Contents

Overview

The site is for you to use freely to design your kitchen, bedroom, bathroom or living room and look at the results in 3D.  The design screen has got a column on the left of things you can add into the layout - this changes as you move through the stages of your design.  On the right is a list of various options to save your design. The design area is in the middle section and across the bottom is a list of things you can choose from.  This help takes you through the stages of making your design.

At any stage you can save your design in order to come back to it later.  To do this you must register using your e-mail or any other name. and give a password  This is simply so that you can use your name and password to keep your designs secure and so you can get back to them again on another occasion.
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Disclaimer

This web site is intended to allow you to explore design options for your own home. It does not replace a professional design service and, especially when fitting a kitchen or bathroom, we recommend that you speak to a design professional or fitter before purchasing any items or starting any work to make sure that the your proposed designs are feasible.

Remember that the dimensions you use in your room must be accurate otherwise the designs you produce may not fit.

Look at “Design Tips” and "Links" tabs on our web page for some ideas and points you should consider when making your design.

Remember when you are choosing design materials and styles and sizes not all combinations we offer may be commercially available and you should consult a manufacturer’s catalogue before making any final decisions.

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Starting the design

To make the process easier the process has been broken down into three steps as shown at the top of the screen:

You can move between these steps at any time by clicking on the green boxes or by using the shortcuts at the top of the left column. Steps 1 and 2 work in a plan view of your room because this makes getting things in the correct place You can see your design in 3D at any time by moving to step three or by pressing the 3D button on the toolbar at the top of the screen: This is the main toolbar and allows you to save your layout and and view snapshots.  Clear room contents The second button from the left will clear all the room contents but leave the room shape as it is.  This can be used to try out various designs without having to type in your room dimensions again Open and save designs The next three button allow you to open a design you have already saved and to save your current design.  To do this you must first register giving a name (usually your e-mail address) and a password to keep your designs safe.  You can choose to save your designs in the public gallery so that others may see them but cannot alter your original. Printing and snapshot You can print the current view or save it as a snap shot. Part List This useful option will give you a list of all the items used in the current layout.  Please note it only contains units and there is no reference to other items such as worktops or plinths and cornice. You can access this saved data from the following menu:

This menu on the right hand side of your screen allows you to access design and images which you have stored in your personal gallery and any layouts and images which other may have published to the public gallery Remember that you designs are kept in you personal folder and other cannot get to them and edit them without your user name and password.  If you have forgotten you password we can e-mail a new one to you, if you have given us your e-mail address when you registered.  If you did not there is nothing we can do if you forget your password - sorry!

On the left of the screen is a list of ways of building your room: Sample Rooms You can start by picking one of the many sample rooms and then changing it's shape and contents to suite your design.  For example, if you click "Kitchen" the strip at the bottom of the screen will show you a selection of sample kitchen which are available for you to use.  You can scroll through these by moving your mouse across the strip and click one to pick it.  If do pick one you will be asked if you want to replace you design with the one you have picked. back to top Build Your Own Clicking "Room Shapes" then "Room Layout" will fill the strip at the bottom of the screen with a selection of standard shapes to start from.  Remember that these are just a quick way to start and you can change the shape and size ad any time as described below.

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Draw your room plan

First measure your room in millimetres. The corners of your room are shown as black dots with black wall lines joining them. You can either pick a standard shape from the Room Shapes category on the left or drag and add corners to make the shape you want. Alternatively, you can use one of the pre-prepared layouts and change it around as you wish.

Change the shape
To alter the shape move your mouse near a wall and a red dot will appear. If you hold down the left mouse button the corner will be move as you move the mouse.  If you are not near a corner the whole wall will move. If you don’t move the mouse for a few seconds a tip will pop up giving you more information on what to do.

Add another corner
If you click the right mouse button another corner will be added at the red dot. You can add as many corners as you want to make your room shape.

Remove a corner
If you press the right mouse button while the mouse is over a corner the corner will be removed.

Specify the wall length
As you move a corner the length of the walls will be displayed in millimetres. If you move near a grid point the corner will lock onto it.

If you point near the text showing the length of the wall a red box will be drawn around it. You can just type the length that you want this wall to be and press ENTER to accept it. As you type, one corner will show as a red dot - this is the corner which will be moved when you press enter. Point with the mouse to the other corner if you want to move that one instead and as you click it will move.

Getting a wall angle - the measure tool
You can use the "Measure" tool from the tool bar at any time to check the length and angle of a wall and to display the horizontal and vertical offsets.  Click the measure tool and pick the point you want to measure from.  As you move the mouse around the distance and angles will be displayed.  As you move near wall corners the mouse will lock onto these corners.

