ViewBuild Sketch v3.6 product reviews

I have to agree with the other reviewer on most points except one, the handling of objects. I felt thrilled by the sheer power of this programme but I found it really hard to relocate objects, be it movement or rotation. The textures were pretty limited, but it didn't take long to convert a lot of my stock pictures and textures into useable raw materials. Installing them into VBs internal library was as simple as copy'n'paste into a pretty obvious directory. But I think the extra $80 is worth it juts to get the pro edition libraries on their own. Building a multiple-floor structure was an adventure. Getting to grips with the stairs and ramps was a real eye-opener. One of the tricks that got to me was the lack of abilty to 'dig' a basement. The problem was easily solved when I realised I could adjust the 'ground' height in effect making the ground floor fall below the lawn to become a basement. Cutting a foundation-shaped hole in it prevented the stairwell becoming blocked by manicured greenery. For its price this software has to be a winner. It has all the power of packages far more costly on todays market. Well done VB! Very impressed.

When I first saw this package being demostrated at the PN Homeshow, it looked so amazingly simple to use and I thought "This'll be a doddle to master..." Talk about grabbing the wrong end of the stick and running with it... After only 10 minutes of playing I found myself frantically flicking back and forth through the training DVD taking notes at a frantic pace... however, after about 3 hours of just 'diving in and mucking around' I soon found myself with something that looked almost like a small 1-bedroom house, even though it was missing some key features, such as bathroom, laundry, hot water...

So the next step was to stop off at a local homebuilder and grab a couple of their brochures containing floorplans. Get back to the PC and scan them in at high resolution, import them into VBuild and start to construct a real house... I started with a small single-storey 2-bedroom place and within about 25 working hours (spread out over 3 days) I had a 99.99% complete model, with carport, back patio and extra office added on for good measure. I was even able to add the road, sidwalk, letterbox and garden quite simply too, which really surprised me as to how easy it had become to use.

A cardboard keyboard overlay would be an excellent addition to the kit, since some of the hotkeys are hard to remember and non-intuitive. (To illustrate, work your way along function keys from f1 [view mode] to f10 [brochure tool] and watch which icons light up and what tool names activate in the titlebar.) So saying, after a week or so, you'll not be paying any attention to that aspect, because you'll know the tools anyway. I STRONGLY suggest you have the training DVD in your PC at all times, and take note of what titles/chapters cover what key aspects, so you can quickly reference back for a refresher. You'll be doing that a lot, because even though this is the basic kit, it is still one powerful piece of software!

The Draw > Wall tool can be awkward to use if you select a non-standard external-wall height. It defaults to "standard external" which has a height of 2.4m... so if your external walls aren't 'standard' then you'll be doing a lot of adjusting. I would suggest that you make all walls standard height then adjust them all at the same time after construction. You also have to be careful that you don't start drawing a wall attached horizontally to another wall. This is all to easy to do, so I also suggest watch the section on "Drawing Planes" in the training DVD at least twice before you attempt this. There are tips and tricks to help you do a much better, smoother, and less frustrating job of it. (Yup, scary huh? A technogeek suggesting you ACTUALLY RTFM before you start! ) When it comes to applying textures and colours to the walls, it is VERY important to make control nodes at all wall junctions. If you have to split a wall after you have started to insert windows and doors, you'll find they vanish! Well, not really... they somehow become embedded inside the wall, so when you try to add more, you find unreachable ghost objects hiding from you. Tricksy objectses...

Objects appear to move relative to their own internal co-ordinates, rather than globals. Two walls, at right angles to each other, will move in different directions when you press the UP cursor key for example. This takes some getting used to, but practice and a bit of trial and error (not to mention judicious use of the 'undo' function) will see you whizzing things around the house in no time. In the Object options dialog, you are presented with the objects co-ordinates along the X, Y and Z axis... because of the way the 3d world co-ordinates are designed, X is 'side to side', Y is 'up and down' and Z is 'in and out' in relation to the screen. As with all things, as you gain in experience, you will also gain in comfort and ability, with the eventual goal of being able to use the programme instinctively.

As a slightly more user-friendly interface design idea, perhaps a right-mouse-click on an object could bring up a "Properties" dialog box, with position, size in 3 dimensions, texture applied, etc... making it easy for fine-tuning of position and look etc. Some of this is available by clicking on an object then selecting the blue 'Options' icon in the bottom-left corner, but a RMB popup menu would be a bit more intuitive and user-friendly, as well as keeping the viewing area unobstructed. Speaking of the bottom bar... if it suddenly changes size or vanishes, don't panic. Just tap the space bar a few times to cycle through it's modes.

The hovering compass/view menu can get annoying when it pops up over the top of your tools while you are trying to select them. Some form of "If mouse.location is (on top of) any.menu.bar, then (disable.hovermenu)" control code would be an excellent frustration-beater. Even the ability to turn it off entirely wouldn't go amiss, as I found it quite annoying most of the time. I don't think I ever used it, I stuck with the keyboard shortcuts after about 10 minutes.

One thing that really confused me was that this application is a cut-down of the "Professional" package, yet it uses the same training DVD and helpfiles, meaning that some tools, screenshots and explainations don't match up at all, creating a lot of stress and frustration. If you REALLY want to get to grips with this, you will be better off investing the extra few dollars and jumping right into the Pro edition. At least then the help files will be helpful, the training DVD will match up, and you won't be sitting around staring furiously at the screen for 15 minutes until you give up. Once I filpped over to the Pro version I was a lot happier, and enjoying myself a lot more.

A glitch in the File > Open dialog... if you collapse the "My Computer" level of the filetree, then re-open it, you get a double-up of all the items listed. Collapse/open it again, and now you have *3* copies of the list... ad infinitum until the programme overloads and crashes on you... So DON'T DO THAT!

A couple of features I would love to see in the new "Master" version due out soon:
    •  An object-tree view.
    •  The ability to 'turn off' a parent object and all it's child objects. (Example, a wall and wall hangings, so that you can edit objects inside the room from eye-level without the wall getting in the way.)
    •  A 'send to ground' button that automatically drops and object down the Z-axis (vertical) until it intersects with an object beneath it. The assumption being that such an object will be the ground, or tabletop etc.

I was impressed to discover that the saved ViewBuild world file contains all the objects and textures used, embedded within it. This gives the files great portability. A plumber could lay in all the pipework and hand the file on to the builder, who lays in all the structural needs, hands it on the the electrician who puts in all the lights and switches, then hands it over to the interior decorator who handles colour scheme and decore, and then hands it to the client to view the finished job. So saying, this package has a free-standing viewer, to allow someone without the package to still see the results. It will even allow them to change colours and textures, but not structural components. Cosmetics only... which is why it is called "Decorator", and is freely available from their website's download page.

Overall, this is quite possibly the most powerful package I have seen that retains all of the power and flexibility of some packages ten times the price, yet stays usable by even a moderate beginner with a few hours to play with. I would hardly say that building a few houses in "The Sims" years ago would qualify me as an 'experienced' 3d modeller, so the fact that I managed to whip up a model with a reasonable degree of accuracy in under a week shows me that the power is all in the software. Right, enough talk... time to dive back into the pro version and start looking at the animation aspects. -drool-