal details regarding the current lightmap target

Right Panel

The right panel offers detailed information on every object (home, room, fixture, furniture and material) in the MVH Catalogue and the ability to customise these objects to your satisfaction.

The right panel offers the same panel controls as the left:

Start Lightmapping \

Clear all lightmaps

Lightmapping Progress

Current Lightmap

Target

Feature Use

Expand \ Collapse Click to expand and collapse the tab

Fade Panel Click to toggle the Panel Fade feature. When active, the panel will

fade out when the mouse leaves the panel and fade in when you

mouse over the panel.

Tabs Click to change tabs, each tab contains different contents

Tab Contents This are provides the information and functionality available for the

currently selected object.

Info Tab

The Info Tab provides product information specific to the currently selected object.

Expand \ Collapse

Expand \ Collapse

Fade Panel

Tabs

Feature Use

Object Name The full name of the currently selected object

Manufacturer \ Supplier The business logo of the Manufacturer \ Supplier of the currently

selected object. Clicking the logo will open your default web

browser and then load the Manufacturers MVH Directory page.

Description The full description of the currently selected object.

MVH Directory Search Search for businesses, related to the currently selected object,

which operate in your local area.

Customise Tab

The Customise Tab allows you to interact with and modify the selected object. The contents of this tab are separated into collapsible sections.

Feature Use

Actions Various ways to interact with the currently selected object.

Click an action button to interact with the current object

Properties All editable properties for the selected object are presented here.

Components All editable components are presented.

Click a component slot to change the current component

Materials All editable Materials are presented.

Click a material slot to change the current material

Description

Object Name

Object

Name

MVH Directory

Search

Manufacturer \

Supplier

Properties

Modify to suit

Actions

Click to interact

with the selected

object Click to

Expand \ Collapse

Components

Click a

component slot

to change it

Alternatives

The Alternatives tab is a quick method to replace one object in the workspace with another.

The alternatives tab will show all categories which contain objects that are similar to the currently selected object. These categories can then be browsed and a replacement object selected.

Once selected, the chosen replacement is automatically placed into the workspace, replacing the previous object.

Workspace

The MVH Workspace is your window into the MyVirtualHome world; a place where you can design, build, renovate and decorate homes and gardens then share these creations with other users, businesses and tradespersons.

Objects, be they couches, doors, bathrooms or entire homes, are selected from the catalogue

Note: The Alternatives tab is not available when you have selected one of the following MVH Object Types:

- MVH Home

- MVH Room

Materials

Click a material

slot to change

it

Click the Paintbrush tool to select this

material.

Use the Paintbrush to

apply the selected

material to other

objects in the home

and placed into the workspace. Once in the workspace they can be customised to suit your needs.

Context Menu

The context menu offers a range of commonly actions specific to each room or object in MVH at the click of a button. To view the context menu for an object (or room):

right-click the object

Note: right-click means to click the object with the right mouse button instead of the left mouse button.

The majority of the options presented in this menu are actions, and as such can also be found in the Actions section of the Customise tab.

Typical MVH Room

Context Menu

Loading and Saving Homes

Starting a New Home

When you run MVH you are initially presented with a clear workspace, ready to build a new home. At any time while using MVH you can return to this state by:

File Menu > New Home

or

Ctrl+N

If there are any objects in the workspace when you select New Home, then you will be presented with a dialog asking if you would like to save the existing home before starting a new home.

Note: if this dialog does not appear it means that no changes had been made to the existing home since the last time it was saved. Starting a new home will not cause you to lose any of your previous work.

Loading Homes

Loading an existing home will place the home on your workspace and place the camera in the position it was when the loaded home was last saved.

Homes can be loaded from your local MVH Homes directory on your computer, from the MVH HomeShare server or from the Homes section of the MVH Catalogue.

Loading a Home from the Catalogue

MVH v2.1 introduced Homes is the MVH catalogue. The homes presented are those from commercial Home Designers, Developers and Builders; these are real homes available for purchase.

Many of the homes provide in the catalogue come in two varieties, furnished and unfurnished and all are constructed to specifications provided by the Home Designer.