It is rarely possible to measure the angle of a wall precisely.  It is a much better plan to measure distance from a suitabe base line and check these with with the Measure tool.
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Place windows and doors

Click Windows and Doors tab on the left hand menu then choose the windows or doors option. Pick the one which is most like yours, type it's sizes into the popup window and then press “Apply” The door or window will be added into the centre of the room. To move it simply point to it with the mouse and it will turn red then hold down the left mouse button and move it around. As you move near a wall the window or door will align itself automatically to the wall. If you add another one it will be placed next to the previous one. Note that because windows and doors are quite thin it is a little more difficult to point inside then when you want to pick them so take a little more care when selecting them or zoom in a little closer. To delete a window or door point to it and it will turn red. Press the DELETE key to remove it from the design. Hold down the right mouse key and move the mouse to drag it along the wall or into another wall

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Archway and internal wall

Archways, blocks etc. are items you can add into your room to represent dividing walls, pipe boxing, cupboards etc. These are just to give you an idea of the space they occupy when you come to lay out your furniture. Pick the item from the list in just the same way as you have done for Windows and Doors and give its sizes (you can use the "Measure" tool to find out what these are). If you move near to a wall the item will align to the wall but you can place it anywhere. If you move near to one of the points on the grid the item will lock onto it Partitions are internal walls and their "Depth" is the thickness of the wall.  This is the edge which will stick to other walls and partitions when they come close together.  Also when cabinets are added their back edge will stick to a partition in the same way it would do for a wall.  They will not stick to blocks in the same way.

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Radiators and other fixtures

These are added in the same way as furniture.  See Putting furniture into the room

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Saving your design

WARNING: Your design is not being saved anywhere while you are working on it so if you leave this web page without saving your design will be lost
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If you want to save your layout so you can come back to it another time, or compare several designs you should click the “SAVE” icon on the toolbar.
In order to identify your design you will be asked first to enter your e-mail address or another name and a password to register. We will not use any of this information to identify or contact you without your permission but you will need to enter it again if you want to get back to your design.
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Putting furniture into the room - using catalogues

Once you have got your room shape planned you can move on to putting furniture into it by pressing the second green button on the top of the screen or the second shortcut key at the top of the left column.  This replaces the left hand column with a new menu which allows you to select furniture to place in the room. If you want to modify your room at any time simple go back to the first screen.

Several catalogues are available from which you can select furniture.  The default catalogue contains kitchen furniture but one is available for bathroom items and another for room fittings such as tables and chairs, radiators, sockets etc.  To select a different catalogue simply click on the image on the left between the green left/right arrows or click on the left or right arrow to scroll through them. Select the category of items you want to add you will see a list of sub categories underneath the one you have selected.  If you pick a sub category all the item within it will be displayed as images in the strip along the bottom of the screen.  As you move across these images a popup will appear over the design containing details of the item you are over.  If it is a customisable item you can change its sizes and press "Add To Room" to place it in the centre of the layout.  If you double click on an image it will be added directly into the room, bypassing the popup.                                                                       Please note that the images which are used to pick the furniture you add may not be the actual style and colour you want. These are used just to give you an impression of how each item looks. You can set the real colour and style when you move to the next stage in 3D

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Moving things around - snapping rules

When items are first added into the room they are placed in the centre of the room, at the angle of the last item you added. If you click an item with the left mouse button held down you can drag it around the room.

When the item gets near a wall or partition its back edge will automatically align to the wall. If you hold down the SHIFT key on the keyboard this alignment will not happen.

When the sides of the item you are moving come close to an item which is already there it will lock the item onto the target. In this way you can be sure that the furniture will correctly lock together. Again, hold down the SHIFT key to prevent this snapping from happening.

Snapping items together
When units come close to other units already placed in the design they will attempt to lock their edges together, as well as aligning ther back edge to the nearest wall:

• Base and tall units will lock their left/right edge to the right/left edge of a nearest neighbour.
• Wall units will lock on to other wall units in the same way but they will also attempt to lock onto any base unit which they are over but will give preference to locking right side to right sides because this is the most usual way to add them

Remember that holding the SHIFT key down will prevent this from happening.
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Rotating objects

When the mouse moves over an item it turns red to indicate that it has been selected. You can rotate it if you click and hold down the right hand mouse button and as you move the mouse the item will spin around its centre.  If you hover over an item for a few seconds a popup box will give you tips about what you can do.

If you press the DELETE button on the keyboard any item in red will be removed completely from the layout.
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Moving the layout around the screen and zooming in

While you are working in plan you can move the drawing around the screen by pointing with the mouse away from any object so that nothing is selected and holding down the left mouse button.  As you move the mouse around the drawing will move around the screen.  If your mouse has a mouse wheel you can scroll this up and down to \oom into and out of the drawing.

