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How can I use the Party Wizard when working with floor plans?
Starting with PartyCAD version 10.1.45 it became very much easier to do this. Check your version by running PartyCAD and clicking About at the top of the screen. If your copy of version 10 is earlier than 10.1 build 45, go here to update to the latest build. While there, also download the Venue Base wizard entry.
When you are set, watch A Ballroom Event on the PartyCAD Videos page, and then you should be ready to give it a try.
If you do not have PartyCAD 10, you cannot take advantage of this new and much improved method. If you do not want to upgrade to version 10, but do have version 8 or 9, here is the old way of doing the same thing:
The Party Wizard speeds the creation of finished event drawings by providing a pre-formatted page that you can easily adjust to suit the needs of a particular event. The Party Wizard contains many tent parties and a simple 100x100 lot, but it is not obvious you can use it when you wish to design a party within a room or suite of rooms. It can be done.
The basic strategy is to use the 100x100 Lot from the Party Wizard to generate the initial page, and then use Make a Plan to modify the supplied plan. There are a couple of different ways to go, but step one should be to get the most up-to-date version of the 100x100 Lot wizard.
Updating the 100x100 Lot in the Party Wizard
Run PartyCAD, click the Party Wizard and then the 100x100 Lot. Look at the small thumbnail picture of the page. If you see a red box in the middle of the floor plan, get out of PartyCAD and click here to update the wizard. After the update, you will see a man standing in the lot rather than the red box.
Simple Lots and the Party Wizard
If you want to design a party into a rectangular area and do not care about seeing walls, window and doors in the finished drawings, here is how to proceed:
1. Run PartyCAD. click the Party Wizard, click the 100x100 Lot party, click the Next button, fill in the project name and the corner block information and click the big Create Party button. This will cause PartyCAD to create a standard 100x100 Lot party, modified to show the text you have entered.
2. Change the lot size to match the size of the event you wish to create. This can be done in either of two ways:
2a. Right click on the plan view of the party at the lower left on the page to go to the Furnish module. Now click Options/ Resize Plan and fill in the correct dimensions of the lot, click Return and you are ready to begin designing your event. Delete the man at the upper left of the plan when you have added some of your own furniture to the plan.
2b. Another way to go is to exit from Layout Page and return to the Main Menu. Now click Make a Plan, Load the Party plan and make the desired changes to the size of the plan. Click OK to save these, then click Layout a Page and reload the Party page. PartyCAD will see the plan has changed, and so will regenerate your art and display a modified page. Now you need only right click the plan and you are ready to add furniture. As with the method above, you will probably want to remove the man at the upper left of the plan once you have loaded a piece or two into your design.
Floor Plans and the Party Wizard
If you want to use the Party Wizard in conjunction with a 3D floor plan created with Make a Plan, here is how to proceed:
1. As above, run PartyCAD. click the Party Wizard, click the 100x100 Lot party, click the Next button, fill in the project name and the corner block information and click the big Create Party button. This will cause PartyCAD to create a standard 100x100 Lot party, modified to show the text information you have entered.
2. Exit Layout Page and return to the Main Menu. Now click Make a Plan, click New to make a new plan and, using the methods described in Chapter 3 of the PartyCAD manual, create the desired floor plan. When it comes time to save the plan, save it under the name PARTY, thus replacing the original plan with your new one. Return to the Main Menu, click Layout a Page and reload the Party page. PartyCAD will see the plan has changed, and so will regenerate your art and display a modified page. Now you need only right click the plan and you are ready to add furniture. As already mentioned, you will probably want to remove the man at the upper left of the plan once you have loaded a piece or two into your design.
Here is another old-time explanation of the old way of doing venues with the Party Wizard:
Suppose you have a ballroom you use a lot at the Ritzy Arms Hotel. Also suppose that you have the measurements of the room and are ready to proceed using the Party Wizard to design an event into the ballroom.
1. Click the Party Wizards button at the upper right of the Main Menu and select 100x100Lot as the design to begin with. Click Next and fill in the data on the party, perhaps naming the project Ritzy Ballroom. When you are done, click Create Party and PartyCAD will create a party that is nothing more than a 100x100 lot with a big red cube at its center. That's fine, that's what we are expecting.
2. Click the X at the upper right of the Layout Page screen to return to the Main Menu. Now click Make a Plan, New and proceed to create the plan of the ballroom in the way you learned in the Quick Start and Basics videos. When you are done, click the Save Plan button at the upper left, select the Add Just Floor to 3D Model option and save the plan as PARTY, overwriting the old PARTY plan that came with the 100x100 lot.
3. Click the Go To Furnish button at the upper left of the Make Plan screen to go to the Furnish module. Now load furnishing into the plan as you would with any design. When you have completed this task, save the arrangement of furniture as PARTY, overwriting the old PARTY arrangement that came with the 100x100 lot.
4. Return to the Main Menu by clicking the X at the upper right of the Furnish screen, and then click Layout a page. PartyCAD will realize that the plan and arrangement of the party have changed and will update then display the revised page. It should look pretty good, but you may have to resize and rearrange parts to make it perfect. When you have completed the party, print it and then save the page as PARTY to overwrite the original PARTY page that the wizard created. In general, I would recommend naming all your page PARTY unless you need multiple versions and you wish to keep them under one project.
At this point you can treat the page as you would any other Party Wizard created page, right-clicking to change parts if that is required. If the landscape behind the VR color picture at the upper left is bothersome, you can get rid of it and set a background color by right-clicking the picture to get to the VR module and then using selections under Options to hide the Landscape, hide the Skybox and set a Background Color. Try it, its not hard.
5. If you are ever likely to design into this room again, you can save yourself from repeating all this work by adding the venue to the Party Wizard. To do this, simply get to the Main Menu, click the Party Wizard button, and then the click the text at the bottom left of the first wizard screen that reads, Add Current Project to the Party Wizard.
The whole idea of this strategy is to take advantage of the Party Wizard page design, but to swap out the original plan and arrangement with ones created for a specific venue.
http://www.hufsoft.com/QnA/PWFloorplans.htm
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