The furnished homes have been furnished and decorated to showcase the great features of the home and many are copies of existing display homes.

Note: due to the number of objects present in these fully furnished homes, the homes may take a few minutes to load the first time as some files will need to be downloaded from the MVH Data Server. Any subsequent loads of the home will be much quicker.

Unfurnished homes are just that complete but unfurnished. These homes have been fully constructed and all fixtures (doors, windows, fixed cupboards etc) have been added; the home

is built and ready for your furnishings and decorations.

To load a home from the catalogue simply browse the catalogue and click a home to select it.

You will be presented with a loading screen that offers a preview image and some basic details about the home and a progress bar which details the progress of the loading process.

Loading a Locally Saved Home

Locally saved homes are homes that you have saved to your computer. Usually these are homes which you have created yourself but these can be homes that you have loaded from the MVH Catalogue or from the MVH HomeShare Server and then resaved locally.

To load a locally saved home you can:

File Menu > Load Home

OR

Ctrl+O

This will open a standard windows dialog allowing you to browse your computer to the location in which you saved your home.

Usually this is in your My Documents \ MyVirtualHome folder. Use the dialog to locate the home you wish to load, select the home and click OK.

Loading a Home from HomeShare

HomeShare is an MVH feature which allows you to share your homes with other MVH users. This allows you to showcase your designs, communicate your expectations with tradespersons and view the designs of others. For more details on HomeShare, see the section titled MVH HomeShare.

To load a Home from the MVH HomeShare Server:

select File > Load from HomeShare

This will open the HomeShare dialog which features two tabs:

My Shared Homes a list of the homes that you have saved to HomeShare

Search for other shared homes a search dialog where you can search for homes that other users have saved to HomeShare

To load a home that you have saved to HomeShare:

browse the list of homes in the My Shared Homes tab

click Open to load the home into the workspace

To load someone elses home from HomeShare:

select the Search for other shared homes tab

enter the HomeShare Code for the desired home and click Search

browse the results of the search

select the home to load and click Open

Recovering lost work

By default, MVH saves your home every 10minutes, in this way if your system crashes during an editing session, there will be an AutoSave file that contains most of the lost work.

After restarting MVH:

press Ctrl+O to display the Load dialog

OR

select the AutoSave.home file located in your My Documents > MyVirtualHome folder

click Open

Saving Homes

Any home that you build can be saved and then accessed again at a later date. Homes may be saved locally to your computer, or, to the MVH HomeShare Server and from there shared with other MVH users

Saving a Home Locally

You can save any home that you create to your computer to be accessed at a later time. You can also save a copy of other homes that you have loaded from the catalogue or from the MVGH HomeShare Server.

Note: when you save a home a screenshot of your home is taken to use as the preview image for the home. You may wish to position the camera in a particular mode or focus on a particular feature prior to saving the home.

To save a home locally to your computer:

File Menu > Save

OR

Ctrl+S

This will open a standard windows dialog allowing you to browse your computer to the location in which you want to save your home. By default, the dialog will open with the location you last used to save a home.

browse to the location in which you wish to save the home

enter a name from the home

click Save

Once you have saved a home for the first time, any subsequent saves will not show the Save dialog, instead MVH will just save your home to same location with the same name.

To save the home under a different name or ina different location see the topic, Copying a Saved Home.

Deleting a saved home

You can delete your locally saved homes from your operating systems file browser, simply:

open your file browser

navigate to the saved homes directory (typically this is My Documents \ MyVirtualHome)

select the file and hit the Delete key

You can delete homes that you have saved to HomeShare by:

opening the HomeShare Dialog (File > Load from HomeShare)

browse your shared homes and click the Delete button associated with the home you wish to delete

Copying Homes

Copying a Saved Home

You can make a copy of one of your locally saved MVH homes by using your operating systems file browser. Simply navigate to the directory in which you save your Homes and make a copy of the home file as you would any other file.

You can also do this from within MVH by:

loading the home

File > Save Home as ...

This will open the normal Save Home dialog allowing you to select a location in, and name under, which to save the home.