The right most button on the toolbar gives another way of doing this:

When you press the right most button the drop down shown on the left will appear.  Click the button again to make it disappear.  If you hover the mouse over the buttons the you can move the layout around the screen and zoom in and out of it.  The button in the centre will restore the screen to its original scale.  As you hover over the buttons a tool tip will tell you what they do. If you click anywhere in the box it will disappear.

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Changing the background and grid colour

If you press the options button  on the right of the toolbar a menu will appear as shown on the right.  This lets change the background colour and the grid colour.  The first option "Show/Hide fine lines" switches on and off a find grid which has divisions every 100mm.  The main grid has lines at every 1000mm

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Seeing the design in 3D

At any time you can see your design in 3D and change colours and styles of your furniture. Simply press the “3D” button on the toolbar or select the right pointing arrow from the top of the left hand column.  When you move into 3D for the first time an application has to be loaded automatically from the internet.  This may take a little while to complete so please be patient until the 3D view appears. If your 3D image does not appear please refer to the Troubleshooting section.
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Changing the 3D view

When you first come into 3D you will be looking into the centre of the room from the bottom right hand corner of the plan. YOu can change the view using the mouse

If you hold the left mouse button down and move the mouse from side to side or up and down the room will rotate around. If you hold down the right hand mouse button and move the mouse up and down the screen you will zoom into and out from the centre of the room To move the room left to right or up and down the screen use the Left/Right or Up/Down arrows on the keyboard

As an alternative, the right most button on the toolbar will give the popup shown on the left. If you hover the mouse over the buttons the you can change the view and zoom in and out.  The button in the centre will restore the screen to its original scale.  As you hover over the buttons a tool tip will tell you what they do. You can always press the “Centre View” button to restore the view to its original position

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Improving the quality of the colour image

You can smooth our the jaggered lines in the image to improve its quality by clicking the  button on the tool bar.  This is a toggle button so click it again to go back to the original effect.  When  in the enhanced mode the walkthrough will be slower and on some graphics cards it may be too slow.  If this is the case toggle back the the original, non-enhanced, mode when you are changing the view.
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Makeover - Changing colours and styles

The items you have added in 2D have only default materials and styles attached. You can use the menu on the left to change the material, textures and styles to apply to each of the types of items to explore the effects on your designs. For example, if you want to change the colour of the door or drawer simply click the colour in the selector and this will be applied straight away.  If you want to change the door styles you will see a series of pictures like the following These show the styles of the drawers and doors which will be applied, together with the colour you have selected.  If your units do not have top drawer (drawer line units) this will not cause drawer to be added.  To do this you need to change the units to drawer line ones.

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Troubleshooting

Problems saving

If you have problems saving your design, for example if your design is lost, or a black rectangle shows as the saved image, you may need to update your display drivers.

This is easily done by going to the control panel, selecting the device manager, then display adapters, right clicking on the display driver (usually Intel) and selecting update driver software. Choose to search automatically for updated driver software and follow the on screen instructions.

Display Settings

If the 3D view fails to load the hardware acceleration on your computer may be deactivated. This can usually be set in "Display Settings" in "Control Panel".

Internet Browser

Currently Easy Planner 3D does not work in Internet Explorer 7 or previous versions. If you are running this version and experiencing problems we recommend that you update to a later version of Internet Explorer or try an alternative browser.

Java

Easy Planner 3D uses Java and Java 3D to produce the 2D and 3D graphics. It will not run on computers which do not support Java. To get the latest version of Java you should go to Java.com and follow the directions there.

Why can’t I see the 3d layout

To use EasyPlanner3D you need to be using the latest version of OpenGL. To get this you will need to update your display drivers. This can be done in two ways. Go to “device manager” in the control panel. Click on “display adapters” and then double click on your graphics card to open its properties box. In the properties box select the “driver” tab. Click on “install updates” and follow the on-screen instructions. Alternatively copy the name of your graphics card (you will see this by following the previous steps) in to your browser and search the manufacturers website for available updates. It may be necessary to try both methods to find any updates.

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FAQ

How do I change the walls?

You can click and drag the corner point of the walls. The corner will show red when it is selected. You can also enter a precise measurement by holding the cursor over the measurement given on the wall you wish to change and then entering the new dimension using your keyboard. You can also add additional drag points to your wall by right clicking on the wall. This will allow you to move sections of the wall in and out.

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How do I contact you?