Copying a Catalogue or HomeShare Home

You may wish to load an unfurnished home from the catalogue or a HomeShare home and

Copy HomeShare Link

HomeShare Code

then see how it looks with your furniture inside. Simply load the home and:

File Menu > Save

OR

Ctrl+S

This will open a standard windows dialog allowing you to browse your computer to the location in which you want to save your home. By default, the dialog will open with the location you last used to save a home.

browse to the location in which you wish to save the home

enter a name from the home

click Save

MVH HomeShare

HomeShare is a feature that allows you to save your home to the MVH HomeShare server and from there other MVH users can access your home.

When your home is saved to HomeShare it is assigned a unique HomeShare code. Sharing this code with someone else allows them to download, view, and if you allow it, edit your home.

If another user downloads your home, edits the home and then attempts to save your home back to the HomeShare server, then they are assigned a new HomeShare Code ensuring that your original version is always safe for future reference.

Note: you are the only person that can ever modify or delete the home that you have saved to HomeShare.

HomeShare is:

a great way to share your design ideas with friends, family and teachers

a quick and simple way to share your vision and expectations with tradespersons

a powerful way to showcase your home designs to potential home purchasers, wherever they are at any time of day

If you are a manufacturer (or salesperson) of items that are available in MVH, then you can even use HomeShare to present a virtual showroom full of your products. This option is best used in conjunction with HomeShare Links.

HomeShare Codes

When you save a home to HomeShare, the home is assigned a unique HomeShare Code. This code is displayed in the HomeShare dialog once the save is complete.

This code may be shared with other MyVirtualHome users, enabling them to download, view and edit a copy of your home.

HomeShare Links

HomeShare Links are

similar to HomeShare Codes in that they allow you to share homes that have been saved to HomeShare.

A HomeShare Link is created along with the HomeShare Code whenever a home is saved to the HomeShare Server. This link can be added to an email or website or as you would any other hyperlink, or the text of the link can be printed on a flyer or brochure and users can type the link into their web browser.

If the user doesnt have MyVirtualHome installed, they will be taken to a webpage describing what MyVirtualHome is and where they can get it.

If the user has MVH installed, then clicking link will launch MVH and, once they have logged in, load the home.

Building a Home

Floorplans

Floorplans can be used to guide your build in order to quickly construct an accurate model of a real home.

Note: floorplans are entirely optional; you do not require a floorplan to build a home in MVH. But if you have one, they are a great place to start.

MVH can use almost any image as a floorplan so you can scan your paper floorplan or photograph it and import that into MVH. Most home builders and designers can now offer an electronic version of their floorplans for you to view on your PC and there are many websites which offer floorplans for download.

Loading a Floorplan

Almost any image can be loaded into MVH to be used as a floorplan. MVH may make some changes to the image in order to handle the floorplan; the image may be resized and rendered in gray-scale (no colour) once it is in MVH.

Note: no changes are actually made to the image, only to the way the image is presented in MVH.

To load a floorplan:

select File > Load Floorplan

This will open a dialog allowing you to browse your computer to find your floorplan. Once you have located your floorplan:

select the floorplan and click Open

This will import your floorplan into

MVH.

Resizing a Floorplan

The first and most important thing to do when working with floorplans is to ensure they are to correct scale. When you placed the floorplan, two survey pages were also placed. Between the two pegs is a yellow measurement line which displays the current distance between the two pegs. This measurement is updated as you drag a peg.MVH provides two survey pegs as an aide when setting the scale.

select one of these survey pegs and drag it to one edge of a measurement on the floorplan

drag the other peg to the other end of the selected floorplan measurement

Chances are that the measurement between the survey pegs doesnt match that of the floorplan. We need to resize the floorplan so that these two measurements match; to do this:

select one a corner of the floorplan and drag it to resize the plan until the floorplan measurement matches the survey peg measurement

Your floor plan is now to the correct scale. From this point forth, the dimensions in MyVirtualHome will match the dimensions on your floor plan.

Rotating a Floorplan

Floorplans, like all other MVH objects have a rotation handle which is visible when the object is selected.

click the floorplan to select it

click and drag the rotation handle to rotate the floorplan

release the mouse button to stop rotating the floorplan

This will rotate the floorplan in 5 increments, finer adjustments can be made by holding the Ctrl key while rotating.

Floorplans can also be flipped in 90 increments by using the < and > keys on your keyboard to rotate anti-clockwise and clockwise respectively.

Locking a Floorplan

Once your floorplan has been resized it is a good idea to lock the floorplan to prevent accidentally moving or resizing the floorplan. To lock your floorplan:

select Edit > Lock\Unlock

click the Floorplan icon to lock your floorplan

Note: when using a floorplan it is useful to hide floors to aid in aligning the rooms with the floorplan. To hide floors:

- select Options > Show\Hide

- click the Show\hide Floor icon to hide the floors

Floorplans & Multi-Level Homes

When building a multi-level home you may have floorplans for each level. A single floorplan can be placed for each level of the home.

To place a floorplan on a specific level:

use the level controls to select that level

select File > Load Floorplan

Unlocked Locked

Ground Level

Floorplan

Transparent

Upper-Level

Floorplan

browse to the location of the desired floorplan and click to select

click Open

You may notice that floorplans placed on the upper levels of homes are slightly transparent allowing you to see the rooms that lie on the level below. This allows you to align the floorplan with the floor below.

The MVH Home property Force opaque floorplans can be set to prevent floorplans from be presented in the translucent state. To set this property:

click the Home Properties icon on the Toolbar

scroll down Properties section of the Customise tab until you locate the Force opaque floorplans property and click to select it

Note: rooms placed on upper levels will snap to align themselves with rooms on the level below as well as those on the same level to assist in room placement. Snapping behaviour can be overridden by holding the Ctrl key while placing the room.

Hiding Floorplans

Once placed, floorplans can be hidden at any time. This may be useful when you are designing outdoors.

To hide floorplans:

select Options > Show\Hide

click the Show\Hide Floorplans icon

Floorplans can be made visible once more by clicking this icon again.

Deleting Floorplans

To delete a floorplan:

click the floorplan

hit Delete on your keyboard

OR

right click the floorplan and select Delete Object from the context menu

Placing a North Marker

MVH accurately calculates the position of the sun in the sky as well as the intensity and the

North

Marker

Rotation

Handle

quality of sun-light for any location on Earth. The aspect of a home greatly affects amount of natural light that a room will receive and in order to determine the aspect of a home, you will need to place a North Marker.

Note: if a North Marker is not placed, then MVH considers north to be in the direction of the top of the screen when a new home is created.

To place a North Marker:

select Measurements > Place North Marker

move the mouse to position the marker and click to place the marker into the workspace

rotate the North Marker as required by dragging the markers rotation handle

Some floor plans indicate the direction to true north; this is usually the case for floorplans of homes already built or ready to build.

A north markers location in the workspace is not important, only the direction in which it is indicating north.

Rooms and Walls

In MVH, the Room is your core building component; think of it as a childs wooden block, you build a home by placing blocks next to and on top of each other.

Some rooms are obvious, such as a Bedroom or Kitchen, others not so obvious, such as a Hallway, Built-in Wardrobe or Linen Cupboard. While most rooms are part of the indoor space, some rooms are considered to be outdoors, such as the Patio and Courtyard. All of these spaces are considered to be rooms.

Rooms are very flexible and what you can do with one room, you can do with any other. If you have an idea for a space, be it inside or out, you can almost certainly realise your vision, just start with a room. The sunken garden below began life as an Entry Foyer.

Most rooms in MVH are at least partially furnished. This allows you to recognise the room at a glance and most importantly, provides an immediate sense of scale. Most people do not know the width of their bedroom in metres but they do know how much room they on each side of the bed at least visually. Pre-furnished rooms provide you with this scale immediately, to give you an impression of the real size of the room and are great to work with when not using a floorplan.

Note: a room cannot be placed inside another room.

The room is shown as a

crate while downloading

Room is shown once

download complete

Move Cursor

Adding Rooms

Rooms are located in the Rooms category of the MVH Catalogue. This category is a root (top-level) category so it can be accessed quickly from anywhere in the catalogue by clicking the

reset catalogue button .

click the Rooms category to view the category contents

The rooms are grouped into various categories to allow you to quickly locate the type of room you are looking for.

browse the categories and click a room

The room is then attached to the mouse cursor. If MVH needs to download any files for the room (or its contents) then the room is displayed as a crate until the download is complete. The download progress is displayed in the Download Progress Bar in the lower right of the MVH window.