The EasyPlanner3D team are always glad to hear from our users. Tell us what you like, what you don't like, what works well for you, and what you'd like to see on the site. Do this either through the quick feedback, on the comments page or by emailing us at info@easyplanner3D.com. In all cases if you would like a reply please include a contact email.

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How do I measure distances?

On the toolbar that looks like this

select the ruler icon which is 4th from the right. This will bring up a red cursor with a message telling you how to abandon the operation. Click the red cross on the point you want to measure from and a red line will rubber band from that point with text showing you the length and angle to the end of the cursor. Click a second point to pick a new reference point.
Note that you can only measure in the 2D view. This option is not enabled when you are on the 3D makeover screen.

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How do I change colours?

You have to move to the third screen “Style Your Room” to change the colours of walls, furniture etc.

You can also use the option menu (2nd button from the right in the top menu) to bring up a sub menu which allows you to change the background colour of the screen and the colour of the grid. You can also use this to switch on and off a finer grid.

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How do add items from different catalogues?

Easy planner 3D has a number of catalogues which you can use. For example, you can select furniture (bar stools, tables etc) from the General catalogue. To get to this catalogue make sure you are on Stage 2 – “Add Furniture”. The icon to the top left of the screen will show which catalogue you are currently in.

Clicking on the icon will give you a popup of catalogues, or you can click the green arrows to scroll through them. If you select the “General” catalogue from the list you will be able to add furniture and other dress items such as a clock or place settings.

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The Print button does not work

You may have pop-ups blocked. Look for a message at the top of your browser menu or try the browser's Options or Settings and switch on "Allow pop-ups".

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Why can't I print my design?

On the toolbar there is a printer icon. When you click the icon a pop up will open displaying the image that you will print. This may take a few moments to load. You will need to allow pop ups on Easyplanner3D in your browser. If you have google tool bar this also blocks pop ups. On the google tool bar click the button to the tight of search, then select "allow pop ups from EasyPlanner3D"

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How do I save my design?

On the toolbar there is a save icon ( a floppy disc ). Click this icon to save, or select "save my design" from the menu on the right hand side of the screen. You will need to create an account to save and recall your design and will be prompted to do so.

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Why can't I save my design?

If you have problems saving your design, for example if your design is lost, or a black rectangle shows as the saved image, you may need to update your display drivers. This is easily done by going to the control panel, selecting the device manager, then display adapters, right clicking on the display driver (usually Intel) and selecting update driver software. Choose to search automatically for updated driver software and follow the on screen instructions.

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Why can't I view my design in 3D?

Easy planner uses Java and Java 3D to produce the 2D and 3D graphics and this has to be on your computer. It will not run on computers which do not support Java. When you first start the web page it should download a version of Java. If you are asked for permission to download Java agree to the download. Currently Easy Planner 3D does not work in Internet Explorer 7 or previous versions. If you are running this version and experiencing problems we recommend that you update to a later version of Internet Explorer or try an alternative browser. You may need to clear Javas cached pages. See 'how do I clear my Java cache?' in the FAQs. If the 3D view fails to load the hardware acceleration on your computer may be deactivated. This can usually be set in "Display Settings" in "Control Panel".

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I can't see everything on my screen

If you can only partially see the CAD page and are unable to change dimensions in the pop up boxes you may need to change the compatability settings in your browser. In ie 8 this is found both in the address bar (shown as a broken page) and under the tools menu. In ie9 it is shown on the address bar.

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Conversion to feet and inches

EasyPlanner 3Ds catalogues are only available in metric measurements to reflect product specification in the UK. If you require imperial measurements to build your room we would suggest that you use a online convertor. Entering your measurement and unit of measurement into the google search box will take you to the google convertor.

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I've updated Java but the site still wont work.

You may need to clear the cache from Java. To do this you will need to close your browser first. Once your browser is closed go to 'control panle' and double click on the Java icon. The java control panel will open. Select the 'general' tab, and then temporary internet files 'settings'. You will need to delete the temporary internet files. If you are still having Java related problems you may need to un-install Java completely and re-install it.

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How do I clear my Java cache?

To do this you will need to close your browser first. Once your browser is closed go to 'control panle' and double click on the Java icon. The java control panel will open. Select the 'general' tab, and then temporary internet files 'settings'. You will need to delete the temporary internet files.

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How do I delete an item?

Just hold the cursor over the item. Its outline will turn from black to red. Now hit delete on your keyboard. Mac users press function and backspace.

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Why can't I find the item I want?

Sometimes items may be added under a different category to what you'd expect. You may want to just browse through the items and see if you can find it elsewhere, or use an alternative item. You can always ask if you can't find something, and we'll either point you in the right direction or try and add whatever it is for you.

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