Once the room is attached to the mouse you can move the mouse to drag the room around the workspace.

If other rooms have already been placed in the workspace you may notice that the room attached to the cursor will snap to the edges of existing rooms and snap to be in-line with the edges of existing rooms. This is to assist in aligning or joining rooms.

hold Ctrl while moving the mouse to override this snapping behaviour

Note: Rooms cannot be placed on top of another object on the same home level.

Moving Rooms

Once placed into the workspace rooms can be moved in the same manner that all MVH objects are moved:

click the floor of the room to select it and continue to hold down the left-mouse button, the cursor will change to the move cursor

Note: if the room contains furniture, be sure to click the floor and not the furniture.

The selected object can always be recognised by the blue highlight

drag the mouse to move the selected room

release the mouse to place the room

Moving rooms between levels in the home

Homes in MVH can consist of multiple levels, five above ground levels and a single basement level. Rooms can be easily moved between levels of the home by:

right-click the room to show the rooms context menu

select Move Above or Move Room Below to move the room to another level

Note: these options (like most options in the context menu) are also available in the Actions section of the Customise tab.

This action will move the room to the selected level. If the level does not currently exist, the level is created and then the room is moved to the new level.

If the level already exists the

Rooms cannot be moved between levels if the move would cause the room to collide with another object, if this is the case the action is not available.

Rotating Rooms

Rooms, like all other MVH objects have a rotation handle which is visible when the object is selected.

click the room to select it

click and drag the rotation handle to rotate the room

release the mouse button to stop rotating the room

This will rotate the room in 5 increments, finer adjustments can be made by holding the Ctrl key while rotating.

Rooms can also be flipped in 90 increments by using the < and > keys on your keyboard to rotate anti-clockwise and clockwise respectively.

The room will not rotate if the new orientation would cause the room to overlap another room or object already in the workspace.

Cut, Copy and Paste Rooms

The basic editing tools of Cut, Copy and Paste can be applied to rooms in just the same manner that they are applied to other objects in your MVH Home.

These tools are considered to be Actions in MVH, so in addition to being available from the Edit menu in the Menu Bar they can also be found:

in the context menu (right-click an object, room to view its context menu)

in the Actions section of the Customise tab (available after the object has been selected)

Cut a Room

When you cut a room the room is removed from the workspace but a copy of the room is held in the clipboard. The room can be returned to the workspace via the Paste action.

Restrictions

you cannot cut a room that is snapped to another

doors and windows are removed when the room is cut

Copy a Room

When you copy a room, a copy of the room is held in the clipboard and can be returned to the workspace via the Paste action.

Restrictions

you cannot copy a room that is snapped to another

doors and windows are removed from the copy of the room, the original room is unaffected

Paste a Room

The Paste action copies the contents of the clipboard and attaches this to the mouse cursor, ready to be placed into the workspace.

If the clipboard contains a room, then the room is attached to the mouse cursor, ready for placement. The normal rules and restrictions regarding the placement of rooms applies.

Aligning Rooms

Aligning Rooms with a Floorplan

Prior to placing rooms on a floorplan you should ensure that you have:

used the survey pegs to resize the floorplan to the correct scale

locked the floorplan to avoid accidently moving it during the building process

placed the camera in the Plan mode to better view the floorplan

It is easy to select rooms and place them on the floorplan, but even a few centimetres out can make a difference a few rooms later. To assist you in placing rooms as accurately as possible when using a floorplan, MVH allows you to temporarily hide the floors of rooms so you can see the floorplan underneath. To do this:

from the Menu Bar select Options > Show\Hide ...

click the Show\Hide Floors button, then click Close

The floors are now hidden and you can see the floorplan beneath the room.

Aligning Rooms with other Rooms

When placing rooms you will notice that as you move the room about the workspace the room occasionally snaps to a point in the workspace. These snapping lines coincide with:

a parallel wall of another room

the mid-point of a perpendicular wall of another room

Snapping occurs when a snap-line of the room being moved aligns with a snap-line of an existing room.

Joining Rooms

Homes in MVH are built by joining one room to another. Joining one room to another in order to build a home in MVH is, quite literally, a snap.

place a few rooms into the workspace

select one room and drag it towards another

When the two rooms are quite close together, the room you are dragging will jump the remaining distance and snap to the other room.

When two rooms snap together:

exterior walls become interior, plasterboard walls

any doors or windows that were located where any two walls snapped are removed

The change from external to internal wall impacts many things in MVH including the way lighting is calculated for the rooms, the availability of doors and windows for the affected walls, and the shape of the roof. Sometimes two walls can appear to be snapped when they are not. MVH uses flashing, red nodes to indicate this issue..

Snap-lines of

existing rooms

Snap-lines of the

new room

Select the node and

drag to resize \ reshape

the room

If this occurs you will need to either:

drag one of the affected walls towards the other until the snap occurs; this will affect (slightly) the room dimensions

OR

select one of the rooms and reposition it to achieve the snap

Resizing and Reshaping Rooms

Using Nodes

Rooms are quickly and easily resized in MVH. The main control points for a room are the Nodes of the room. A node is created where two or more walls intersect and are indicated by a translucent blue cube.

Nodes can be selected and then dragged like any other object in MVH and by doing so you can resize and reshape a room.

Note: nodes where 3 or more walls intersect cannot be dragged.

place a room and click a node to select it

drag the node to resize the room

release the mouse when done

You may notice a couple of things while doing this:

1. that the room dimensions are shown while you are dragging the node

2. that the angle of the walls that form the node does not change a 90 corner remains a 90 corner

To change the angle between two walls:

select the node

use the nodes selection handle to drag the node away from the centre of the room to reduce the angle

OR

use the nodes selection handle to drag the node towards from the centre of the room to increase the angle

Wall Selected

Drag the selected wall to resize the walls

attached to it

Using Walls

Rooms can also be resized and reshaped using the walls of the room. When using nodes to resize a room you will notice that it is very easy to resize the room in two dimensions (length and width) but not so easy to resize the room in just one; it can be a little tricky to make a room longer without changing how wide it is.

If you want to change modify a rooms size and shape in just one dimension it is much easier to accomplish using a wall than it is a node. When using walls, you select a wall to use as a handle and then drag the handle- wall; the handle doesnt change size, but the two walls attached to the handle do.

place a room

click a wall to select it

Ensure that only the wall is selected, you can confirm this by the blue border that surrounds the selected object and by the name of the selected object at the top of the right panel.

Drag the handle-wall to alter the length of the walls that are attached to it

The length of each affected wall is shown and is automatically adjusted as you drag the handle-wall.

Select the nodes rotation handle and drag to change

the angle between walls

After snapping the selected wall is

split into two segments. These can

be edited separately.

Before snapping the selected

wall consists of a single

segment

release the mouse button when done

Splitting Walls (L Shaped Rooms)

Most rooms in MVH are either square or rectangular in shape when they are placed into the workspace, but they do not need to stay that way. By splitting walls you in effect turn a single wall into two separate walls.

To split a wall:

right-click the wall show the walls context menu

select Split Wall from the menu

Note: splitting walls is another action so you will also find it in the Actions section of the Customise tab.

You will notice that splitting a wall adds a node halfway along the wall creating two wall segments. Each segment can be selected separately and treated as an individual wall.

To reshape the room:

select one of the wall segments

drag the wall to reshape the room

In some instances walls are automatically split when you snap rooms together, you may have noticed already. This occurs when a node from one room is snapped to a wall of another.

Restrictions to Resizing and Reshaping Rooms

You cannot resize a room such that the furniture within the room no longer fits.

Note: if you attempt to do this, the furniture will be hi-lit red to indicate the problem. You

may need to move, replace or delete the furniture to achieve the room size\shape you are after. Furniture can be quickly removed from a room using the room action Clear Furniture located in both the context menu and the Actions section of the Customise tab.

No single room can cover an area larger than 40m2

No single wall can be longer than 50m

No wall can be shorter than 4.5cm

No internal wall angle can be less than 5o

No internal wall angle can be greater than 345o

Interior and Exterior Walls

Whether or not a wall is considered to be an interior wall or an exterior wall is quite important in MVH. The nature of the wall impacts many things in MVH including the way lighting is calculated for the rooms, the availability of doors and windows for the affected walls, and the shape of the roof.

A wall is considered to be exterior when it borders the home i.e. there is no room, only the outdoors, on one side of the wall

Outdoor rooms are rooms that have a gap in an exterior wall. This gap can be due to a hidden wall, a half-height wall or the wall type (e.g. balustrade walls).

Note: doors and windows are not considered a gap in wall, even when they are open.

A wall is also considered to be an exterior wall when it borders an outdoor room.

(WALL A) a balustrade wall, making the room to the left of it an outdoor space and it an external wall.

(WALL B) has a deleted wall, making the room to the left of it an outdoor space and it an external wall.

(WALL C) features a half-height wall, making the room to the left of it an outdoor space and it an external

wall.

(WALLS D & F) both border an outdoor space making them external walls.

(WALL E) does not border an outdoor space and is therefore the only interior wall

(WALL A) is a full brick wall. It is an unbroken external wall making the room to the left of in an

interior wall.

(WALLS B, C, D, & E) are all interior walls

Windows can only be placed on exterior walls

Exterior doors can only be placed on exterior walls

Interior doors can only be placed on interior walls

all door and window placement restrictions may be overridden by holding down the Ctrl key while placing or moving the door \ window

Deleting Walls (Open Plan Spaces)

Walls in MVH are never really deleted, instead they are hidden. Any wall can be hidden by:

right click the wall to show the context menu

select Hide Wall

OR

click the wall to select it

select Hide wall from the Actions section of the Customise tab

If you have Auto. place doors and windows set in the MVH Preferences, then the hiding of walls may sometimes occur automatically. In this instance MVH may remove walls that separate one Hallway from another or a Hallway from an Entry Foyer

Half-Height Walls

Whether or not a wall is a half-height

wall is considered to be a property of the wall. As such, once you have selected the wall you can find the Half Height Wall setting in the Properties section of the Customise tab.

To set a wall as a half-height wall:

select the wall

browse the Properties section of the Customise tab

select Half height wall

Once set, a new property, Wall height, is made available.

enter a height for the half-height wall

Multi-Level Homes

MVH allows you to build multiple-level homes; five levels above ground and a single basement level.

When you start a new home and begin to place rooms and objects, everything is placed onto the Terrain, the ground level. When you add a new level to MVH it is as if you had made an invisible copy of the terrain and laid it on top the existing rooms. You may then select the new level and place an additional floorplan or start to add rooms without any concern for them

falling through to the level below, even when there is nothing below to support them, but objects other than rooms are a little different.

Many objects do not care about home levels; instead they are primarily concerned with a surface such as the terrain, the floor of a room, a bench-top, the ceiling or a wall.

If you place a couch, it will simply drop until it encounters a floor or, failing that, the terrain.

When placing a ceiling fan you will notice that it can only be placed on a ceiling, if you attempt to place it outside of a room with a ceiling it will simply disappear.

Note: the ceiling height of a level is determined by the height of the walls of that level. This height is maintained across all walls on a level, if you modify the height of a wall, then that change is reflected in all (non-half-height) walls on that level.

The Level Controls in the Tool Bar indicate the level of the home that you are currently working on and provide the tools to manage the various level of your home.

Adding a Level

Levels are always added to the top of the home, you cannot insert a new level into the middle of a home. To add a new level to your home you can either:

Click the level control to open the dropdown menu

Select Add a new top level

OR

place a room on your existing top level

move that room to level above (creating the new level in the process) via the rooms context menu or the Actions section in the Customise tab

Adding a Basement

Basements are always added below the ground floor of the home. To add a basement level to your home you can either:

Click the level control to open the dropdown menu

Select Add a basement

OR

place a room on your ground level

move that room to level below (creating the basement level in the process) via the rooms context menu or the Actions section in the Customise tab

There is also a setting in the MVH Preferences that, when s